Red
dusk sky
strung with clouds
vermilion
hundred hues
sun’s blood
pours.
Tag: sept
Poetry challenge: Seasons. The entries
Poetry challenge #4 was on the theme of seasons and once again, I received a harvest of beautiful short poems. Here they are, in order of arrival.
Ben Naga was first this week with an autumn tanka.
INTOXICATING
Another Autumn
The mushrooms work their magic
Appearing, fruiting, dying
A year older certainly
A little wiser? Let’s see
https://bennaga.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/intoxicating/
then a year’s worth of seasons in a haiku
SEASONING – THE SPICE OF LIFE
Nature Springs to life
Summersaults, leaves with Autumn
Winter drawers on now.
and just to show that he can, a sept.
HEARTS AND FLOWERS
We
Can’t wait
Celebrate
Valentine’s Day
As the first
Day of
Spring
https://bennaga.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/hearts-and-flowers/
Then we get the cherry on the cake.
WHOLESOMENESS
Everyone praises Spring
Summer and Autumn while
Winter gets a bad rap
Ego got in the way
https://bennaga.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/wholesomeness-a-four-by-six/
Thanks Ben, the rest of us can go home now 🙂
Peter Bouchier sent this musical haiku:
https://peterbouchier.wordpress.com/english-essays-and-poems-2/tempest/
and as a reward for producing a new poem, I’m linking to three of his older poems too.
1. https://peterbouchier.wordpress.com/english-essays-and-poems-2/autumn-leave/
2. https://peterbouchier.wordpress.com/english-essays-and-poems-2/seasons-of-life/
3. https://peterbouchier.wordpress.com/english-essays-and-poems-2/stormy-haiku/
Veronica Hosking sent in a couplet of septs—a nudge and a wink to Douglas Adams fans.
Keep
Towel
Near-at-hand
Hitchhike across
Galaxy
Panic
Free
Great
Autumn
Forty-two
Omniscient year
Universe
Reveals
All
https://vhosking.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/once-upon-forty-two-years/
Having complained bitterly about being forced to try something new, Ali Isaac produced a whole string of little gems.
Autumn Sept
Leaves
fall, red
as blood, gold
sun-drops from stiff
barren twigs,
summer’s
end.
Winter Haiku
Soft snow stifles sound
ice sparkles, crackles under
foot. Dark winter rules.
Spring Tanka
Ewes milk flows, lambs bleat,
her foot-steps green jaded land.
The Fiery One brings
tender warmth. Earth responds with
joy, season’s cycle renewed.
Summer Sept
Beach
Blue sky
Sand and sea
Endless sunshine
on bare skin
Childhood
dreams.
Kat Myrman also produced a delightful set of poems—a first for Kat too!
https://kmmyrman.wordpress.com/2015/11/04/seasons/
Someone else trying out a sept for the first time. Thanks Annie, I love it 🙂
http://gentlementalannie.com/2015/11/05/colors-of-fall-and-winter-poem/
All three forms in a beautifully coloured poem. Thanks Ken (I hope it’s Ken, easier to pronounce than rivrvlogr anyway :)).
Vibrant in Passing
autumn’s fashion show
displayed across Ozark bluffs
umber lacing green
reds
once green
framed in blue
slowly falling
from the sky
autumn
leaves
vibrant in passing
leaves dancing, grasping the air
the days of autumn
prelude to winter’s slumber
conjured by a simple frost
https://rivrvlogr.wordpress.com/2015/11/07/vibrant-in-passing/
A haiku and a sept from Janice. There’s obviously a story behind that sept.
https://ontheland.wordpress.com/2015/11/08/jane-dougherty-poetry-challenge-4-seasons/
As day yields to night,
summer surrenders to fall,
winds spread her bounty.
Fall
mist rises,
days shorten,
hearts stumble, ’til
golden brown
glimmer
cheers.
And of course somebody had to remind us that there is a winter among the milder seasons. Beautifully done.
http://elusivetrope.com/2015/11/09/unrequited/
Unrequited
each
footstep
sinks in cold
and rises in cold
frostbit blue
winter
trek
Thank you all for participating, and particularly for experimenting with new forms. I hope you’ll be contributing to the coming week’s challenge—theme posted tomorrow.
Poetry challenge #4: Seasons
The challenge this week is a broad one. You can write a sept, haiku, or tanka, and I want you to include the name of a season. Any season—all four if you’d like to write a sequence. Try to keep to the traditional forms i.e.
Sept: seven lines of 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 syllables
Haiku: three lines of 5-7-5 syllables
Tanka: five lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables.
Don’t worry about the hinge word thingy for the haiku—I don’t understand it either.
Not too difficult? I won’t include a picture this week because the theme is too broad, but feel free to add your own illustrations.
Here are my poems, a haiku, tanka, and a sept.
Autumn wind snatches
flame leaves stripped falling drifting
bonfire of dead souls.
Howling winter wind
wolves at the door famine-brave
moonlight on hoar frost
on claws scratching, splintering
wooden defences ceding.
Spears
thrusting
green shooting
dark earth piercing
snow melting
snowdrop
spring.
Poetry challenge #3 :the entries
The third challenge on the theme of Samhain attracted another beautiful crop of poems. Darkness, death and the otherworld/afterlife obviously have great appeal.
Here are your sept poems, in order of appearance.
Peter Bouchier was first (again!)
https://peterbouchier.wordpress.com/english-essays-and-poems-2/hallow/
then Jim, who I’m pleased to say has left a twitter link this time—thanks Jim 🙂
come
Samhain
fest we leave
gifts to Aos Śi
to protect
our foods
reaped
@the _release_101
Ben Naga created a whole sequence. Spectacular!
DREAD ALLUREMENT
Gone
Summer
Samhain’s come
The Dark Season
Breathes a chill
Fire
Burns
Burns
And yet
Has no warmth
I’m shivering
What’s that sound?
A door
Creaks
Creaks
Again
T’is the sidhe*
The Otherworld
Shadowy
Beckons
Me
Me
Oh my
May I dare?
Go find her there
My heart’s love
Passed on
Gone
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
*pron. shee.
https://bennaga.wordpress.com/2015/10/28/dread-allurement-a-sept/
Kat Myrman’s contribution
https://kmmyrman.wordpress.com/2015/10/28/thinning-veil-a-sept-for-the-season/
Kris the Bard. His blog link is here.
Trick
You play
Lost in time
While I await
Forlornly
My love’s
Treat
This one is from Deuxiemepeaux
Eye
Of the
Flame, find them,
Raise them, once more
To life, lust,
Thirst for
Blood
Ground
Opens,
Sky darkens
While flames flicker,
Hearts flutter,
Terror
Thrives
You can visit Damien’s blog here for more poems.
Jennifer Knoblock’s entry is here
https://gracefulpress.wordpress.com/2015/10/29/this-one-night/
Next Elusive Trope:
Mound of Hostages
wisp
of fog
shape of man
passage denied
this one night
paces
mourns
http://elusivetrope.com/2015/10/29/mound-of-hostages/
A trickortreater from rivrvlogr
when
Marvin
rings your bell
on Halloween
he’s there for
bars from
Mars
https://rivrvlogr.wordpress.com/2015/10/29/a-snickers-by-any-other-name-would-taste-as-sweet/
Ali Isaac contributed two septs, very originally titled 1. and 2. 🙂
1.
Flames
leap high.
As sun slips,
darkness hovers
with the ghosts
and lost
souls.
2.
She
rode the
sky, laughing.
Queen of the night.
But no more.
Now she
burns.
Another classic Halloween entry from vhosking for whom I can’t find a link 😦
And I now have a link! https://vhosking.wordpress.com/about/
Plain
Orange
Pumpkin carved
Geometric
Shapes create
Funny
Face
A scary duo from Janice
Deep
urgent
bass strumming
warns danger lurks,
Rain lashed strings
screaming
fright.
Pale
shadow
figure lurks,
Eerie chimes bend,
Unearthly
bell rings
Gone.
https://ontheland.wordpress.com/2015/10/30/samhain-poetry-challenge-jane-dougherty-writes/
Finally, The Secret Keeper sent this one in
http://thesecretkeeper.net/2015/10/31/poetry-challenge-3-samhain/
Thank you all for the fun and the beautiful poems. The next challenge will be posted tomorrow. See you then.
Sept: Safe Home
No
death’s hand
falls this eve
otherworld waits
no candle
leads you
home.
Poetry challenge #3: Samhain
This week’s theme is obviously Halloween, Samhain, Toussaint, All Hallows, whatever you want to call it—the end of the old year and the beginning of the new. This is the time when the dead are close, our waking world and the otherworld touch, the door between them is open.
Be inspired by the season, the myths, or the picture. One more round of sept form—seven lines of 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 syllables respectively. Get writing and post your creations here.
Here are my efforts.
Souls
long dead
hasten from
the otherworld
drawn moth-like
to flame
bright.
Dark
night falls
moonless sky
still the lake lies
candle flame
draws you
home.
Love
once warm
your heart was
now still and cold
let the flame
your steps
light.
Poetry challenge #2: Swans
Welcome to the second poetry challenge. Since everybody seemed to have fun with the sept form last week, we’ll give it another go.
Remember (or if you didn’t see last week’s post) the form is seven lines in the syllable pattern, 1-2-3-4-3-2-1.
The theme for this week, as you have probably gathered, is swans, any aspect or association, or inspired by the painting by Walter Leistikow
Please join in in flocks, and leave your sept creations in the comments or as links to your blog post.
Swans
Rising
From the lake
In winged glory
Mist glimmer
Sorrow
Fled.
Sept poetry challenge: Hands, the entries
Last week I threw out a challenge to write a sept poem on the theme of hands and using the detail from the Arnolfini portait as inspiration.
Here are the poems you sent in, a string of pearls.
First and second, nicely balanced pieces, came from Kris the Bard
Life
Begins
All too soon
We grow older
Childhood hope
Is long
Gone
Joy
Beauty
Passion
Intangible
Evidence
Describes
Love
Next a lovely inspirational poem from Ali Isaac
Walk
Take my
Hand and go
I’ll be your guide
Your support
Be brave
Walk
Then Harriet Goodchild’s beautiful verse
Two
Hands trace
Patterns slow
Love’s sweet embrace
Touches flow
In grace
New
Rivrvlogr has given his philosophical sept a title: Offering
faith
offered
accepted
no exceptions
willingly
embraced
love
https://rivrvlogr.wordpress.com/2015/10/16/offering/
To read Peter Bouchier’s poem: Clap, just nip over to his blog.
https://peterbouchier.wordpress.com/english-essays-and-poems-2/clap-sept/
Elusive Trope, the instigator of all this sent this moving and erudite poem.
TRUST
hands
joining
gesture: fides
manulalis
the business
husband
wife
Next one, defiant and emphatic, is from Manpreet
My
Heart holds
Tight what my
Hands fail to. I
Tonight fight
For my
Dreams.
The Secret Keeper has gone into this challenge with all guns blazing and a set of three poems.
http://thesecretkeeper.net/2015/10/18/poetry-challenge-sept-hands/
Kat Myrman also produced a trilogy
https://kmmyrman.wordpress.com/2015/10/18/a-trilogy-of-septs/
And TJParis added this little gem before the list closed.
Clasp
My Hand
My true love
And in my palm
You will find
My heart
There
Thank you all for joining in the fun of trying out this form which is certainly new to me. They are all splendid little poems, so bravo everybody.
Tomorrow I will post a new theme, so if you fancy having another go at a Sept poem, don’t miss it!
Sept: Lives
Painting by Georges de La Tour
Storm
thunder
rolling cloud
the earth trembles
lightning strikes
brief candle
out.
Poetry challenge: Sept
This is a challenge I am throwing out to all and sundry. The sept, I learned from Doug, the Elusive Trope, is a poetry form of seven lines following the syllable pattern of 1-2-3-4-3-2-1. It isn’t as tricky as it sounds so do please have a go.
The theme is hands, with the van Eyck detail as a prompt if you like.
This is my attempt. Post yours in the comments or if you post it on your blog, as a link. Get creating!
Hands
unclasp
love fading
my misfortune
misplaced hope
bruised heart
weeps.
Jane Dougherty Writes 