“A Scene Not Acted”
“A Scene Not Acted”
11/9/2007
Today I dreamed a scene never actor
Played. The cast was less than miniature,
For only you and I, demur,
In intimate bounds were sure.
We opened our tender
Sacks and shared our words
Like we never
Had. We were
Ever
Pure.
***
Wake.
I hate
It when breaks
The moment space
And all time stood braced
To loose the final lace
That bound our lips from the taste
I lived till now to drink. I paced
The room and wondered if this my play
Might find another actor in my place.
Perhaps your love will never shine on my face.
“For Get to Never Mind the Close”
“For Get to Never Mind the Close”
11/9/2007
For
Get the
Day we were
Close. Close the door
Of the past. Pass me
By like an urchine cur
And talk of my words never
Mind the moment you stripped the sheath.
Please forget the wound, the red tender
Bestowed. If loss, if love, if life cannot
In form of gift be given to earn your
Love what then is death between old friends?
The fates attest I tried. The book
Becomes my leather witness.
So what if this becomes
The end? You hated the
Beginning. For
Get the close.
We weren’t
Close.
An Etheree for Jeques
Recently a fellow poet (Jeques) asked me about a new style I’d undertaken. My two poems “Scarlet Paint for Lies” and “For You” are written in a relatively new form. I say “relatively” because it was developed in the 1970’s by a Arkansas poet named Etheree Taylor. The style, still unknown to many poets, is named an Etheree after Miss Taylor.
The form itself is simplistic, but like many “simple” styles is anything but simple to write. The most basic form of the Etheree is the 10 line version. The first line has only 1 syllable. The second line has 2, no more- no less. The third line, 3, and so on until you reach the tenth line with it’s 10 syllables. Of course there are a number of varieties that give the form personality. You could craft a reverse Etheree which starts with 10 syllables and ends with 1. The Double Etheree counts from 1 to 10 and continues on from 10 to 1. You can guess what a Reverse Double Etheree is. Obviously you could go wild with this form. What about a Reverse Quadruple Mirrored Etheree?
Though this form is favored by free-versers looking to add a little poetic format to their craft, I enjoy it immensely when used with rhyme. And since it started as an excercie in free-verse there are no limitations on rhyme schemes.
I hope all poets will give this form a try. The bare-essentials quality of the form strips away many unnesecary elements from our writing. And like physical excerisice, you may discover some poetic muscles that’ve been neglected up until now!
