Pace

I close my eyes,
and I can see your face.
My heart and mind vies;
which will dictate pace?

Heart begs to race,
mind pleads to wait.
Love will find a place;
by a twist of fate.

Have I asked to late?
I want to hear your call.
Hovering in an anxious state;
please. I'm ready to fall.

Let's take the chance.
Teach me to dance.

Cinquain

And I have touched the sky
Where the living dancing with the dead
Who watch with unwavering eye
Every thought to pass through every head
And know the danger of words unsaid.

(Form is the Cinquain; sorry I got so terribly behind.)

Villanelle

(okay, ever since I read yours, I have wanted to try it, and since today is the last for this week, I wanted to do one today.)


Spirits of nature, set me free.
Lift me up upon the wind.
Release my soul from lock and key.

Sing me sweet and dance me fair, into my endless bowery.
Refuse me not, saying, I have sinned.
Spirits of nature, set me free.

Set my life to dancing, under star and tree.
Spin me into the wild crosswind;
release my soul from lock and key.

Whisper promise, and court me coyly;
you, whom with my minds' entwined.
Spirits of nature, set me free.

Let roses sing and I'll bring my dowry;
and let you wander through my mind.
Release my soul from lock and key.

Bid thoughts and dreams, to blend and spring, from every passing fancy.
If thou would be so kind.
Spirits of nature, set me free.
Release my soul from lock and key.


(This is of course a Villanelle. I know some of the rhymes are more of a slant rhyme than a true rhyme....

And no, no one needs their legs broken my dear friend. Angst seemed to flow well this week for me.)

Triolet

When you said you loved me,
I know now, that you lied!
My heart was given just to thee;
when you said you loved me.
Those words they set my spirit free;
now suffer the wrath of wounded pride.
When you said you loved me,
I know now, that you lied.




(This of course is a Triolet.)

Haiku

Romaji: ore no uta / wa kage no yume to / natsu no yoru

Kanji (if you can see it):
俺の歌
は影の夢と
夏の夜


Translation: My song / is the dream of a shadow and / summer nights

(I make no warrant as to the accuracy of my Japanese; form reference is here)

Rondeau

Surrender life to death's embrace.
Sigh a last breath and go with grace.
Sing a last song, smile a last smile,
tell a final tale, and walk your final mile
Step through to that final, last someplace.

There, things move at a slower pace.
Treading feet, they leave no trace.
Find peace at last; thou willing exile.
Surrender life to death's embrace.

Do not to me your steps retrace,
go on and forward, find your place.
Think not on past and let regrets compile.
Go onward my friend, and walk your last mile.
Repose there under your snowy lace;
surrender life to death's embrace.



(Poetic form is the Rondeau. Funnily enough, we have a large pan in cooking that is also called a rondeau. I tried to be very conscious of grammar and punctuation, but I probably still got some wrong. Let me know eh...)

Elizabethan Sonnet

On midnight feet through streets we follow, flow
As wind or winged without pure heaven's light.
Warm prey and hunger we with glee shadow,
When human horror warns you take your flight.

Our bright black eyes and siren voices sing
And draw you down as still as carved statue.
Our hands and hearts do your destruction bring
While in your arms we gently, sweetly kiss you.

Soft lips cool linger on your throat; your sighs
Are golden mead to tease and please our ears.
Then pain sparks terror in your wide green eyes;
We are the sum of all your darkest fears.

Our kiss of death brings forth the drink of life:
We walk in beauty on the edge of a knife.

(I even went for the iambic pentameter, though it's highly imperfect. Elizabethan Sonnet)

Sestina

Under the silver-blue glow of moon
A prentice lingers in a vale of shadow
With eyes on the sky, in hope of flight.
From remnants of scream-shattered dream
Out of his hay-loft bed he rose,
Pausing for warming-whiskey to swallow.

Stars fade under a winging swallow;
Our prentice stumbles, a thorn pains his palm, a rose
To pick for a fair maiden of a dream.
At his image fair maidens take flight.
Beneath a cloak he hides in shadow
And wonders of a maiden's kiss under a May Eve moon.

Velvet blue arcs across sky in graceful flight;
Our prentice tastes longing to be that swallow,
But Master's fists bury his dream.
He fears the madness of the moon,
The desperate weeping in speaking in shadow.
Our prentice smiles and plucks a rose.

As velvet wings, the petals of a rose
Along his arms would give him flight
If his heart's desire he spoke in shadow
And avian flesh he dared to swallow.
Warm blood, he moans, in fever of moon
And cold vale breeze, he prays, in dream.

Starlight and ice-wind is no dream;
His father from prentice station rose
And defied the fever of the moon
To capture the key of human flight -
Flee human form, take that of swallow,
And soar beyond a midnight shadow.

From under cloak he flings off shadow
And bares his face to cold beyond dream,
From mid-air snatches the winging swallow
And plucks it clean, just as the rose.
Its petals along his arms grant flight -
Free, and on wing he seeks the moon.

Fallen, the dream, an un-petal'd rose,
As prentice-swallow he takes first flight
In silver-blue shadows beneath far moon.

(European form: Sestina; harder than the professionals make it look)

Tanka

To death I go down,
And you have abandoned me.
The autumn of life,
of my life, in twain with thee.
Cold and barren now seems to be.






(This is a Japanese form known at the Tanka, it is similar to the Sonnet in feel, but it follows more closely to the Haiku style poem, following a 5/7/5/7/7 Syllable count. The form can be found here.)

Cinquain

Spin around in spring times rush.
Dance upon the sunlit fields.
Revel in the seasons first bursting blush.
Live for spring, winter it has healed.
Until unto winter, spring again yields.



(this is a European form known as the Cinquain. Let me know if it didn't make much sense)

Rondeau

And so I lie in starlit fields
While grass beneath my corpse fast yields.
I ponderous hear the nightingale songs;
Though for your embrace my body longs
My mind demands me my weapon wield.

Moonstone shadows my face do shield.
My voice, my mien so even-keeled
As with regret I speak you wrong
And to you I lie in starlit fields.

My gaze and courage I silently steeled
When for forgiveness I should be reeled
Down to my knees before the throngs
To confess my heart and spoken wrongs.
But guns and shells my soul unsealed
And so I lie in starlit fields.

(The rhyme isn't perfect - doggone plurals - but this is a European form known as a Rondeau)

Spencerian Sonnet

The end has come at last to me,
Here I say goodby.e
Do not mourn for I am free,
When it is my time to die.

Oh, sweet hours that we have spent, how quickly they do fly
to us night is ever drawing nearer
and in you arms I lie
In the moonlight here I smile, shadows dancing in the mirror

My eyes, my love are growing dimmer
I sigh a final breath
They, to loose their brightest glimmer
When I am gone to death.

Heart is warm, though body chill
I'll remember you, my love, when I am under hill.




(This is a Spencerian Sonnet and the form is here)

Triolet

How often I sought your forgiveness
For words I never spoke
Don't you know the years of earnestness
How often I sought your forgiveness?
Despite your unyielding stubbornness
To never fix what never broke,
How often I sought your forgiveness
For words I never spoke.

(Poetic form Triolet)

English sonnet

Tread lightly upon my heart,
you who do not intend to stay.
Make is possible to have a fresh start,
Walk along the side paths and pass me on my way.

Do not offer you hand, only to let me fall.
Do not make me wish for things that could never be.
Do not leave me waiting to hear your final call.
Do not make me to blind to see.

Tread lightly, tread lightly.
Leave no trace behind.
Always deal rightly,
With hearts that you may find.

Do not chain my soul to thee.
Teach my heart, then set me free.



(Link for the form.)

Villanelle

I never asked your soul to be my light.
My request was not in asking but in mocking.
I guide my feet with my own voice and dim-lit sight.

No mortal could attain your Himalayan height,
Not in study or fervent begging, praying.
I never asked your soul to be my light.

No angelic wing could glide in similar flight,
Nor heavenly hymn match crystalline-note singing.
I guide my feet with my own voice and dim-lit sight.

What hammer-fall could prove your acts but right?
Earthly authority will never attain just judging.
I did not ask your soul to be my light.

Though thunder rages are your perceived slight,
My mortal hands refuse the self-wrought wringing.
I guide my feet with my own voice and dim-lit light.

For all the illusions by which you paint yourself sun-bright,
At the clarion call you'll feel the trap door falling.
I never asked your soul to be my light.
I guide my feet with my own voice and dim-lit sight.

(Closed form is European Villanelle)