Peace and War

Hey little girl With big wide eyes Why are you scared Of those dark skies....

Awdl Gywydd Notes

A Welsh form, the Awdl Gywydd consists of four-line stanzas, each line containing seven syllables.The last syllable of lines 1 and 3 rhyme with the 3rd-5th syllable of their following lines. The 2nd and 4th lines also rhyme. xxxxxxaxxaxxxbxxxxxxcxxcxxxb Example Afanc and the Fool by Jez Farmer A mysterious creatureSaid to lure the fools to …

Ballad of Sir Jeff

Oh knight in shining armour stand A watch on rhymes and flows. A lance of words is in your hands As meter's glory glows. The shining waistcoats your defence They come and lay the curse. They write while questing for suspense The dragons of free verse...

Aftermath

After the war lands list lifeless and grey The men return like melodic zombies. Battle weary and beaten like dulled clay All victims of conflicts between the Tshombes...

Ae Freislighe Notes

The Ae Freislighe (pronounced ‘ay freshly) is an Irish syllabic quatrain stanza form. Each line is seven syllables with lines one and three ending with a triple rhyme and two and four with a double rhyme. The entire poem should end as it began with a repetition (a dunadh) of the first syllable, word, phrase, …

Moonlight’s Bliss

A gentle love you and good night While waiting for the house to sleep So passion can again take flight And across the old floorboards creep...

Brief Intro

A writer of poems at forty A lady but not of leisure I live in England, how haughty My pet cats are divine pleasure...

Shadows of Existence

I dwell in the shadows of existence Neither living nor dead I be. The pulse of a heart in resistance Kept on a brink of sanity...

My Passion

There is a place I hide in pain Refuge for tears, a place to weep. Where words I read to sooth again In vintage odes my mind I steep...

Quean of Poetry

If I take the craw road from here to Dundee I will find the lassie my quean of poetry. I read the wirds an aw that sing As the pen haud in her hand ring...

The Flowers of Darkness

As dusk descends oblations bloom In sacred room. To gods of night, For their delight...

A Message to My Bipolar

I accept you are always with me, my 'friend', It's only Death who can make this all end. The days you send my soul to living hell It is me caught in the curse of your spell...

Soul In Captivity

In shadows lurk the eyes that prey They lay in wait for me. I sense the fear before they slay The peace that once was free...

Sicilian Quatrain Notes

Possibly the most popular quatrain from used within a sonnet since its first use in the 12th century by Giacomo da Lentini. However it is not purely for the use of the sonneteer, the Sicilian Quatrains is commonly used by story tellers and ballad writers. Traditionally written in 8 or 10 syllable lines, English poets …

Short Measure Notes

A variation of the Common Measure form, Short Measure consists of three lines of iambic trimeter, and a third line in iambic tetrameter. Including the rhyme scheme this gives the following patternxxxxxaxxxxxbxxxxxxxaxxxxxb Example Slainte by Gloria Carpenter To water down a drinkis sometimes a request;yet what a waste, I often thinkwhen strongest form is best. …

The Feast Day of Saint Roch

Dressed in their best the folk of Venice Celebrating beating a diseased menace...

Rubaiyat Notes

The rubaiyat brings Omar Khayyam, so unsurprisingly the rubaiyat originates from Persia. It consists of four line stanzas and is usually written in tetrameter or pentameter. Line one, two and four rhyme and the third line can be used to interlock the next stanza Rhyme scheme: aaba bbcb ccdc and so on Example Sacred Rite …

Saraband Notes

The Saraband is a form taken from the dance of the same name, and has an alternate 3-4 beat. The dance, of Asian origin, was introduced into Spain in the 16th century and later to the courts of France and Italy. The form follows the dance with two stanzas, the first of three lines and …

Sapphic Stanza Notes

Consisting of three unrhymed lines of eleven syllables and one of five, the Sapphic Stanza is derived from the ancient Greek verse of Sappho. Each of the three eleven-syllable lines consists of two trochees, one dactyl and two trochees. This line is known as a Sapphic. The fourth line of the stanza consists of a …

Storm of Death

Form: Quatrains The air tastes fresh and clean after the stormWith skies still violent red in nature’s rage.As clouds gather into a thunderous swarmWe rush to seek shelter from the carnage. Who sees the butterfly, she’s lost alone,A flutter of wings as rain starts once more.She is battered by speed of the cycloneCrushed, she falls …

Pathya Vat Notes

Pathya Vat is an interesting SE Asian form that has a short syllable count. Each stanza consists of four lines of four syllables with lines two and three rhyming. There is no stanza limit. Rhyme scheme: xaax xbbx xccx and so on A French influenced variant for multiple stanzas is to rhyme the middle lines …

Walking Home

The last goodbye, a doctor said It felt good walking home The snow guiding my way ahead...

Quatern Notes

The Quatern consists of four four-line stanzas. As is common with French forms there is a refrain, but, unusually no rhyme scheme is specified. Typical of French poetry it consists of eight-syllable lines and no meter is specified.The Refrain is the first line of the first stanza, which becomes the second line of the second …

Redondilla Notes

Using tetrameter or eight-syllable lines , the Redondilla is a quatrain that offers the poet a variety of rhyme schemes. An envelope of couplets, alternating couplets or conventional couplets, or even a combination of that.The rhyme scheme possibilities are: abbaabababab In the following example Ryter uses a combination of the three rhyme schemes Example To …

Morning Call

Form: Endecha That morning I first heard itHaunting my senses at dawnEchoing deep in my soulAnd to that recognition my soul is drawn I heard it again todayAnd my senses again frozeA soulful, deafening cryA passioned call; that sound the wilderness knows Spirit brother I hear youYour heart calling to my wholeEvery part of me …

The Wedding Wand

Form: Ballad If you go down the lakeside way,There is a fairy ring,So come and watch the fun this dayAnd see the Elfin King. The fairies dance with steps so small.And pixies waltz in pairs.The night of nights, the elfin ball,A time to lose all cares. The tiny folk adorned in silkOf finest weave and …

The Winter of Light

Form; Ballad As shards of blue the rays reach outThe stars of Yuletide night.The midday moon reveals a poutHere is the winter's light. I call my love as Yuletide comesAnd hold his hand in mine.We dance to winter’s beating drums,Around the season's pine. As shards of blue the rays reach outThe stars of Yuletide night.The …

In the Quatrains of Death

Form: Quatrains Death is here and Death is with me,Dark angel I alone can seeShe surrounds, inside, below,She is Death and I shall go. Death has her hand upon my skin,On all I am in my own sin.This I know and this I feel,Death my lady - you are real. First, my desires pass to …

Playing the Blues

Form: Quatrains As moonlit midnight skies drift in wonderTo the dawn of the new sapphire sunrise,My dreams turn to the muse that lies yonder,My brush seeks out her cerulean eyes. The artist lost to her cold heart of steel,As paint so creates the cloudless figures.My indigo tears flow, each stroke I feelOf portrayals, she greets …

Hail Holy Queen

Form: Sapphic Stanzas In silver lunar, light divine,As by the Ancients cast foreseen,A message I could not decline,Hail Holy Queen! In one with Mother Nature’s lightThe Balance I have found in YouMy trust and fate I give tonight,May I walk true To use Your power as a giftAnd only ever with Your good will.For the …

Facing Her Down

Form: Heroic Stanza Each morning I stare her straight in the eyeHer dark eyes waiting to tear me apartShe’s daring me to resist as she callsMy name again I deny her my heart Oh lady of destiny I know youI know your touch as if it was love’s kissIt’s not today; today you wait in …

Before the Dawn

Form: Quatrains The world of stars I see,Above the Earth each night,Is where I find my dreams,Before the dawn’s daylight. The kiss of dew tastes sweet,The gift of nature’s rite,Awake the spites of life,Before the dawn’s daylight ©JGFarmer2009

July 8th

Form: Quatrains For July 8th I have just one wishTo spend an hour with Percy ByssheTo hear him speak and share a whileMaybe even see my hero smile. His works of beauty, I have them allWords from a romantic that often call.Magic images that release my mindSo much inspiration for a painter to find. Verses …

Thirty Years

A foolish age, sixteen She wanted pics of me For her bookshelf display...

Long Measure Notes

A variation of Common Measure, Long Measure consists quatrains of iambic tetrameter lines with a rhyme pattern of abcb defe and so on, or abac dedf and so on. Example Beneath the Willow Tree by Jez Farmer My words are naught but summer rainwhen met with acrid clouds of doubt.Each time the hurt denies my …

Winter’s Bough

From winter’s bough a lonely song Echoes across the empty field She chirps her song the whole day long...

Winter Conversation

While talking with December late one night A glass of whiskey in my hand I sure he smiled in the firelight...

Limerick Notes

Limericks come from an old custom of each person at a party singing a nonsense verse off the top of there head followed by the chorus which included the line ‘ Will you come up to Limerick?’ Light and humorous in nature, Limericks can be more difficult to write than they seem. Usually Limericks come …

Education Matters

Texte: Education costs money. But then so does ignorance – Sir Claus Moser

Kyrielle Notes

Dating from the Middle Ages the Kyrielle was once a very popular French form. Written in quatrains with the last line of each quatrains as a refrain. Each line consists of eight syllables. The rhyme scheme is aabB ccbB ddbB and so on Example Jamie’s Song by Jez Farmer We walked through the gilded gatewayTowards …

Surreal Dactylic

Brilliant skies of surrealistic winter days, Shades of grey lacking in cheer or delighting ways, Mingle with vivid sighs, spring is arriving soon...

Amaethon

Form: Rannaicheacht Bheag Blessed ploughman, the god of fields dressedDivine child of a goddess, blessedOf prodded earth his hands sealed questTo yield harvest gods’ blessed ©JGFarmer2020

Summer’s Rain

A love found in nature’s glory, A passion freed me from the pain, The kiss that started our story In summer’s rain...

Hymnal Measure Notes

Stricter than Common measure, Hymnal Measure consists of alternating rhyming couplets over iambic tetrameter and trimeter. This gives a rhyme scheme of…abab cdcd efef … and so on Example: Hymn to Beauty by Jez Farmer It is an art this kissing thing,A portrait drawn by love;When lips embrace the heart shall singAnd speak desire thereof …

Spell casting

I long to cast magic’s spell, know thee well in autumn’s night. A wish just for thee, my heart...

Queen of the May

In winter’s white, as angels cry for early spring to warm the wind, to bring to life with gentle sigh...

Pagan Flame

In circle dance from left to right Around the Pagan flame From right to left eternal light...

Remorse

For all those years you sat in pose, your love endured to meet my art. My muse you were, I saw no rose...

For Ophelia

In blue moonlight where Lady Ophelia drifts the whispered streams in winter's beauty, her eyes reflecting starlight vaguely float and fade...

The Angel of Death

She waits in shadows on edges of life Her scythe to gather souls at rest beside. Angel of death, how we resist her knife...