Something there, where nothing was before
From crayonned pictures with a one inch sky
to clothes for dolls and a wicked mud pie,
swapping doggerel with Dad
and stories about elves and boarding schools.
I wrote a lullaby for the Prince of Wales
When I was ten and he was one.
I practised scales, and wrote more tales,
sewed my clothes and gifts for Mum.
I grew up and met my mate,
made a home and both ends meet,
cooked nourishing meals and fantasy cakes
for a boy and a girl, our greatest feat.
Through a long life, the trend continued,
patchwork quilts and poems galore,
gardens and stories, more and more.
Creativity constantly revalued.
Margo Roby’s Tuesday Tryout was all about creation. I started to re-invent the wheel, write a new poem. Then a poem which I wrote about 4 years ago came into my head – a poem which started life as a freewrite exercise, underwent several radical metamorphoses then was put on the backburner. I’ve never been satisfied with it, so had another go at it this morning – added some, took a lot away – and this is the result. Still not right – I guess this poem will go with me to the end, like my passion for making things.
This is so wonderful viv .. life in a verse
i love it though because i am a reader not a poet.. did i miss you yesterday, i feel like a missed a viv day.. c
What Tilly Bud says.
It’s somehow fitting, though, that it should go with you. You are still creating.
You mention elves. I need to haul out my copy of the Wishing Chair, which I periodically reread.
I love the bit about writing a lullaby for the Prince of Wales. How sweet of you.
Beyond what Tilly said, which I think is spot on, have you considered each stanza as a separate piece – perhaps picked apart as an elongated haiku? Call them Viv’s Crafty Haiku (s). A new form. I always feel like haiku plural should have an ‘s’.
NB Taking each stanza as individual verses, not the rhyme scheme of the poem as a whole i.e. not AABC-DEDE etc.
I love the subject matter, and I am intrigued by that lullaby – did you send it off and get a reply?
For me, the problem is with the rhyme scheme; the stanzas look like this:
AABC
ABAB
ABAB
ABBA
I think you need to regulate it.
Viv Sighs. I’d hoped you wouldn’t notice! Does it have to be regular? It started life completely unrhymed free verse, but when I did the workshop with Bill Greenwell, it suddenly developed the odd rhyming line or two, and the irregularity probably was the result of me messing about with it today!
No I didn’t send it off, but I found it in the music cabinet recently and it’s tripe!
It’s not tripe; it just needs work.
It doesn’t have to be regular, but if it’s not going to be regular, it needs to be less regular than it is now, otherwise it reads as not properly finished.
gotcha. I’ll try again.