Three poetic forms down, and thus far I haven’t had to bother with meter. Not gonna be so luck next time when I face my personal arch-nemesis- the sonnet. Today, though, was Pantoum day. Still challenging. As Mark Strand and Eavan Boland say in The Making of a Poem: “the reader takes four steps forward, then two back.” Well, as a writer, I took two steps forward, then two back. The ‘delete’ key was my favorite key while writing the pantoum, I had a crazy hard time finding lines that could handle the repetition. Whether I succeeded in that or not, I suppose I cannot say, and I leave you all to judge for yourselves.
Winter Pantoum
Shards of ice rain from the shivering trees–
tiny, blazing comets
below a gold sun
as they burn themselves on their own fire.
Tiny blazing comets
chiming like crystal blown by the wind
as they burn themselves on their own fire;
a momentary brilliance
chiming like crystal blown by the wind.
A synesthesiac bliss–
this momentary brilliance
then silence, darkness, repetition, streaks
of synesthesiac bliss:
score and light, rest and illumination
then silence, darkness, repetition, streaks
in the near-earth sky.
Score and light, rest and illumination:
below a gold sun
in the near-earth sky
shards of ice rain from the shivering trees.