week 118 ~ if your plate falls off the table

if your plate falls off the table
gather up the pieces one could
be interesting if you should
lose your music you’re still able
to play because your head is full
of notes and if fate blows a hole
in your dreams don’t think someone stole
the future think what’s next a pure
heart will carry you on though you’re
still picking shrapnel from your soul

Written by mairmusic

January 13, 2011 at 9:03 am

Posted in decima, January

34 Responses

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I sing this song when i lose some work these days, i no longer brood but pick up a fresh page and start writing it in a new way :)

trisha

January 13, 2011 at 9:36 am

Reply
- Yes, even if the old path was the best ever, when it disappears there will still be another, and who knows if it will prove interesting unless you move ahead.
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 13, 2011 at 9:51 am
  
  Reply
Cute poem! Festive! Great photo, too. Blessings…

Carol Ann Hoel

January 13, 2011 at 9:46 am

Reply
- Thanks, Carol!
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 13, 2011 at 9:48 am
  
  Reply
[…] Celebrating A Year: https://mairmusic.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/week-118-if-your-plate-falls-off-the-table/ […]

Agreement 4 Thursday Poets Rally Week 37 Participants | Promising Poets' Parking Lot

January 13, 2011 at 10:22 am

Reply
love the rhythms,
what a fun read.
Happy Rally…
Glad to see you in,
;)

Jingle

January 13, 2011 at 10:36 am

Reply
- Always happy to be here!
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 13, 2011 at 1:01 pm
  
  Reply
“be interesting if you should lose your music”?
interesting, and also a big nightmare.
oops, but pardon me, i gotta go pick some shrapnel.
(very nice images!)

Marian

January 13, 2011 at 2:06 pm

Reply
- not so big…
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 13, 2011 at 2:23 pm
  
  Reply
Oooo, I like! ‘…picking shrapnel from your soul…’
I’m ducking pieces of plate!

kolembo

January 13, 2011 at 2:28 pm

Reply
- they won’t hurt you, honest.
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 13, 2011 at 3:07 pm
  
  Reply
thats a beautiful write :D and a lovely capture

Rajlakshmi

January 13, 2011 at 3:31 pm

Reply
- thanks for enjoying it
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 13, 2011 at 4:01 pm
  
  Reply
I, too, love the “picking shrapnel from your soul” line. You look very happy – in your element, in your soul’s home.

Hope your friends were/are okay.

souldipper

January 13, 2011 at 3:45 pm

Reply
- Yes they are, thank you. And I don’t exactly know where I am just now, but it has got me thinking, never a bad thing.
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 13, 2011 at 4:06 pm
  
  Reply
Ah..I love the part about “think what’s next” so easy for one to sit and stew about the past.

slpmartin

January 13, 2011 at 3:54 pm

Reply
- thanks, Charles– I try to keep that my modus operandi!
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 13, 2011 at 4:08 pm
  
  Reply
OMW…scrapnel from your soul…never heard that before…it is just so beautiful!! Really enjoyed this. oxo

buttercup600

January 13, 2011 at 11:25 pm

Reply
- Thanks Ms B– always a treat to have you in the house.
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 14, 2011 at 7:09 am
  
  Reply
hope all is well there!

trisha

January 14, 2011 at 11:25 am

Reply
- Yes, just introspecting…
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 14, 2011 at 12:50 pm
  
  Reply
“if fate blows a hole
in your dreams don’t think someone stole
the future”

I like this line…this is an awesome and inspirational write…very timely for me. Thank you.

David (1MereMortal)

January 14, 2011 at 11:30 am

Reply
- Good luck with your hole repair!
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 14, 2011 at 12:50 pm
  
  Reply
I love this mentality. It reminds me of how I was raised…not to wallow, but to move on…oh well about the plate, perhaps it was a good laugh at least….

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

January 14, 2011 at 12:32 pm

Reply
- An interesting shape to move ahead holding.
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 14, 2011 at 12:49 pm
  
  Reply
thank you for sharing this mair.. congrats to you on your perfect poet award week 37… :)

fiveloaf

January 16, 2011 at 10:29 am

Reply
- I am glad you appreciated it– thanks!
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 16, 2011 at 5:53 pm
  
  Reply
Never lose sight of the good thinks, very nice! Thanks :)

http://lynnaima.wordpress.com/

Life: Between the lines

January 16, 2011 at 3:53 pm

Reply
- Thank YOU for reading.
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 16, 2011 at 5:50 pm
  
  Reply
I love the opening line of this one–so many places you could take it. And “shrapnel” in the last line brought me back to that opening image, with the pieces of a ceramic plate as the shrapnel. Thanks for sharing this for the rally!

Julie Laing

January 18, 2011 at 1:27 pm

Reply
- Interesting perspective– thanks!
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 19, 2011 at 6:36 am
  
  Reply
such true words…i can identify with the imagery so well!

Amrita Ghosh

January 22, 2011 at 3:27 pm

Reply
- Thanks for reading!
  
  mairmusic
  
  January 22, 2011 at 7:45 pm
  
  Reply
[…] Celebrating A Year: https://mairmusic.wordpress.com/2011/01/13/week-118-if-your-plate-falls-off-the-table/ […]

Extraordinary Poetry Is Here, Thank You!!!! | Promising Poets' Parking Lot

January 25, 2011 at 4:15 pm

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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 made a plan, 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 take a photo and record a thought. Every week I write a poem and post a photograph of myself in the context of my life. i don't post every day, but I maintain the schedule of each series and post as often as I can. Before I began I wrote, "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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“Years 2 – 6” — so what’s changed?

I decided to continue on after a year, because this document had become a treasured reflective spot in my life. There are some changes in "Year 2," expanding options for my weekly poem beyond sonnet to add some other forms-- rondeau or triolet, villanelle. I added the decima in late January 2010, and the pantoum in August. Definitions of each form appear below. I continue to post a photo daily, but 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. For Year 3 I tried 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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