New Challenge

The poetry challenge ended April 30. I took the day off from poetry yesterday to let my brain rest and to do some real life stuff. OK, so poetry is real life in a way. This morning, before I was fully awake, (eyes open, no one home) I composed a very short one.

dogwoods
hiding behind grey morning
mist

A few weeks ago my challenge called for a haiku or senryu. Well, to be honest I had no idea what a senryu was and figured while I was at it, it would be a good idea to brush up on haiku form. What I learned was:
a) haiku should mention (or reference) season
b) while traditional haiku is 17 syllables, modern can be shorter
c) haiku is only about nature
d) senryu looks a lot like haiku
e) senryu is about human things (elegant turn of phrase, I know *grins*)
f) there can be a hybridization of senryu / haiku

So the above poem actually is haiku of the modern sort.

Anyway, I got to thinking that now my daily prompts are over I should work my way through some poetry forms. Maybe spend a day on something easy and a week or more working through some of the difficult ones. I had to write three form poems for the challenge, haiku, villanelle, and sestina. Of those the sestina was definitely the hardest. A real head banger, possibly the worst poem I've ever written. I'm just saying, be glad I didn't post it to this blog. hehe

So, I headed over to Shadow Poetry which may not be the greatest authority on writing form poetry but is a nice resource and easy to navigate. And I was thinking I would just take the forms in alphebetic order but the first form is Acrostic and that is followed by Ballad. Sheesh. Oh well. Time to suck it up I guess.

RAINING
Racing from the car to
Arrive frosted
In glittering diamonds.
Now I am awash,
Imbued, in
Nature's
Glorious bling.

DOGWOODS

During Spring's early flush
Of newly warm days and
Grandiose vivid color,
We pause to admire the
Opalescent clouds
Of sun washed
Dogwoods glowing
Silent at forest edge.

OK so now you can see why I really hate these things. I really don't want to spend a week on them. Now maybe this means I should but nope, not going there.