Greetings, poets, and welcome! I’m Dora of Dreams from a Pilgrimage, your host for poetics where we ritually sharpen our creative tools and carve out a poetic space each week to take on a new challenge. Speaking of rituals, perhaps you follow one or two in obeisance to good fortune and Lady Luck?

Charles Dickens, for one, believed that sleeping facing north helped his creativity. Richard Burton wouldn’t act without red socks on. Pablo Picasso apparently “would not throw away his old clothes, hair trimmings, or fingernail clippings for fear it would mean losing part of his ‘essence.’” Steve Jobs was not only known for walking barefoot on company grounds and always wearing the same black turtleneck and jeans, but he would bathe his feet in the toilet water of the Apple restrooms to de-stress, according to his authorized biography by Walter Isaacson. Serena Williams tied her shoelaces the exact same way and reportedly wore the same pair of socks during a tournament run.

But more appropriate to our time of year, June is the quintessential propitious month for a most common ritual, weddings. The month itself is named after Juno, the Roman goddess of marriage, home, and childbirth. The story goes that a couple married in June can expect to be under Juno’s protection and enjoy prosperity and happiness, staving off all manner of bad luck. Then there’s fortune tellers who conduct a booming business in forecasting the best wedding dates, even to the time of day, by casting cards, runes, bones, beads, or stones, and studying tea leaves and astronomical charts.

And if they don’t want to barter with a middle-man, a bride and groom can take matters into their own hands by partaking of auspicious customs that can ward off bad luck, like the popular one formalized in this familiar Victorian rhyme:

Something old, something new
Something borrowed, something blue
And a sixpence in her shoe.

Variations on the rhyme include “your” instead of “her” or “silver” before “sixpence,” or specify the coin being placed in the left shoe.

In keeping with this practice, brides and grooms carry a coin at the marriage ceremony or wear lucky tokens listed in the rhyme. According to one folklorist, “the ‘something blue’ takes . . . usually the form of a garter, an article of dress which plays an important part in some wedding rites, as, for instance, in the old custom of plucking off the garter of the bride. ‘The something old’ and ‘something blue’ are devices to baffle the Evil Eye. The usual effect on the bride of the Evil Eye is to render her barren, and this is obviated by wearing ‘something borrowed’, which should properly be the undergarment of some woman who has been blessed with children: the clothes communicate fertility to the bride.”(TillyOnline)

Of course, what makes this custom popular today is perhaps more family tradition and sentiment than superstition. As decrees that oracle of fashion, Vogue: “While the tradition is meant to bring about good fortune to a couple as they tie the knot, it’s also a fun opportunity to get creative with how you style your wedding look. Here, you can bring more sentimentality into your ensemble by wearing borrowed pieces from friends and family members, have some fun with vintage pieces as your something old, and add a touch of color to clean bridal white with your something blue.”

So let’s play with this bit of rhyming folklore and see where it takes us. Your challenge? Pick one of the following two options:

1) Use one (or more) of the five phrases in the Victorian rhyme either as a title for your poem or within your poem. You can write about marriage or not. The subject of the poem is wholly up to you.
OR
2) Riff off this rhyme. Let it take you wherever it takes you, from the romantic and sentimental to the fantastic or macabre. What charms or rites, humorous or serious, would you include for a particular occasion’s success (or failure)? What ritual or recipe for good fortune, peace, or harmony? For writing? Just put it in a poem, narrative, lyrical, or anything in between. And good luck!

New to dVerse? Here’s how to join in:
* Write a poem in response to the challenge.
* Publish your poem on your blog and link back to this post.
* Enter your name and the url to your post to Mr. Linky below.
* Read and comment on your fellow poets’ work –- and enjoy!

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