The Meeting of Stream and Sea

A stream went dancing,
Glinting and glancing
Down to a deeply scooped bay,
Where waves ebbed and swelled
And fishermen dwelled
In cottages by the quay.

For homecoming skiffs,
On top of high cliffs,
Perched a lighthouse tall and proud
Above sea stacks, waves,
And dark granite caves
Carved out by storms wild and loud.

The stream reached the edge,
Where land met with sedge,
And danced on the windswept shore.
Freshwater and brine
Touched and combined:
The stream went dancing no more.

© Kim M. Russell, 2016

the-meeting-of-stream-and-sea

Image found on BT.com

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar: The Alouette

Tonight, Gayle is our host and she has introduced us to a form called the Alouette, which was created by author, Jan Turner. It consists of two or more stanzas of 6 lines each (sestets) with the following set rules:

Syllables/Meter: 5, 5, 7, 5, 5, 7
Rhyme Scheme: a, a, b, c, c, b

The name is a French word meaning ‘skylark’ or larks that fly high.  The word ‘alouette’ can also mean a children’s song (usually sung in a group), and is reminiscent of the style of short lines used for their lyrics. Preference for the meter accent is on the third syllable of each line but Gayle won’t hold us to it.

31 thoughts on “The Meeting of Stream and Sea”

  1. What a beautiful alouette, Kim. I love the scenery that you captured here…all the sights that the stream dances by on the way to the sea. And I like how the stream becomes part of the sea with no more dancing. Excellent!

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    1. I couldn’t find a photo that matched my imagination, with the quay, fishermen’s cottages, boats, etc all together. I wasn’t sure if I should have just left it to the imagination but I feel better about it after reading your comment, Kathy. Thank you 😊

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    1. Thank you, Jane. I feel more at ease with a bit of a rhythm. It’s worth trying things you’re not so comfortable with – it feeds into the poetry you write in your comfort zone and makes it all the richer. It doesn’t even have to be in the whole poem. One I wrote recently started tentatively, with no rhyme at all, and then moved on to a more lyrical section, with rhythm and some rhyme to make it sound like someone discovering something wonderful and I think it worked quite well!

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      1. That’s a wonderful thing you found and you make a good argument to learn other forms. I have to take some time to understand a new form…and it seems that there are so many. Some I definitely enjoy…..and some I equate with algebra. LOL! This alouette threw me but shouldn’t. I can write sonnets with relative ease, but what I find is that it ‘changes’ my voice….this aa/bb/etc. form or whatever it is…haven’t written them for a while and I forget….so like Walt said: if you can do 14 lines….you can do 6. LOL! I must have not been holding my mouth right. Rhythm. It’s hard to sustain an even or good rhythm throughout a poem, especially a long one but it certainly is a foundation for a poem….especially free verse.

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      2. Sometimes I take a poem and reduce it to a haiku or tanka and sometimes I take a haiku or tanka and develop it into a different form. You’d be surprised how the perspective changes.

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