Last Challenge: Future, Sonnet, Chiasmu

A sonnet is 14 lines of verse, usually grouped into four stanzas of 4-4-3-3 lines. Sonnets used to be written in metered verse, but many modern poets forget about the meter, or at least don’t use it consistently. Sonnets also tended to be written using any number of established rhyming schemes but that, too, is no longer a formal requirement.

A chiasmus is a reversal: Laid back, with my mind on my money and my money on my mind (from Snoop Dog).

 My Body and I Face Our Future

My body, my blight, cataracts darken my sight
My body, my shame, with bunions I’m lame
My body, my bane, another sprung vein
My body, my pest, gravity lowers my chest

My body, my plight, and now cellulite
My body, my trap, a tree with no sap
My body, my curse, it’s going to get worse
My body, my shell, we’re going to hell

but my body, my all, we’ve answered the call
My body, my light, the end’s within sight
My body, my guide, I’m terrified

But my body, my source, I’ll stay the course
My friend, my body, we’ll dance to the end
Oh, body, dear, I beg of thee…..forgive me

 

Challenge: Landscape in a Found Poem with Enumeratio

A found poem is written using words, phrases, and/or sentences selected randomly from tweets, book titles, the poems of others, every fifth word in a newspaper article, or anything else imaginable.

If you use a list, or lists, in a poem, you are using enumeratio.

I found my words by randomly drawing them from a box of magnetized words meant to be displayed on one’s refrigerator to spur family creativity — though when a friend tried it, her children wrote nothing but derogatory sentences about one another. I bought my set at a thrift store for a quarter many years ago and had never used them until now. Most of what I say is true.

For my found poem, I added the title, conjunctions, introductory words, pronouns, and prepositions. I felt free to use other forms of the words I drew and didn’t attempt to use all of the 100 drawn.

 

The Landscape of Janet

I enjoy
foreign movies
black gum drops
and mountain meadows
swarmed by strong-
willed wildflowers

I believe in
hard work
too many shoes
showing my work
and doubling the garlic

I tend to
eat between meals
blurt
and think the
world will end
when I don’t sleep well

When alone
I eat cake for breakfast
scratch my head
sing in vibrato
and two-step

I hate to
polish my nails
run for planes
spit for the dentist
and shop.

I would never
pierce my nose
play hockey
have a pet turkey
buy used bowling shoes
or write another poem like this