new year | Celebrating a Year

Posts Tagged ‘new year’

week 636 ~ stop being who you were

stop being who you were
change into who you are
miracles won’t occur
stop being who you were
throw out the furniture
go buy a new guitar
stop being who you were
change into who you are

Written by mairmusic

January 11, 2021 at 1:39 pm

Posted in December, rondeau

Tagged with change, guitar, new year, poetry

week 429 ~ farewell 2016 you

with 2 comments

farewell 2016 you
don’t leave us better off happy
to see you go though what will be
is unknown still and scary to
kick you out loudly holler shoo
does give us some satisfaction
you took too many musician
composers left daft billionaires
to lead us as the future stares
down dreams at least we know you’re done

Written by mairmusic

December 31, 2016 at 3:04 pm

Posted in December, decima

Tagged with 2016, billionaires, future, hope, loss, love, musicians, new year, poetry

week 378 ~ here together happily

with 2 comments

here together happily
we will close this old year down
joyful friends and family
here together happily
misfortune you plainly see
has left us nary a frown
here together happily
we will close this old year down

Happy 2016 to all you readers here as well!

Written by mairmusic

January 10, 2016 at 3:48 pm

Posted in January, rondeau

Tagged with family, friends, frown, happily, joyful, misfortune, new year, smile

week 326 ~ I have been waiting my whole life for this

with 8 comments

I have been waiting my whole life for this
and yet it seems as if I’m still not there
searching without quite knowing why I stare
hard at the future hoping I won’t miss
my turn when it comes no one understands
but me (and do I really) why striving
is in my blood I want so much to sing
a better song this tunnel vision lands
me in hot water sometimes like tonight
when an inconsequential story falls
askew on skeptical rocks (and recalls
the fallibility of words) still light
jumps 7 waves with me and our wishes
swim out to sea like brave drunken fishes

Written by mairmusic

January 8, 2015 at 8:24 am

Posted in January, sonnet

Tagged with 7 waves, dreams, future, misunderstanding, new year, Rio, striving, waiting, wishes

week 273 ~ winter’s cold

with 4 comments

winter’s cold
fills my boots
tales once told
winter’s cold
ends this old
year’s pursuits
winter’s cold
fills my boots

Written by mairmusic

January 7, 2014 at 12:12 pm

Posted in January, rondeau

Tagged with cold, new year, poetry, winter

week 271 ~ the year rolls itself up

with 2 comments

the year rolls itself up
you’re home don’t ask for more
drop your key in the cup
grab a smile close the door

you’re home don’t ask for more
when miracles appear
grab a smile close the door
stash your dreams some place near

when miracles appear
it takes time to believe
stash your dreams some place near
there’s no reason to leave

it takes time to believe
move on slowly with grace
there’s no reason to leave
inhabit your new place

move on slowly with grace
drop your key in the cup
inhabit your new place
the year rolls itself up

Written by mairmusic

December 27, 2013 at 10:06 am

Posted in December, pantoum

Tagged with change, dreams, grace, home, key, life, miracles, new year, transition, year end

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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Celebrating a Year

Posts Tagged ‘new year’

week 636 ~ stop being who you were

week 429 ~ farewell 2016 you

week 378 ~ here together happily

week 326 ~ I have been waiting my whole life for this

week 273 ~ winter’s cold

week 271 ~ the year rolls itself up

Who am I?

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Recent Posts

What is this?

Email Subscription

“Years 2 – 6” — so what’s changed?

The material on these pages belongs to me

What’s a sonnet?

What’s a villanelle?

What’s a rondeau?

What’s a decima?

What’s a pantoum?

Search poems by type

Posts with music attached

archive: past posts

Search for words and phrases

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