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Your Couplets
So. We are to write in rhyming couplets!
I suppose the origins are doublets
And hose; you know that time when Will Shakespeare
At Stratford wrote (before penning King Lear).
He embarked upon such merry verses
And never once did attract the curses
Of others around him who recognised
He was not a poet to be despised,
But, rather, that they had in that same place
A poet who wrote with style and grace;
Someone worthy of their true adoration
Who would, in time, gain applause from the nation.
Graham Follett
An Autumn Walk
Underfoot we crunch needles of Scots pines
growing tall in straggly free-style designs,
the fragrance aromatic on our breath,
suffusing with damp scents of woodland earth.
We listen to autumn's bright song of birds
aware of stillness hung with silent words,
the tension awkward in our steady gait,
till you turn and with enquiring eyes, wait.
A hare darts out from cover's bracken fronds,
I slip my hand in yours, feel love's new bonds,
the kindness clearly in your age-hewn face,
as sun breaks through, rays warming our embrace.
Claire Knight
Elegy
Farewell to sun and freckled shade.
The roses droop, their petals fade.
Leaves, fevered flush forgotten, lie
trampled in mud or brown and dry.
Bare branches tremble in the cold,
Fish hide deep down in slimy mould.
To warm himself, a sparrow tries
to fluff his feathers twice his size.
The wind moans round like the Banshee.
Winter is here. It’s dark at three.
Bid summer days a long farewell.
The sky is mourning, toll the bell.
Joan Sheridan Smith
(Note also sonnet form)
After the Wet, Wet Summer
I want to start a Focus Group. I trust
You’ll join. The first requirement is a Must
You Must be filled with Fire and Righteous Zeal
To Right all Wrongs but chiefly, you must feel
That, in our proudly Democratic State,
The things and folks we say we rightly hate
Are maybe worthy of a little love?
The Bard said Mercy droppeth from above
As gentle rain from Heaven. I like rain.
My Focus Group will, too. I must explain.
Let’s Hug a Hoodie - let’s Embrace a Thug.
Protect Me: I’m a fearful Garden Slug.
Josie Falla
All good examples of couplets. Thank you everyone.
Development
Here at poetry at laterlife we will be continuing our series of
verse forms. There is no hard and fast order with this agenda so if
there is anything you are particularly interested in, just drop me a
line. Also forthcoming will be themed competitions with various
awards and, subject to demand, our own anthologies. Although it is
well in advance, one scheme is to publish an anthology prior to
Christmas to give personal gift opportunities. Details of this will
be forthcoming shortly.
Contact
Please send submissions, comments, queries to me at:
POETRY
AT LATERLIFE
ensuring that you use pal as part of the email heading.
If you would like to receive details of Reach poetry magazine, The
Dawntreader literary magazine or current Indigo Dreams Press poetry
competitions
please email with specific interest to:
INDIGO DREAMS PRESS
Good luck with your creativity and I look forward to welcoming you
as a laterlife poet.
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