Saturday, October 26, 2013

Peace

Dick, you should post these poetic challenges to the blog!  For anyone who missed it:

http://host.madison.com/news/local/writers/pat_schneider/craft-some-couplets-about-madison-and-your-poetry-might-go/article_bf073046-3bf7-11e3-8c84-0019bb2963f4.html

This is your chance to be published! Become famous! Share your talents!   Etc
Dick=

As for me, I could not open the contest link within the link, but here is what I might post there:

          I ought to spend more time in Madison
          Before I try to make the city rhyme.

And as for couplets? Spend ten minutes on it
And string together seven for a sonnet!

Here is my latest (barely-coupleted) effort.  And Dan, btw, I will be taking the time this weekend to read your story!

                                        PEACE

                                        I clean my house
                                             the way I pay my debts
                                        the way I find my peace:
                                             a little at
                                        a time (a resting place
                                             in greener fields
                                        now and then, forgiveness
                                             by the silent
                                        waters).  So far,
                                             time's been good to me
                                        but in the end
                                             I want to live to see
                                        no more to clean, no more
                                             to pay, and PEACE,
                                        such peace that passes
                                             understanding, peace
                                        that supercedes
                                             my earthly needs
                                                  and leaves
                                        this tired world,
                                             this plodding pace
                                                  behind.
                                        I don't know if or when
                                             I'll ever find
                                        that better place, but
                                             let me still
                                                  believe
                                        that if I serve my time
                                             and look for peace
                                        a little at a time
                                             I'll be released.
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1 comment:

  1. Daniel LamkenOctober 28, 2013 at 1:28 PM

    Back a hundred or so posts ago (Stillwater has that many!), I relayed my favorite poem by ee cummings, the verticality of which has variant at the end: the accumulation of 'leaves' in the final, five-letter line:

    l(a

    le
    af

    fa
    ll

    s)
    one
    l

    iness

    I reproduce it here because I feel your final line, Jon, complements that spirit more religiously than good ol' lost-generation ee cummings. I love the three occasions to indent still further, linking "needs" with "leaves" and "behind" and "believe". I appreciate the quotidian 'bills to pay' and literal/figurative houses to keep in order. I agree with the personification of a "tired world" that we tread upon unthinkingly, unfeelingly, or both. Having just come from the beautiful mountains of Slovakia and Moravia, we have freshness out there yet, but we're all in a race against time.

    Most of all, I appreciate the spirit of this poem as I pulled together part of my lesson plan tomorrow, when school recommences: http://blogs.isp.cz/dlamken/2013/10/28/my-favorite-holiday-is/

    It's a great way to end this favorite month, which again this year confirms itself. Blessings, Jon, on the nigh-ness of your birth-month, well prepared.

    ReplyDelete

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