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Hello Poets – did you know that August 25th is not only ‘Banana Split Day’ but also ‘Kiss and Make Up’ day (who makes up these ascriptions)? Frivolous they may be, though kissing is always a well-primed topic for poetry, whatever prompts it:

Michael Drayton’s Idea 61 however gives certainty that there will be no making up:

“Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part.
Nay, I have done, you get no more of me;
And I am glad, yea glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free.
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain…“

As viewer of Rodin’s sculpture, Neil Carpathios’ poem gives analysis to “The Kiss”

“By freezing passion at its blossoming
perhaps Rodin knew he challenged
Sophocles who said as lover you want
ice to be ice yet not melt
in your hands. How stone,
implying permanence, might let us believe,
a moment, the seated figures are beyond the leaf
that cannot keep from letting go the branch,
beyond even stupidly purpling grapes
that do not understand the process
by which they darken; darken nevertheless.”

Whilst Siegfried Sassoon gives us the kiss of death in his “The Kiss”

“ To these I turn, in these I trust—
Brother Lead and Sister Steel.
To his blind power I make appeal,
I guard her beauty clean from rust….

Sweet Sister, grant your soldier this:
That in good fury he may feel
The body where he sets his heel
Quail from your downward darting kiss”

And from the above, I’m taking some lines as prompts for our poems

  • Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part
  • Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows
  • By freezing passion at its blossoming
  • I guard her beauty clean from rust
  • Quail from your downward darting kiss

Choose ONE of the above lines and write a stanza(s) taking each word as the start of each successive line i.e. the first word begins the first line, the second begins the second and so on. Basically, we are taking the horizontal line and making it vertical- its vaguely acrostic and I’m not sure if this form has a given name.

Rules: You must keep the same sequence though you may reverse it
Your poem should preferably  be at least 2 stanzas long
Rhyme is optional but try to stick to the meter of your chosen line

And for those of you who like an extra challenge
Your chosen line will determine a stanza of either  6, 7, 8 or 10 lines which gives you the options of choosing a poetry form to match – see  the Poetry Forms Index

Suggestions: You might want to make it a ‘kiss and make-up’ poem given the day!

Once you have published your poem, add it to the Mr Linky below. Then go visiting other contributors  as that is half the enjoyment of our dVerse gatherings.