week 172 ~ swing out over the vast expanse

swing out over the vast expanse
of new life far below the rope
taunt in your nervous hands with hope
trailing behind at a distance
admire the outstretched brilliance
as you reach the end of the arc
and slip slowly backward the dark
waiting to catch you when you fall
to earth and you’re home as if all
the mystery should leave no mark

Written by mairmusic

January 28, 2012 at 10:45 am

Posted in decima, January

Tagged with poetry

11 Responses

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What a fine expression of those emotions one feels when suspended in time…brilliant write.

slpmartin

January 28, 2012 at 1:04 pm

Reply
- Thanks, Charles! Your words mean alot.
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 28, 2012 at 6:23 pm
  
  Reply
The temptation to ‘sit it out’ is sometimes so strong but, there is only one way to get through life and that’s to live it. This says it all so much more eloquently.

Daydreamertoo

January 28, 2012 at 6:59 pm

Reply
- Thanks. I always find jumping far easier than sitting.
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 28, 2012 at 7:03 pm
  
  Reply
beautiful expressions…

Summer Rain

January 30, 2012 at 2:58 pm

Reply
- thanks, my friend!
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 31, 2012 at 12:51 am
  
  Reply
in chasing that new life there is def risk…and it will leave marks…but in that there is living…

brian miller

January 31, 2012 at 12:08 pm

Reply
- yes, true, my friend.
  
  mairmusic
  
  February 2, 2012 at 3:41 pm
  
  Reply
sweet and wild imagery.

Happy Rally.

:)

Natalie Sunflowers

February 1, 2012 at 11:07 pm

Reply
I enjoyed reading this and I must admit that it felt like it was all about me. Very well done. Be blessed.

http://kickinitwiththekids.wordpress.com/2012/01/30/garden-of-laughs/

elizena

February 4, 2012 at 9:34 pm

Reply
- Glad it reads universally for others too.
  
  mairmusic
  
  February 6, 2012 at 3:16 pm
  
  Reply

Who am I?

A mandolinist, a bandolimist, a writer, a photographer, a wannabe Brasileira. Check my webpage for information on my music and my sometimes life in Rio.

What is this?

I have made a plan for this year, beginning on my birthday- October 16, 2008 - to keep creativity in focus in my daily life, spontaneously, reflectively, and with intention, by setting in motion several series of small events. Every day I will take a photo and record a thought. Every week I will write a sonnet and photograph myself in the context of my life. And I will post it all here. Maybe not every day, but I will maintain the schedule of each series and post as often as I can. I think this will be fun, may be interesting, and will result in a considered year of small moments stolen from a busy life and strung together to make... who knows? At this point it's just a plan. Wish me luck~ here goes!

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“Year 2″ begins– so what’s changing?

I have completed a year of this blog-- amazing! And I've decided to continue on, because this document has become a treasured reflective spot in my life. There will be some changes for "Year 2," beginning on my birthday, October 16, 2009. I'll expand the options for my weekly poem beyond sonnet to add some other forms-- rondeau or triolet, possibly villanelle. I just added the decima in late January. And in August I am adding the pantoum. Definitions will appear below as the forms enter this page. I'll continue to post a photo daily, but I may post several pictures taken on one day over the course of a week if I have an interesting series. I may even post an old photo if I'm writing about something I'm thinking back to. I'll continue to have fun with this project & I hope you will too. Thanks for reading!

“Year 3″

For Year 3 I tried some changes, including other people in the self-portraits that accompany my poems, adding "Musical Sundays" to post mp3s of my music, but these petered out in a few months. This is simply a place for my daily thoughts & photos, and weekly poems in the forms I love. Onward...!

The material on these pages belongs to me

Everything published here was created especially for this project and is owned and copyright by me. When the project is complete I may do something concrete with some of it. So enjoy, but please, if you want to share more than a quote or two send people here, don't displace my work from its context or authorship.

What’s a sonnet?

A sonnet is a 14-line iambic pentameter poem with a unique and characteristic rhyme scheme. They have been written in Europe and England for centuries, and usually combine viewpoint and reflection in a personal yet universal way. I call mine blank-verse sonnets and try for a simple casual scan that observes yet obscures the form. Inspirations are the American sonnets of e. e. cummings and Edna "Vince" Millay.

What’s a villanelle?

A villanelle is an early French form with 19 lines using only 2 rhymes, traditionally broken into 6 verses. It's kind of obsessive, with lines 1 & 3 repeating alternately, the 4th time as lines 18 & 19. The lines can be any length, but don't seem to vary within a poem, and subjects include love, loss and challenge. Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Bishop and Sylvia Plath all wrote them, and from the minute I typed villanelle in "Year 2 begins" I was itching to try it out because I've never written one. My first appear in Weeks 53 & 56. I've run some verses together, as many modern writers have done, for continuity and a cleaner line.

What’s a rondeau?

A rondeau is a form of medieval poetry that pre-dates the villanelle and also uses only 2 rhymes. The earliest come from an 8-line song form with 2 lines of music that repeat-- line 1 as 4 & 7, and line 2 as 8, rhyming the rest in a characteristic pattern. The result is a sturdy little poem that makes its point thoughtfully, and less obsessively than the villanelle, perhaps because the generating couplet is unrhymed, and the lines don't need to be the same length, just able to be sung or spoken in the same amount of time. The first ones appear in weeks 55 & 57. Sometimes the poetic form, sans music, is called a triolet.

What’s a decima?

A decima is an early 10-line Spanish poetic form, with a distinct break after the first 4. It uses an 8-syllable line and has an unusual but characteristic rhyme scheme. It's also a 19th-century form of improvised Cuban song so I thought it would work well in this blog format. My first appear in weeks 66 & 69.

What’s a pantoum?

A Malaysian form from the 15th century-- how exotic! It's a series of quatrains, w/ lines 2 & 4 repeating as lines 1 & 3 in the next. The last quatrain also uses lines 1 & 3 from the first quatrain, with the first line ending the poem. So every line is used twice. My first one is week 95.

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