Martian Ladies: The Lost Lines

Apr21

There's a place on Mars/Where the ladies smoke cigars
Every puff they take/Is enough to kill a snake
When the snake is dead/They plant roses in its head
When the roses die/They put diamonds in its eye 
When the diamonds crack/They put mustard down its back
When the mustard dries/It attracts the Martian flies
When the flies get stomped/It becomes a Martian prompt
When the prompt gets writ/Then the Martians have a fit
When the fit is tight/Martian snakes begin to bite
If they bite your face/You become a Martian case
But your case won't close/Till your poems decompose

PROMPT #21:

Write a poem that, like a Nursery rhyme, uses lines that have a repetitive set-up.

Sijo Elucidated

Apr20

Verse forms? Traditional line-count Korean verse? OK—listen:

Kim Chee tastes very strong, but it’s not ours; it comes from Korea.

It won’t accompany well the tastes of our food, and that’s fine.

The sijo (Korean 시조, pronounced SHEE-jo) is a traditional three-line Korean poetic form typically exploring cosmological, metaphysical, or pastoral themes. Organized both technically and thematically by line and syllable count, sijo are expected to be phrasal and lyrical, as they are first and foremost meant to be songs.

Sijo are written in three lines, each averaging 14-16 syllables for a total of 44-46 syllables. Each line is written in four groups of syllables that should be clearly differentiated from the other groups, yet still flow together as a single line. When written in English, sijo may be written in six lines, with each line containing two syllable groupings instead of four.

Mooncakes

Apr17

That Chinese box
Your wares untasted
From whence arose
The lunar doom
Of my obsession.

Some oriental harmony
I never heard

Auspicious omen of prosperity
That passed me by
Like cloud shadow across moon
On a restless night
Long ago.

Your pale and autocratic beauty:
Moon over wall-gate in frontier
Long gone
Like life on a distant planet;
I am out of your orbit . . .

Still you circle
Serving others more worthy
Of your light.

I still love you, Mooncakes
Though I shall never taste you.