It’s the last MTB of May and to some of us in the Northern hemisphere that means summer is just around the corner although where we draw the line between seasons depends on whether we define it by the meteorological or by the astronomical classification.
Cynthia Hogue’s poem (“to label something something”) touches wryly on definition:
“There was an ancient well-site beneath the labyrinth
I did not reach, the part underground,
labelled (what else?) The Crypt.
But labels always hide something
about what they seem to define.
They set the thing apart
without disclosing why.
Alive costs a pretty penny
to see The Crypt now.”
And in her poem “The Meadow Views: Sword and Symbolic History” Laura Da also tackles definition:
The word meadow’s English etymology
precedes the dissolution of the monasteries
and the routine cadastral measurement of land.
So it leaves a soft cast in the throat,
a taste of Edenic green in its syllables…
The elk press, slow and deliberate,
until the meadow is defined,
a rippling frontier
between their calves
hidden in the marsh grass…” [more]
A fundamental element in our art is the lyrical line which applies to painters as much as to poets and is defined in much the same way although rendered so very differently in outcome:
“lyrical lines are…used to convey emotion, movement, and energy…characterized by their fluid, expressive, and dynamic quality” [source]
And so for today’s MTB prompt we are taking a lyrical line and defining it word by word in an acrostic:
1. Choose one of these lines from that most lyrical poet, Dylan Thomas:
- How time has ticked a heaven round the stars.
- I write on these spindrift pages
- This sandgrain day in the bent bay’s grave
- Do not go gentle into that good night
- Tells with silence the last light breaking
OR take a favourite line from your own poetry (and link or reference it)
2. Write as acrostic each word, alongside its defining characteristics – this could be any style you choose e.g. an American sentence; a haiku, a triplet etc…
Guidelines. use dictionary, thesaurus etc but loosen up the exactitude of the definition– let your imagination wander through each meaning, by word association, by sound, by interpretation, by what it means to you. or even create your own definition.
Hint: Even the smallest, commonest words can be pondered upon and that is the point of it all – to sharpen our awareness of the tools of our trade!!
Here is an example I wrote last year – Defining Moments
Once you have written and posted your poem, according to the guidelines above, do add it to Mr Linky below then go visiting and reading other contributors as that is half the fun of our dVerse gatherings.
Please also TAG dVerse in your post, or include a link at the end of your poem that leads readers back to this dVerse prompt
[N.B. Mr Linky closes Saturday 3 p.m. EST]
dVerse 