If you are up for the challenge, here’s your STRETCH & STRENGTHEN EXERCISE!
LEVEL 1
TOPIC: Misfits: How it feels when you don’t belong
LEVEL 2
WORD LIST:
- Prim – neat, formal
- Eschew – avoid
- Tell – disclose, reveal
LEVEL 3
Write it as a ghazal.
A ghazal is an old Arabic poetry form consisting of at least ten lines, but no more than thirty, all written in two-line stanzas called couplets. The first two lines of a ghazal end with the same word, but the words just preceding the last lines will rhyme. From this point on, the second line of each couplet will have the same last word, and the word just before it will rhyme with the others.
Ghazals are traditionally a poem of love and longing, but they can be written about any feeling or idea. Here’s an excerpt from a ghazal poem, the first stanzas of “Ghazal of the Better-Unbegun” by Heather McHugh:
“Too volatile, am I? too voluble? too much a word-person?
I blame the soup: I’m a primordially stirred person.
Two pronouns and a vehicle was Icarus with wings.
The apparatus of his selves made an absurd person.
The sound I make is sympathy’s: sad dogs are tied afar.
But howling I become an ever more unheard person.”
Submit your poem to RNCPoetry@gmail.com for consideration for publication in this year’s Rhyme N Chatt Poetry Anthology. Also, consider sharing your poem at an upcoming RNC open mic session!
PoeticOut!
“Changing Lives One Rhyme At A Time”
Rhyme N Chatt Interactive Poetry Organization 
Urgency paid no mind to red light
Like deer paralyzed by head light
Told to eschew engagement, yet treasures did tell
Of one’s thirst and need to bathe in unsure spread light
Only to end up surrounded by an unfriendly darkness
Cold, distant, afraid, from corner huddled, I pled light
Vision only cleared when faced with truth, scales fell from eyes,
Taken aback, blinded by the newly shed light.
Alone, I now walk prim, held by breezes, covered by sky,
Cleansed by rain, and lips kissed only by sun’s sacred light.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Awkward”
On the way downtown..my sunflower seeds a plastic cup to spit in.
Wanting to eschew being in the crowd maybe I should just sit in
This is a prime black tie event..it’ll be crowded
I feel so awkward..let’s go where’s the car get in..
Already headed my way..I hope the just pass on by..
I hope they couldn’t tell, I was sweating a social misfit who just doesn’t fit in
6ne1
LikeLike
Awkward”
On the way downtown..my sunflower seeds a plastic cup to spit in.
Wanting to eschew being in the crowd maybe I should just sit in
The host is prim..another black tie event..it’ll be crowded
I feel so awkward..let’s go where’s the car get in..
Already headed my way..I hope they just pass on by..
I hope they couldn’t tell, I was sweating..a social misfit who just doesn’t fit in.
6ne1
LikeLike
Loveless – A Ghazal
Breaking the shackles in my dreams seeing this rich land with passion and love,
In my awakened state the feeling still lingered as I reached out for a little caring love.
They call it the land of the free and the wonderful home of opportunities,
How willing would the prim Lady Liberty be as I reached out for her nurturing love.
As a person who is used to abusing his body to quench my family’s thirst,
I was praying my work, worth, and self would be respected with a little admiring love.
I persisted and kept trying to reach out for the warmth of the people,
But instead, was left cold as my advances made them feel like cursing love.
Every step of the way I could tell my being equated to a financial nonentity,
Leading me to question if there was a heart or soul capable of nursing love.
I find myself now, back home, tending my bruises from the new shackles on me,
After being eschewed as an undocumented alien unworthy of feeling love.
This is my future, in a place that does not want me living at home,
And an outcast in a country that refuses to recognize me and my dying love.
LikeLike