Cheat of Thought

Tags

disintegration, expansion, letting be, letting go, manifesting, new love, perception, perspective, re-creation, signs

The string between the cans we used to talk
through snapped and hit me in the eye today

knocked out the scale that enlarged the speck
in yours to timber size & now I find I’m lost.

If I can’t see your flaws or hear the mutters
that once passed for conversation, what remains?

I hold an empty tin, a bit of string;
the tintinnabulation in my ear has ceased.

I catch no words, am cheat of thought beyond
the possibility of shapes of things to come.

A tune I used to hum is gathering
momentum on my lips, I feel the buzz

surrounding me of poets who sing only
of love’s presence, met one yesterday and

couldn’t think of what to say. Too fluent I’d
become in retro-specks. So now’s the time,

it’s obvious, betrayed of thought, to learn
a brighter tongue. So far, I know the words

for get and give, for let and live, and while
the space between us grows and falls away

I witness something tender that accommodates
and has no fear to speak aloud my name.

~~~

© Elaine Stirling, 2013

Advertisement

Positive

Tags

Elaine Stirling, emotional choice, expansion, free verse, neutrality, perceptions, poetry, point of attraction, self-appreciation, self-pity, simplicity

The only face
that is unreal
that lurks behind
the unresolved
does not exist
the all or nothing
that I say to hide
confusion in the
pleats of
meaningless
then wait until
the back of what
I fear is turned
before I show
the muted hues
and find the words
to make my case
misunderstood
oh, woe
the neutral mask
does not exist
it is the only lie
for all attracts
for good or ill
of this and more
of same, it is
enough, I may
be positive

~~~

© Elaine Stirling ,2013
The beautiful image of carved masks comes from
Bugei World Gifts at http://www.tacticaledgeinternational.com.

Septrois: Seven Kings

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abundance, brave new business leadership, days of creation, Elaine Stirling, expansion, form poetry, genesis, Law of Attraction, manifestation, medieval French style, new creation, poetic dialogue, prosperity, seven three, vibrational reality

Septrois is my latest poetry form, borrowing the spirit of medieval French verse as it developed in the Aquitaine. Septrois is a neologue that blends sept (seven) with trois (three), referring to the original 7-line poem and three new lines added to each. Conjoined, the two numbers create a word play, sept rois, that translates as “seven kings”.

I’ll say more about the rhyme scheme and rules after you’ve had a chance to enjoy the 28-line septrois. First, though, here are the originating seven lines, the final stanza from “The Chambered Nautilus” by Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (1809-1894).

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!

~~~

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
I have brought bricks and mortar,
blood and toil, artisans of high degree
whose love of heights replaces cruder vanity.

As the swift seasons roll!
Each hour blooms a year for me
through passages of time held light
my joyful course is stayed, feels right.

Leave thy low-vaulted past!
I’ve helpful souls who sweep away the night,
leave traces for the coming son and daughter
who, by your grace, bring freshening laughter.

Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
encourage us to boldly reconnoiter
less with dramaturge and more with comedy,
hearts well tuned in earthy frequency;

Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
with room enough for all to merry be
abandoning the urgency to rush we might
discover heaven orbits us, a satellite,

Till thou at length art free,
from pain and restless night,
accommodating easily new quarter
for seven kings, as one, your porter;

Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!
embracing the unknown as playful sport or
means to ever curious and hopeful be
of constant love, sweet whirling with delight.

~~~

How to construct Septrois, Seven Kings:
Begin with an original 7-line borrowed stanza or poem, which we’ll call “the genesis”. From each line or “day of creation”, write three new lines, “kings”, that enhance or converse with the genesis. From this ratio of 1:3 or 7:21, a 28-line poetic dialogue is created.

The rhyme schemes of the three added lines is as follows:
1. abb
2. bcc
3. caa
4. abb
5. bcc
6. caa
7. abc

The rhyme scheme of the genesis doesn’t matter. Only the 3-line kings follow the sequence. Their lines must also support the theme and link the stanzas logically, so you’ve created a unified or expanded poem with the joining of sept and trois.

I hope you’ll try a few yourself and have tons of fun!

© Elaine Stirling, 2013
Image of Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, from destination360

The Search: A Rondeau Redoublé

Tags

Elaine Stirling, expansion, form poetry, French medieval verse, Law of Attraction, past lives, reincarnation, rejuvenation, release of karma, rondeau redouble, St. James, the Road to Compostela, time/space reality, Transfiguration, vibrational reality

At the age of fifteen, on the path of St. James,
she sets out in search of lovers she has lost
and the children she mourns who have no names
but she has no money & she doesn’t know the cost.

In a California mission where firs are tipped with frost
an acolyte remembers playing cruel parlour games
and abandoning a woman in a place called Vladivost…
at the age of fifteen, on the path of St. James.

The mother of the searching girl repudiates her claims
that we have all loved here before. She’s crossed
affection off her list, and though the girl’s disdained
she sets out in search of lovers she has lost.

The man turned priest, his dreams are tempest-tossed;
to Compostela he is sent, in hopes his soul reclaims
a calling, there she finds him weeping near a cross
and the children she mourns who have no names

surround him in the company of Peter, John and James.
Transfigured, he looks around at robes embossed
and sees her midst the faces innocent of shame,
but she has no money & she doesn’t know the cost—

nor he, of recovering & managing the lover he has lost.
They’ve grown too much to wear their former chains,
and so the saints with sweet affection blow exhaust
from both their hearts, restoring youth that reigns
at the age of fifteen.

~~~

Here is a link to the Rondeau Redoublé.

© Elaine Stirling, 2013
Image: pre-poetess on the road
to Nido de Aguilas, Lo Barnechea,
Santiago, Chile

What Isn’t (also is)

Tags

Elaine Stirling, expansion, Law of Attraction, passive aggression, poetry, self-reflection, self-worth, vibrational reality, what we can learn from drama queens

There is a kind of friendship
that isn’t really friendship that
involves the placid holding of the
coat of one’s who cool and
playing pool.

There is a kind of romance
that isn’t really romance that
requires passive listening while
the player of the cool recounts
the lovers and the stalkers that
she’s fooled, they are ridiculous,
and all you have to do—in fact,
that’s all you’d better do—
is nod your head.

There is a kind of breakdown
of relationship that isn’t where
the player who pretends that he
fears nothing packs his toys and
slams the doors with huffy noise
and calls the holders of the coats
and all the stalkers that he bitched
about, deciding after all that
they’re his friends.

There is a kind of nothing
more to say and do that frees
the mind to glance behind and
learn that no one is a coat rack
and there’s no such thing as
cooler than, and any time
we think we’re here to teach
another lessons, we’ve a
dunce in our own classroom
made for one.

~~~

© Elaine Stirling, 2013

Fare Well

Tags

aftermath, Elaine Stirling, expansion, form poetry, grief, grieving, letting be, pedestals, political figures, sonnet, transitions, worthy opponent

An enemy died today. My thoughts he
walls from cares of treacheries imagined.
Are you now peaceful, foe, who newly see
the wreckage of your life’s cause delusioned?
The monuments are rising. Tears will be
wept by those who knew and loved you, leaving
me to fast dissolve my hate or find a
grander axe to grind, or else believing
that the pedestal they kept you on was
not your choice, and love not rage the blinder
that divided you from my view because
I too wish unity and good for all,
confuse an angry word as proof of flaws…
Rest easy, then, until your next brave call.

~~~

© Elaine Stirling, 2011
Image from 2006, photographer unknown