Alphabetical Poem First Lines

[Danik 2016]

re: Yu Xiuhua-What an extraordinary life story!Thanks for the links. It explains why there is so much reference to pain and difficulties in her poetry. I put her up in the other forum too, where they are always seeking new candidates for the Literature Noble. I think she would be a very worthy candidate.

"How Could You Know How You Came Here..."-Beautiful but immensely sad!


A poem in zejel form:https://areadingwritr.wordpress.com/...y-from-a-to-z/

Super Powers

Are all super powers something
about which we would brag and sing?
Or would many more likely sting?

Sure, some would be able to fly
And others detect every lie.
But somewhere a hopeful young guy
only bends like a chicken wing.

And a woman afraid of heights
Cannot see far distant sights
Or fight like a long ago knights,
But flies like a bird on the wing.
https://suebe.wordpress.com/2019/07/...try-the-zejel/

[tailor STATELY]

Enjoyed !

Cool !

Zéjel is a romantic Spanish form with Arabic influence related to the Qasida and adopted by the Spanish troubadours of 15th century.

Zéjel are:

syllabic, most often written in 8 syllable lines.
stanzaic, opening with a mono-rhymed triplet followed by any number of quatrains.
rhymed, the rhyme of the opening mudanza establishes a linking rhyme with the end line of the succeeding quatrains. Rhyme scheme, aaa bbba ddda etc

"Away up on the River aux Lievres," - Nora Pembroke; A Legend Of Buckingham Village.... https://www.poetrycat.com/nora-pembr...ingham-village

[Danik 2016]

Chilling legend. Enjoyed!

"Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,"."Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen
https://poets.org/poem/dulce-et-decorum-est

[tailor STATELY]

Tragic poem... had an English great?-uncle who fought in WWI who was gassed and actually made it home before it finally took him.

"Comrades, if I don't live to see the day" - Nazim Hikmet Last Will And Testament... https://www.poetrycat.com/nazim-hikm...-and-testament

[Danik 2016]

"Last Will And Testament..." A sad, intense poem about war and destruction.

"Droning a drowsy syncopated tune,". "The Weary Blues" Langston Hughes
https://poets.org/poem/weary-blues

[tailor STATELY]

Wonderful poem

"early morning. down to the shore again" - Ovid; Beach Body... https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poe...716/beach-body

[Danik 2016]

"Beach Body... "amazing work on an Ovid poem. Read the accompanying note.

"For this you may see no need,"An Anthology of Rain" by Phillis Levin
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poe...hology-of-rain

[tailor STATELY]

Enjoyed

"Generally Speaking:"- Crisosto Apache; 37 Common Characteristi(x)s of a Displaced Indian with a Learning Disability... https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poe...ing-disability

[Danik 2016]

"Generally Speaking:"- Terribly good poem!Nothing else needs to be said.


"Huffy Henry hid the day,"."Dream Song 1" by John Berryman

https://poets.org/poem/dream-song-1

[tailor STATELY]

A bit stilted but it works well... enjoyed

"I carved your name on my watchband" - Nazim Hikmet; Letters From A Man In Solitary... https://www.poetrycat.com/nazim-hikm...an-in-solitary

[Danik 2016]

"Letters From A Man In Solitary... "Beautiful and terrible!
Found some background:

"Nazim Hikmet’s “Letters From A Man In Solitary”

Prison ruin in Turkey
Nazim Hikmet was a Turkish poet, novelist, and playwright whose poems are considered to be some of the most powerful statements of the twentieth century. After serving several shorter prison terms, Hikmet was finally sentenced, in 1938, to twenty-eight years in Bursa Prison for his “Communist writings,” a verdict handed down not through the regular Turkish civil courts (who didn’t have the grounds to convict him) but through secret proceedings in the National Security Courts (a strange parallel to our current military courts for enemy combatants). In 1950, Hikmet was released early due to worldwide pressure and the announcement he would receive an International Peace Prize (along with painter Pablo Picasso and Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda). Hikmet fled into exile after 12 years “inside” and settled in Moscow, where he died in 1963.


…outside, with all its machinery and all its art,
a plains night comes down red on treeless space.

“Letters From A Man In Solitary” was written in 1938, the year Hikmet was sentenced to prison. The poem consists of three “letters” that Hikmet wrote to his wife, the only way Hikmet was able to send his poems to the outside world. Small things — the sun, his window, the sound of his own voice — take on large meanings in the small world from which he writes. Also, Hikmet’s language and surprising turns of tone and mood create moving portraits of a man who struggled most of his life to remain heard.
https://20thcenturyprotestpoetry.wor...n-in-solitary/

"Jocko the Monkey, Mouser - his chum, the Cat,"."The Monkey And The Cat by Jean de La Fontaine
https://www.public-domain-poetry.com...-the-cat-21901

[tailor STATELY]

Nazim - Such a life struggle: "Small things — the sun, his window, the sound of his own voice — take on large meanings in the small world from which he writes." Thanx for the background

"The Monkey And The Cat" - lol poem... another parable of never following the advice of a monkey

"Kate! if e'er thy light foot lingers" - Charles Stuart; Evening... https://www.public-domain-poetry.com.../evening-38128

[Danik 2016]

"Evening..." Chaming and subtle!

"Life is short, though I keep this from my". "Good Bones by Maggie Smith
https://poets.org/poet/maggie-smith

[tailor STATELY]

A mother's burden with a lasting hope.

"My father kept a speckled conch" - Sylvia Plath; On the Decline of Oracles... https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poe...ine-of-oracles

[Danik 2016]

"But I, I keep the voices he
Set in my ear, and in my eye
The sight of those blue, unseen waves" Beautiful poem!

"Nothing can ever happen twice."."Nothing Twice" by Wislawa Szymborska
https://poets.org/poem/nothing-twice