“Autumn wins you best by this,
its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.” ~ Robert Browning
Do
feel free to use this image with your entry, it is mine and I don’t mind.
Summer is my true love. But I lust
after Autumn—its October, its fiery colors, the hats and boots we (and by “we”
I mean “me”) get to wear, the celebration of death. Other time of year, death
is seen as gloomy and scary and soaked in tears. But in October, I get to
celebrate the life of loved ones who no longer breathe. And I can do it without
getting what’s-wrong-with-her? looks. How cool is that? I know! I hope your
October was glorious, and may your November be even better.
Share any poem you like. Any
form. Old or new. We’ll delight in it. If there is a hint of Autumn or October
in its lines, I’ll probably dance with it. Fine, I will kiss it on the mouth.
FASHION ME YOUR WORDS ~ Lets build houses; as some parts of planet earth remain storm-ravished, some parts have weathered the storms. Yet some parts remain near-paradise. Poets: wherever we find ourselves, here is a call to build houses. Let's build them sturdy and strong or not at all. So fashion me your words folks.
Limit your poem to NOT MORE THAN one hundred words.
Be further inspired by:
Here are some images from MSN homes that are anything but ordinary
AND Poems
The House that Jack Built By Jacob Polley
the first trees were felled
and sailed in, wrecked, then slept
an age in the northern sun, blackening
to iron were found by horsemen
leading their horses and raised as
cloud’s axles, rafters of night, a god’s gates
were passed through, seen
from miles off, rolled the sun
and moon along their lintels, rooted, read the whole poem HERE
to a farmhouse, hanging
a hall from their outstretch, bracing floor
after floor on their inosculating
joists, which sang
to a barefoot tread and were called
home of shadows heart of the wind
Lamanby
... ... ...
White Houses by Claude McKay
Your door is shut against my tightened face,
And I am sharp as steel with discontent;
But I possess the courage and the grace
To bear my anger proudly and unbent.
The pavement slabs burn loose beneath my feet,
A chafing savage, down the decent street;
And passion rends my vitals as I pass,
Where boldly shines your shuttered door of glass.
Oh, I must search for wisdom every hour,
Deep in my wrathful bosom sore and raw,
And find in it the superhuman power
To hold me to the letter of your law!
Oh, I must keep my heart inviolate
Against the potent poison of your hate.
... ... ...
Dreamhouse by Mary Oliver from Pinterest
... ... ...
For an extra bonus, Please highlight your door for soon it be Halloween and surely someone will come-a knocking or not!!!
Welcome to Artistic Interpretations. Inspiration is found in nature, museums, and ... at county fairs. These works of art are diverse in medium and age range, and created by "amateurs".
Photography was permissible, but because of my youngest son's eagerness to get to the rides and games, I did not have time to capture the artist's names.
The challenge is to write a poem in any style matched to one or more images. Simple as that.
Link to Mr. Linky below and please visit the other poets. I look forward to your artistic interpretations!
I could have never imagined even in my wildest dreams to be paired with Fireblossom! I still remember our conversation where the two of us decided to collaborate next year; and then Kerry discovering our shared enthusiasm and giving us the opportunity to appear in October! Needless to say we were absolutely delighted!
We decided to let our love of nature guide us through our collaborative effort and here is what we came up with. Hope you guys like our poem.
The Oak in Autumn
Lovers and lunatics favor the oak.
Say anything--the oak will still be there,
With its odd-shaped leaves, inconstant as smoke
At their edge, but shy to leave the branch bare.
The thing that enchants, is what’s not shown there,
The form we chose is called Rhyme Royal which is a stanza of seven 10-syllable lines. It was popularized by Geoffrey Chaucer and termed as 'royal' because of its imitator, James I of Scotland, who had employed the form in his own verse. The rhyme scheme is: ababbcc
I remember feeling both nervous and excited as the weeks passed by, and how Shay's fiery attitude and good humor led us along the way. Thank you Shay for being such a wonderful writing partner and Kerry once again, for assigning such a lovely project to us.
Greetings to all poets, wayfarers and friends. I was browsing through YouTube the other day and happened to come by a wonderful reading of Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats, hope you guys enjoy listening to it as much as I did.
If you have any thoughts to share, ideas you wish to release into the wild or a world view to express, then you have come to the right place. Please share a poem of your choice and enjoy the company of your fellow scribes.
Remember to stop by tomorrow for our Toads in Tandem feature post. Shay and I have banded together to bring you a collaborative poem so as to celebrate the creativity of our Garden environment.
Greetings to all! Today is the day we put the "mini' back into the Weekend Mini-Challenge, and return to the option of form poetry. The object of this challenge is to write a poem in no more than 12 lines... Yes, you read correctly, I am extending the length to 12 lines to include the possibility of writing 3 quatrains, a form which might have the flavour of an incomplete sonnet. However, the option remains for you to write in fewer than 12 lines all the way down to a single American sentence. If you wish to write in another form, that is an option too, as is free verse.
This weekend, our frame of reference is "Binding With Briars" - from the final line of the poem, The Garden of Love, by William Blake. I look forward to reading your work.
Hello all...tis The Scibbler here for a second edition of 'Scribble It.'
What better beginning for a plethora of poets than a multitude of wordageables?
Experts at the University of York have complied a list of 30 words from the English language that have fallen out of our consciousness and conversation that might conceivably make a comeback.
What better place to put that to the test than The Imaginary Garden? Here are those very words and their meaning.
Ambodexter: One who takes bribes from both sides.
Betrump: To deceive, cheat; to elude, slip from ( I know right?)
Coney-catch: To swindle, cheat, to trick, dup, deceive
Hugger-mugger: Concealment, secrecy
Nickum: A cheating or dishonest person
Quacksalver: A person who dishonestly claims knowledge of or skill in medicine, a pedlar of false cures.
Rouker: A person who whipers or murmurs, who spreads tales or rumours
Man-millinery: Suggestive of male vanity or pomposity
Parget: To daub or plaster the face or body with powder or paint
Snout-fair:Having a fair countenance; fair-faced, comely, handsome
Slug-a-bed: One who lies long in bed through laziness
Losenger: A false flatterer, a lying rascal, a deceiver
Momist: A person who habitually finds fault. a harsh critic
Peacockize: To behave like a peacock; esp. to pose or strut ostentatiously
Percher: A person who aspires to a higher rank or status; an ambitious or self-assertive person
Rouzy-bouzy: Boisterously drunk
Ruff: To swagger, bluster, domineer. To ruff it out/ to brag or boast of a thing
Sillytonian: A silly or gullible person, esp. one considered as belonging to a notional sect of such people
Wlonk: Proud, haughty/Rich, splendid, fine, magnificent: in later use esp. as a conventional epithet in alliterative verse ( N. A fair or beautiful one)
Fumish: Inclined to fume, hot-tempered, irascible, passionate; also charectorised by or exhibiting anger or irascibility
Awhape: To amaze, stupefy with fear, confound utterly
Hugge: To shudder, shrink, shiver, or shake with fear or with cold
Merry-go-sorry: A mixture of joy and sorrow
Stomaching: Full of maalignity; given to cherish anger or resentment
Swerk: To be or become dark; in Old English often, to become gloomy, troubled or sad
Teen: To vex, irritate, annoy, anger, enrage/ To inflict suffering upon; to afflict, harass; to injure, harm
Tremblable: Causing dread or horror; dreadful
Wasteheart: Used to express grief, pity, regret, disappointment or concern: 'alas!' 'woe is me!' Also a wasteheart-a day, wasteheart of me
Dowsable: Applied generically to a sweetheart, 'lady-love'
Ear-rent: The figurative cost to a person of listening to trivial or incessant talk
So the task ahead is clear. Pick one or two or a dozen of those words and pen a poem. Not inspired by them? OK! Do your own research and find words that we do not currently employ in conversation and put them into a poem instead. Link the words to their meaning if you would.
I look forward to reading your revivalist tomes. Link up below and please visit each other and comment. We all love a visit.
Hello poets and poetry lovers. I am slowly getting into the Halloween mood now that the weather in the Northeast USA has taken on a decided crispness. In that spirit, I'd like to share one of my favorite ghost stories in musical form.
The Highwayman sang by Loreena McKennit, original poem/ lyrics by Alfred Noyes
You all know the drill. Share a piece of poetry as the spirit moves you, new or an old favorite. Take a little time to hop around the pond and see how the poetic spirit moves through the rest of our denizens. If you like something, don't keep it to yourself. Conversation and constructive feedback in the comments section is always welcome.
Greetings, Friends. Marian here, excited to host a weekend mini-challenge (which I have not done before!) and give thanks to Magaly and Kerry for the opportunity to step in.
I was thinking about how I’ve been a bit stuck lately, not very productive, finding it challenging to write for many reasons--some of which I am certain are affecting other Toads as well. And I know that sometimes trying to write in tight verse or constrained lines can help get me going when I’m stuck. So, you are invited to join me in a monthly exercise focused on short and/or fussy form poems. I’ll try to find new (to me, anyway) forms and we’ll also revisit some that have been presented in the Garden previously.
Let’s start off easy! No rhyming today, just a simple six-line poem with a syllable count: the SHADORMA. Kerry introduced the shadorma back in 2012 and I find it very rewarding and fun to play with. The rules are simple:
A six-line poem (or series of six-line stanzas)
Syllable count by line: 3-5-3-3-7-5
Not rhymed
Check out Kerry’s shadorma post for examples and ideas (plus lovely photos). I’ve written a bunch which you can view here if you like. I don’t know why some of mine have more than six lines, but what the heck. And, apologies in advance to you-know-who, as the shadorma is really a glorified/extended haiku.
Okay, ready? Shadorma away! If you are like me, this little form might get addictive, so please feel free to link up as many shadormas as you like. I can’t wait to read them all.
Kim and Izy are here to unleash our Toads in Tandem piece for 2017. We can’t wait for you to read it. But first, a few words of introduction.
Kim says - The only signs I was aware of, regarding distance in miles and culture between Izy and me, were one or two phrases or spellings. Not knowing much about her, I decided to look up Izy on the Internet and was impressed by her poetic activity, which was somewhat daunting. However, once we got going, it was more like working with a version of myself in a different universe and we riffed on each others’ ideas and fragments with ease.
Izy says - I was so excited when Kim was announced as my toad in Tandem. I loved the idea of working with a poet whose style is different than my own. Where I tend to be stark and obscure, Kim is color and concrete. When I want to burn the page down, Kim brings beautiful form and word architecture. I gotta say, I was so impressed with how fearless Kim is in her writing.Thanks so much for the tango, Kim!!!!
Toads in Tandem bonus: we’ve included audio files of each of us reading the poem in full. If you have a few moments, you can listen to how each of us chose into interpret and read each line a little differently! Also....our accents!!!!
Greetings to all poets, wayfarers and friends. I have been thinking a lot about the world lately, and how hatred and indifference seem to have spread its wings. The other day, there was a girl whom I passed by on the street, who looked forlorn and down in the dumps. I flashed her a smile and felt a sense of contentment as her face lit up. The world needs love and kindness and we should try to contribute in whichever way that we can.
If you have any thoughts to share, ideas you wish to release into the wild or a world view to express, then you have come to the right place. Please share a poem of your choice and enjoy the company of your fellow scribes.
Remember to stop by tomorrow for our Toads in Tandemfeature post. Isadora and Kim have banded together to bring us a collaborative poem to celebrate the creativity of our Garden environment.
Greetings to all poets!
Last month, the wonderful poet whom we all know as Hedgewitch, started a weekly Friday 55 at Verse Escape, in honour of its creator, Galen Hayes. We kept up the tradition here at the Imaginary Garden, but I feel it has moved to its rightful home.
In its place, I will now be offering a single image prompt on the first weekend of every month. The challenge is wide open.
Happy Halloween season, dear Pond dwellers and visitors. Fireblossom here with a spooky Fireblossom Friday for you. This will be my last FBF for 2017 as I will be taking a break from hosting. Gosh, what has come over me?
Painting by John William Waterhouse
Maybe somebody put a spell on me. Do you believe in that? Do you think incantations, objects, fire, pins and the like can alter actual events and, more to the point, people?
There is all kinds of literature concerning people being influenced or even taken over by something outside of themselves. Gypsy curses. Love spells. Possessions. Altered states.
Sometimes, a duplicate of a living person takes form, called a Doppelganger. The double does things the original person is unaware of, but others see.
"I didn't know what I was doing." "I didn't know what my double was doing." (!) "I don't know what came over me." Maybe these are more than just common expressions. Maybe our wills are not always our own. What do you think? Let's write about it.
Please write a NEW poem for this challenge. No haiku--haiku gives me the nervous shakes. Then link up so that we can come see what you--or someone who seems like you--has written. Bwahahaha.
Greetings, dear Toads. The world has been a bit of a mess lately. Nature has been upset for quite some time. And if that wasn’t enough, the ignorance and hatred-fueled recklessness of people continue to steal lives and maim living. We can’t deny the fact that things seem to be going from bleak to scream-worthy, but we can write and share. Words are no panacea, but some words can do wonders. Today, I invite you to “Howl your poetry into my bones.” I promise to howl back.
Feel free to use this image. The magnetic poetry and photography
are mine. The background is a page from Vampiros,
an anthology illustrated by Meritxell Ribas Puigmal.
Share a poem, any poem. Visit other Toads. Let’s find joy in words.
