6 Can I Have This Dance?: We Feel So Good

Title:  Reunited
Artist:  Peaches & Herb
Album:  The Best of Peaches & Herb
Genre:  R&B/Soul

We Feel So Good

I let you go before I realized
we were pieces of the same puzzle;
so perfectly we fit together.

I long to once again be close to you,
feel the contours of your smooth curves
brush up against my own.

You are the dream
I never knew I wanted--needed--
until you were gone.

Our foolishness has passed
and now all I wish for is you
to love me and hold me tight.

5 JERK

I usually put my ramblings at the end, but....

An Aside:  So here again is what happens when Three Word Wednesday [3WW=>clench(ed), faint, prod] meets the last Wednesday of the month...a clarity pyramid.  I got stuck on the idea of using prod like a cattle prod; it took quite some effort with a lot of scribblings and extra lines with syllables that didn't fit right, and in the end while I kept some of the ideas that blossomed from this I ended up not using prod in that manner.  

---

JERK

spasm

convulsion

the smell of burnt hair

was faint as electro-

shocks coursed through his clenched body

"prod into a violent fit."

---

An(other) Aside:  This is an example where multi-syllable words take a bit away from the visual "pyramid-ness" of this form.

16 Last Call: Side Effects -- Depression Hurts

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Side Effects -- Depression Hurts
                         (Nothing Can Help--Save a Coin Toss I'm Not Willing to Call)

with every breath of air, I suffocate;
there's no magic bottle of air for me,
just a bottle full of pills
                            of pills.

pills promising paradise
      where lungs are free to inhale unhindered
                               or
one where there's no need for them to function at all.

so I opt to suffocate--
to feel my lungs seared with each gulp of air,
for I fear breathing just as much
as death.

---

An Aside:  Okay, so after the first line came to me (having recently watched the Lorax), the idea of air being bottled seemed like a natural line.  From there...well there is no magic bottle of air, but there are bottles of pills.  I have seen the commercial for the drug (I'm sure I don't need to tell you which one) and have always found listening to the disclaimer, "if...., contact your doctor immediately."  My favorite side effect (if you didn't figure it out from above) for an anti-depressant is that it may increase suicidal thoughts and desires.

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This is my offerings for this week's dVerse Poets Pub OpenLinkNight. If you get a chance, check out all of the talented poets who have stepped up into the spotlight.

1 Q Series: Why Poetry? -- Q3

Welcome to the third and final installment of the first Q Series, aptly named Poetry. (For more information on the Q Series, see information located at the end of this post.) Over the course of three Monday's--today being the second--I will be exploring three questions about poetry and myself. They are as follows:
Why do I write poetry?
Why do I like writing form (poetry)?
Why do I prefer free verse (poetry)?

So with out further ado...

So alas we arrive at the final question:  Why do I prefer writing free verse?  What about free verse calls to me more so than any other form out there?  It's freeing!  Sorry, I couldn't help myself.  In all honesty I started writing in free verse because I didn't really know much else.  Sure, like most grade school children, I learned haiku, diamante, and acrostic.  Might I have learned more than that in school--sure, but those were the ones we were taught to write.  

Truth be told, knowing such little form (prior to ...dodta...) I wouldn't have really even known what classified my writing as free verse except for the fact that I did not conform to any particular number of lines or syllable, nor did I care if rhyme made its way into my verse.  And to be completely honest I had no idea what meter really was so you can bet that never had any impact on my verse.

The inner workings of my brain...

As I have mentioned before, my left-brain (which is ever so slightly more dominant) should prefer the structure of non-free verse.  But as I have also stated, part of why I write is to break away from that half of my brain.  Such a structured and logical being can be quite exhausting.  Maybe part of that is because I have a relatively balanced brain.  Sometimes, I have even wondered if I wasn't always more right-brained, but in order to preserve my sanity forced my left-brain to take more of a role.  

The irrational thoughts...

The key is 'irrational'.  When it comes to expelling the emotions, fears, and anxieties that bind me, there is no controlling the shape they take.  They just pour like a mad person rambling on and on and on.  They don't pause to think about fitting to a specific number of syllables or hitting a predetermined meter.  Honestly, I just want to get them out and get them out as quickly as possible...sort of like ripping off a bandage.

The truth about "free" verse...

I suppose it is important to understand the definition of "free verse" in order to decide if that is in fact what I prefer.  Based on what I've read (free of meter, unrestricted in line number/length and rhyme), I'd say free verse is indeed what I write.  The thing is I'm not sure that "free verse" is ever really free, at least not for me.  If I were to look back over my writings I can find numerous poems that incorporate some form of structure.  I have found that I quite enjoy line repetition; I like linking stanzas by creating a relationship between how respective lines start.  

There are definitely little nuances that I can see in my writing that while "free" are structured.  Take for instance the poem below.  Each stanza contains the same number of lines, the first line in each is only two words which includes a noun and a descriptor of the noun; the second lines describe an action of the noun; the third lines all start with 'a' and compare the noun to something else (some form of figurative language, I was never really good at tell the different kinds); all forth lines end with "raging emotions"; and the final lines all begin with "longing to."  

Methods to Soothe Raging Emotions

gritted teeth
hold tears at bay
a flimsy dam of sticks
bombarded by raging emotions
longing to pour freely

rioting music
course throughout
a volatile tidal wave
melding with raging emotions
longing to find rhythm

breath moves
slowly in, slowly out
a soft gentle breeze
releases the raging emotions
longing to suffocate

Another example:

Holding Me Tight

Imagination walks with me down the lonely road
a constant friend I lean upon time and time again
opening up a world to me that I cannot find here

Imagination saves me from all that troubles
a deadly weapon I wield over and over again
killing the fear and anxiety that invades me here

Imagination holds me tightly on those lonely nights
a warm body I wrap myself with again and again
shielding me safely in arms that I am unable to find here

These are just two example of where "free" is only accurate in the sense that there is no defined meter, syllable count, and/or rhyme.

0 Time Capsule: --Blooming

Title:  --Blooming
Date:  11/21/97 and 02/01/98
Setting:  Senior year of college
Form:  Shape Poetry

Notes:  This was my first attempt at writing within the confines of a shape.  I think since, I have only done so on one other occasion.  It came out okay, I guess.

Artifact I:  First attempt at construction.  (I believe aside from drawing a horrible set of petals, I moved the position of the words.)

Artifact II:  Second and final construction of poem.