mllelaurel

I'm taking a Creative Writing class this semester, which is giving me extra incentive to do something I already love. How's that for cool! It also forces me to work with more difficult rhyming patterns and meter. Initially, I thought I would hate this type of restriction, but it's actually helped me. I'm hardly unbiased here, but all in all, I'm pleased with the results.

The Last Waves of Summer

The ocean is peaceful, but never quite still
It rushes and shifts like a slipped movie reel
It rumbles and sways as it catches the light
Like a fairytale beast with its own want and will

And later, the children come into its sight
With their giddy laughter and their playful fights
They dance on the waves, unencumbered and free
Unheeding the ocean’s terrible might

Right now they can think: “This world is for me
And nothing can harm we, wherever I be
No danger can touch me, wherever I’m tossed”.
They believe they are kings of whatever they see

They’ll learn better someday, but it comes with a cost
Awareness can wither like winter’s first frost
They’ll forget how the ocean once sang in their head
The whispered refrain of a childhood well lost.

This was supposed to be written in the same format as Robert Frost's "Stoping By Woods On A Snowy Evening", with an aaba bbcb, etc rhyming pattern, and four-beat meter. Nice first assignment, eh?

The End of the Affair

So go ahead, walk out the door and leave
You’ve done your damage, so get on your way
No matter what you do, I will not grieve

The words I say go through like you’re a sieve
You never listen to a single thing I say
So go ahead, walk out the door and leave

You promised me happiness, only to deceive
Now I will make a promise of my own, this way
No matter what you do, I will not grieve

You make demands, still hoping for reprieve
Saying: if I won’t acquiesce, then you won’t stay
So go ahead, walk out the door and leave

Complex and bitter is the web you weave
I have to hold myself in check, so I won’t sway:
No matter what you do, I will not grieve

Although my heart is yearning to forgive
I must be firm and hold my own today
So go ahead, walk out the door and leave
No matter what you do, I will not grieve.

The next assignment with a particular format was a vilanelle. I think, of all of them, this one was the hardest. Dylan Thomas I'm not, I'm afraid. Here, I tried going for a more agitated mood than usual - just for a change of pace.

Asylum

I dreamed the ceiling ran in streaks of grey
The walls were bars, the room my Alcatraz
I mutely saw the world around me fray
And fade, until I knew not where I was

Days passed in minutes; hours whirled on by
I was like driftwood, caught upon the storm
The air pulsed with plaintive, panicked cries
The wind shrieked dusty and uncomfortably warm

And I - the last defiant glint of light
Kept violently still, and then broke free
I fought the chaos, and I won the fight
Rising above, far past all I could see

I woke to blue skies, birdsog, day and peace
Half-jubilant to find my release

And, of course, what poetry unit could be complete without the sonnet? Iambic pentameter and all. I went a bit abstract here - a change from my usual, but I think I like it. I'm kind of 'mreh' about the last two lines, though.