RachelStarrThomson.com

Rhyme Schemes Are Hard

I’ve been experimenting with poetry recently … you know, the kind that actually follows some kind of pattern. My conclusion is that rhyme schemes are harder than they look.

This doesn’t have a title, but here you go:

 

Warm and generous, like the sun
Always giving, ever feeding
The hungers of a world still young
And green and grasping, ever needing–
Roots that seek and sink down deep
Branches stretched like fingers reaching
To soak up light and drag it down
To hungry hearts that never sleep
And souls forever starving, leeching
Life from air and light and ground.

Soak it up and drag it down
To feed this aching, yawning dark
This ravenous, this hungry ground
This open, empty, grasping heart
I take and take, and still I yearn
To know how fulness feels and see
The Giver smile, and hear him bless
The soil with warmth and peace, to learn
To rest in generosity
And full, at last know happiness.

But though he ever gives, yet still
Hungrier I am, it seems
With pits and depths and cores to fill
I am earth, I live, I need.

Posted

in

,

by

Rachel

Tags:

Comments

4 responses to “Rhyme Schemes Are Hard”

  1. Rachel Starr Thomson Avatar
    Rachel Starr Thomson

    That’s actually been done quite a bit in fantasy, starting with writers like George MacDonald and J.R.R. Tolkien (Tolkien’s books are full of poetry and ballads and songs, in more than one language.) A lot of readers get impatient with it, but I really like the coming together of styles.

    Reply
  2. Elisabeth Avatar
    Elisabeth

    I’ve always thought it would be interesting to combine prose and poetry together in, say, an historical book set in the Medieval period – perhaps if one of the characters was a troubadour or something. I’d have thought that would work in a fantasy book too. How nice that, if you want to do so, you have poetry at your fingertips! 🙂

    Reply
  3. Rachel Starr Thomson Avatar
    Rachel Starr Thomson

    Thanks, Elisabeth! I was fairly happy with it :). I actually write quite a bit of poetry, but it’s all loose prosey stuff that doesn’t follow any prescribed pattern. I’d like to keep trying rhyme schemes because they’re such an interesting challenge.

    Reply
  4. Elisabeth Avatar
    Elisabeth

    You paint a vivid picture with your words in this poem! In fact, the whole poem is vivid! I’m impressed. I don’t write poetry for the simple reason that when I try, it’s awful. But this is good! Well done for writing something lovely – and having the courage to share it too! Poetry always feels more revealing that prose, I think, even if the topic isn’t personal. Do you think you’ll write more poetry now?

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *