From the window and in the confines
of the garden, I watch spring advance.
Willow buds and almost-blossoms dance
on the breeze, promising abundance
yet to come. High above in the heavens
are black smudges of distant ravens,
harbingers let loose among vernal festivities.
Stuck alone within these walls, but blessed
with flowers, hedgerows and trees,
the wider view of countryside is lost to me:
free-flying crested grebes sailing the reeds
and flocks of swans gathering in the fields.
Kim M. Russell, 26th March 2020
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar: Final Couplet, also linked to Poets and Storytellers United Writers’ Pantry
Frank is back at the bar, asking us to write poems with final couplets. He reminds us that a couplet is two similar lines of verse, in which both lines have the same meter, but they do not have to rhyme. I personally love rhyming couplets.
Frank says the poem need be no longer than a couplet or it could have anything else before the final couplet including free verse or a prose poem, s Shakespearean sonnet with a couplet at the end, a modified haibun, replacing the haiku with a couplet (or two American sentences or one American sentence split on two lines).
Examplesb include a couplet standing alone, by Alexander Pope, and a link to Gerald Stern’s ‘Box of Cigars’.
Sounds perfect
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A beautiful view you have! Yes you are blessed!
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Thank you, Mary!
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Nice description of nature from one’s window featured especially in those last two lines.
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The views in the last two lines are the ones I can’t see due to being isolated by the virus – only the birds can fly free and congregate at the moment.
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All those restrictions of view… I am amazed that we have come to this… it should be perfectly safe to go for a walk when no people are about. Yet your view is wonderful
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Thanks Björn. There is so much I’d like to see. Today I went outside of house and garden for a longer walk around the village football pitch opposite. There was no sound of humans except for one or two cars that passed by on the road, and not one person to be seen.
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A beautiful view! I love this line…
High above in the heavens
are black smudges of distant ravens
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Thank you, Dwight.
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It’s interesting how the things you can see and appreciate make you long for what you know is there but you can’t see. I wish we would all find the same sensitivity.
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I’m so glad you got that, Jane.😊
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🙂
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I, too, love those/black smudges of distant ravens/. So sad that even in a rural area, you still need to be so restricted.
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I got out for twenty minutes this afternoon to walk around the local foot all pitch!
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I like the amount of activity you are able to observe inside of your confinement. That slice of life brings hope.
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Thanks Lisa.
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You’re welcome.
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A lovely poem Kim. We are so blessed with nature taking us away from our problems of confinement. I would love to take a long walk though those fields 🙂
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Thank you, Christine! 😉
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You always put us in touch with nature, Kim…so needed right now. Thank you!
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Bless you, Bev. 😉
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kaykuala
free-flying crested grebes sailing the reeds
and flocks of swans gathering in the fields.
How lovely is the scene now that we are restricted in movements. Lovely narrative of the view, Kim!
Hank
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Thank you, Hank. I’m very lucky to have a view. People who live in cities often see only buildings.
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I like the casual rhyming in this , KIm…..advance, dance, abundance, heavens, ravens…and that’s a fine couplet at the end, hope it’s not too long before you can see that scene again! JIM
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Thank you, Jim. I like casual rhymes and couplets, I’m just watching Mojo (the smaller of our two cats) exploring a clump of daffodils by the back gate. :)l
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I can see those almost blossoms dancing. (K)
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They’re just outside my window, Kerfe.
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a delightful description of nature, may we all make the most of that connection now 🙂
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Thank you, Kate! 🙂
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my pleasure Kim 🙂
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A lovely poem, Kim. There’s a sense of peace, a restfulness (if we didn’t know what was going on). You are fortunate to have such a beautiful view.
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Thank you, Merril!
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You’re welcome!
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A beautiful evocation of Spring, with a lovely couplet at the end!
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Thanks Frank!
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My pleasure, Kim! 🙂
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I like the almost~blossoms that promise abundance
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Thanks Larry.
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I’m jealous of your view… time to get out of London!
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Not a good place to be at the moment. Up here, it’s much easier for people to keep the social distance but, from what I’ve read, not everyone does, and we’ve had second-hand coming up and acting like they’re o n holiday. The first week of self-isolation was hard, but this week was a little easier. We received news that one of my husband’s old band members, the bass guitarist, died this afternoon, but we don’t know the cause. It’s worrying.
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Oh dear , I’m so sorry to hear about the death. The self-isolation takes a while to get used to- I’m still trying😟
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May the hopefulness of Spring continue to carry us forward just as your poem does. Glad to hear you are staying safe.
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Thanks Ali!
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Even the willow buds and almost-blossoms,” are aware of what stirs within the ribcage 🙂 may we survive these difficult times. A most gorgeous poem, Kim! 💝
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Thanks Sana!😊
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Glorious sprin gto gladden our heart!!!
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Thank you, Vandana!
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“Flowers, hedgerows and trees…” sound so therapeutic and welcome especially nowadays.
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Oh they are, Hazel! Yesterday, I went for a walk around the local football pitch, which is opposite our house, and noticed blossoms in the blackthorn already, as well as a tree I couldn’t identify. Hope springs…
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If we changed countryside for city, these stanzas could’ve flown right out of my heart. I am completely isolated, but never alone. Not while I have my window, my garden, my camera, my ink… and the odd visiting bird.
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I look forward to seeing more of your photographs – and birds!
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Oh what a bliss Love how the buds and almost blossoms dance on the breeze. Nature never disappoints.
Here it pours down as it is autumn here
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Thank you, Marja. Yesterday we had alternate sleet and at shine. The corona virus seems to have affected the weather too!
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Even though you miss the wider view, it appears you can picture it very well from many previous occasions – and the near view is obviously lovely.
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I’ve added a walk around the village football pitch over the last few days, Rosemary, and can see a field beyond the hedge and an acquaintance’s garden. An expanded view!
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I can relate to you as each morning I walk along my yard. But I live in the desert, where quail and singing birds abound. Love your writing.
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Thank you kindly, Myrna.
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So well written that the reader was there at the scene viewing every word you wrote. What a beautfful read this is.
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Thank you so much, Robin!
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Suddenly the views we have – even splashes of green in concrete cities – are so precious!
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They are! I’m so fortunate to live in the countryside. Where I used to live in London looks bleak. I can’t understand people who are ignoring curfews and taking advantage of the situation to commit crimes.
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A restricted view but yet released by your words. “Willow buds and almost-blossoms” makes one anxious for spring to finally arrive.
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Thank you, Joel. I’ve been watching the deer eating daffodils.
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