Someone perusing all the lines I penned
before this century would surely say
that I held sacred five iambic feet,
that quatrains and rhymed couplets were my stay!
It seemed my mind was programmed to create
four lines per stanza, rhymed a-b-c-b.
I saw that others wrote in varied styles
and over time attempted to break free.
I asked myself then, “Must you always rhyme?”
Blank verse, I added to my repertoire.
I crave the partial freedom it affords.
While rhyming’s not included, meter is—
those five iambic feet that won my heart!
I challenged myself, “Write some free verse—
not a nonet, a tanka, a cinquain, . . . but actual
FREE VERSE; not a paragraph you chopped up and
scattered down the page.” I’m workin’ on it!
May 6, 2021
entered in the What's in a Title contest
Sponsor: Line Gauthier
Day and night, together your body next to mine,
Your tender kiss to my lips,
At one time.
You are inside of my mind dreaming about you
Holding hands, happy times,
At one time.
Your face that shows charming gentle of you
Thinking over to bring back you and me,
At one time.
I feel you... holding you, touching me
Moments of love here in my side,
At one time.
We stay together this way, to love us both in life
Good reality, at one time my dear.
© Jocelyn Dunbar
14 April 2006
9:55 PM
too many questions
too many decisions
my head is heavy in thought
i hit the pillow like a cinder block
Mentally mental and stressful.
A soul without a home.
Envision what was at one time.
Deep within alone.
Fighting for life to regain.
Regain what was at one time.
Hollow inside this reflection.
No longer within do I shine.
Outside I am seen as a person.
Inside is another story.
The battles within that Im fighting.
Gone is all the glory.
What was at one time is so useless.
Encourage the voice in my head.
Theres two and I just cant choose.
One side alive and the other one dead.
What was at one time is now pointless.
This is the fear that I live.
Running around in my circles.
Please tell me something will give.
Break me out of this prison.
Im claimed by what was at one time.
The truth of this battle Im facing.
The truth that I no longer shine.