Here’s wishing you a happy Monday, dVerse poets, and welcome to the pub, which is now open! It’s Kim from Writing in North Norfolk bringing you the Quadrille, when we take any meaning or form of one word and transform it into 44 poetic words. Today, I want you to write a poem of exactly 44 words (not counting your title), including the word SLIVER.

The noun sliver, according to the dictionary, means:  a narrow, thin or sharp piece of something, usually broken, cut or split off something larger: ‘The glass smashed into slivers’, ‘a sliver of moon’, or ‘Cut me a sliver of cheese, please’. It can also be a strip of loose untwisted textile fibres produced by carding. The verb sliver means to cut (something, especially food) into small, thin pieces, for example, ‘sliver the blanched almonds, chop the pistachios, and set them aside’, and to convert (textile fibres) into slivers, for example, ‘the fibres are combed or carded, then slivered and spun into yarn’.

Image by Jordan Steranka on Unsplash

The word sliver has its origins in late Middle English, from dialect slive, which means to cleave.

It was a sliver of ice in Kay’s heart that bound him to the Snow Queen in the Hans Christian Andersen story.

Image by Rudolf Koivu

 There was only one poem by a known poet that includes the word sliver, so our poems should fill the gap: Sick by Shel Silverstein (1930 – 1999).

Here’s how to Quadrille:

– Write a poem of exactly 44 words, including the word sliver.
– Put your poem on your blog and link back to this post.
– Link it up to our Mr. Linky.
– Visit other blogs. Enjoy some amazing poets. Comment. Come back later this week and write another one, and visit some more. Comment some more. Sliver as many quadrilles as you please. I’ll be reading all week.