Still Embraced by Summer

this summer’s overtopped itself
with fern and willowherb
below a tree
a grassy lea
with fern and willowherb

it’s hard to find the perfect verb
at least it is for me 
when winter comes
and no bees hum
at least it is for me

most summer’s overdressed in green
and days are always warm
with golden wealth
we toast our health
and days are always warm

I pick my way through berried thorns
humming to myself
as sun-kissed leaves
fall from the trees
humming to myself

Kim M. Russell, 20th October 2022

On this ‘National Day on Writing’, Laura is hosting dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar. She asks us to face the page and begin… I really enjoyed the poem by Francisco X. Alarcón, ‘The Blank White Page’.

The poetic form we are working on today is The Roundabout – a twenty-line poem attributed to David Edwards: “a metered stanzaic form with a simple but unusual premise that the rhyme scheme should come full circle”.

The rules and structure look complicated, but Laura has given us a nice example to help us write four quintains (five-line stanzas) for a total of twenty lines, with iambic meter throughout and the lines having 4;3;2;2;3 feet respectively; not forgetting that line five repeats line two, and the rhyme scheme is aBccB bCddC cDaaD dAbbA.

21 thoughts on “Still Embraced by Summer”

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