What happens when runaway sentence and a dash of sunny team up? Magic! When Marian and I first began writing we were practically on the same wavelength and ended up selecting the same topic. Writing alongside her was an amazing experience! Hope you guys like our poem.
Observing love and broken things
Through darkness peer your words
and songs
we celebrate and eulogize--
in youth, you are the song unsung.
Difficult to rationalize
such a loss, the depth of your eyes
a well from which we all sustained
our sodden tenderness, disguised
as sunshine. Now it looks like rain.
I reach out and extend my hand
to you, a silhouette fading
as crumbled stone on shifting sand.
Love, I fear my heart is breaking.
Now outside daylight is fading--
upon your face I stole a glance.
We used to laugh, but now I am
whispering:
won’t you give me a second chance?
It’s when I started losing things
that I stepped back to look at you--
doubly brash, emboldened by drink,
you, whose lyrics always rang true.
Losses aside, the spark of you
roils in my belly like a burn
that’s emberred long, waiting
out blue,
then brown, until comes shadow’s turn--
I remember your smile, sweet tune
as waning sky grows pale
and gold.
Your memories flood until June,
trees emblazoned, though sun is cold.
I beg my heart stay strong and bold
now as I live on without you
in world where truth is seldom told.
Love as we knew it comes to few.
Seems unwise to love so truly
given the harshness of our world--
but again, without your beauty,
my meager verse as yet unfurled,
I’d have given in to the swirl
as you did, and chose every day.
So I sing the song of our world,
wishing earnestly you
had stayed.
Love, if I could give you one thing
would lend ability to see,
oh, since you taught my heart to sing
from aberrations to live free--
Now all these thoughts
have come to me--
when life knocks you down, gaze at stars.
Though long and sombre sky may seem,
this place and this moment is ours.
The form we chose is called Huitain also known as The Monk's Stanza (first introduced in the Garden by Kerry a few years ago, here). The verse form was popular in the 16th century and was often used for epigrams in the 18th century. The true Huitain is a single verse, eight line poem with eight syllables per line. The rhyme scheme is: ababbcbc
I remember going into panic mode when first trying to write in this form but Marian's cheerfulness and optimism removed every trace of doubt from my soul. Thank you Marian for being such a wonderful writing partner and Kerry for assigning such a lovely project to us.
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