A Whiffle of Geese

From the melting mist on a distant hill,
In a welter of water, there’s overhead whiffling.
Then from unknown skies, skeins of geese arrive,
twisting and turning, climbing and falling.

There’s a green wave of a distant hill,
It’s an ocean of grass where the breezes sing,
And from unknown skies skeins of geese arrive,
Twisting and turning, climbing and falling.

They have crossed over flounces of indigo water,
An incredible scent of autumn on wings:
From unknown skies skeins of geese arrive,
twisting and turning, climbing and falling.

There’s a whiffle of air on feathers as white
As the Arctic snow and the frost they bring,
And from unknown skies skeins of geese arrive,
Twisting and turning, climbing and falling.

Kim M. Russell, 23rd July 2026

This Thursday at the dVerse Poets Pub we are writing form with meter and rhythm with Björn.

He says meter and feet bring rhythm to a piece of poetry and make it possible to sing, especially a ballad, which was often how songs were known in the past. Many well-known songs we have today were written to melodies already known. He says “the topic was often newsworthy and published as broadside ballads. That way they could be sung for an audience and with a story to tell. A special subcategory are the so-called murder ballads telling stories of gruesome deaths and murders.”

He has shared a ballad he wrote a year ago as an example and highlighted in bold in the first stanza the words that create rhythm, illustrating 4 and 3 beats.

We could write our ballads purely with iambs, but we may choose any type of feet. Björn will give us extra points for writing with anapests. As for rhyme scheme we may either rhyme it as x-a-x-a or as a-b-a-b.

I was lost for a theme or story, and then I reworked a poem I wrote a while ago and turned it into a ballad.