Written, March 24, 2025
For Contest, Your Choice E sponsor, Brian Strand
******************
hands aegis
sculpting lullabies
cradling
warmed by
candlelight - wax
flesh
muscle
breath
zephyr
exhales
inaudible eulogies
exuding oxidation
of
turpentine
nectar
of
ebony &
onyx
varnishes in
liniment
to coddiwomple
fingers &
dactyls
tracking
ectoblastic
layers
labyrinth puddles
yen's fuel trigger
perspiring
bruised blooms
quivered reverberations
declining
blossom
obscured in
sunken strands
of
sprouts
&
burial site
effigy melting
Inside
silk gloves
Dactyls are metrical
Feet that are named after
Fingers with three little
Parts like the knuckles that
Lie in a pattern of
Stress like these sentences:
'Jealously murmuring
Elephants quietly
Sob in their handkerchiefs.'
Feet that are fingers -
How odd!
Today I feel iambic! I would say
of all the meters, I like it the best.
An iamb starts with some soft sound to say
then ev'ry second syllable is stressed.
Trochees likewise, alternate their stresses;
even-numbered syllables are muted.
Nowhere near as popular (my guess is) -
Trochee fans, though, fervently dispute it.
Feet are the units of meter - such fun!
Dactyls have syllables STRESSED/, un-/, and un-.
"T'was the Night Before Christmas" is in Anapest:
that's a foot with three syllables: un-/, un-/, and
STRESSED.
The meter is the pattern of the beats within a line
"Iambic" and "Heptameter" describe this line just fine.
Anapestic Tetrameter: four anapests;
and the best part of THIS lecture series? No tests!
Trimeter has three feet
Tetrameter has just four feet
Pentameter adds one foot, making five
Hexameter adds one: six feet in this beehive
Heptameter has seven feet, but now it's getting late;
and so I'll close with this (you may have guessed):
Octameter has eight!
written 1 July 2023
Strangers but loved
aged pianist's hands
don't die in silence...
The old pianist watches
his hands ... learned
a secret... the music...
Even injured and with strength
touch still finds.
In silence his tips
dactyls hurt, suffer...
But the silence knows that
will speak in his ringtones...
dying toes
suck the last ones out of life
sighs...
The old pianist sweating,
cry dry tears...
But the blessed sound
the piano plays the music
holy, torn from
heart...
Homage to pianist João Carlos
Martins and his extreme pain in the
extremities hands and fingers...
That Salad Went Right Through Me
I've always wanted to write a poem called
“That Salad Went Right Through Me”.
And I would wager upon its best destiny:
To begin with, there is the Universal Theme--
For who has not gurgled around a conference table
at half past the last radish scrap?
Who, once stalled, has not
persistently punched the flusher
to muffle the borborygmus din?
But on a loftier note, I prefer
to think of my paean emblazoned
in the annals of first line indexes,
where, as one wanders lonely as a cloud
over dactyls and tropes,
“That salad went right through me”
trots right off the page
demanding a fervid flip to its leaf.
And future discourse plied at workshops,
and other such rarefied privies of poesy
might thusly include:
"Did you write a poem for the class today?"
Yes...“That Salad Went Right Through Me”
"Well then, you should consider the cheesecake."
Rabbit brags
crazily;
Tortoise plods
lazily.
Rabbit gets
sleepy, see.
Tortoise wins
Easily.
Work ethic
is lacking;
Rabbit gets
shellacking.
Relentless,
forward, there.
T’s out front
by a hare.
Nonfiction
or fable?
Decide if
you’re able.
----------
Using more dactyls seems a good match for the form...
https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/cethramtu-rannaigechta-moire-poetic-asides
Poetry, throw-a-three
Dactyls for you and me
Six silly bulls, I see
All in a field!
Myrtle McWhirtley
This is the life for me
No silly names, I see
Less junk to wield.
Dactylly Practical
Superfantastical
Equally Whimsical
More Flexibly
So dactyls or whirtles?
Just tighten your girdles
Throw down some poetry
Effortlessly!
Squickleby Pickleby
Nicholas Nickleby
loses his Father and
feels quite forlorn.
Ralph his tight uncle a
disciplinarian
mean to the marrow
regards him with scorn.
Nicholas, penniless
uncompromisingly
works as a master where
boys take the flack.
Nickleby fears for the
safety of orphans there
rescues a cripple and
never looks back.
Granted this ending is
unsatisfactory
Dickens had plenty more
meat to this tale.
So to all readers I
send my apologies;
These double dactyls are
tricky travail.
01.01.2021
Based on the novel 'Nicholas Nickleby' by Charles Dickens
Double Dactyl (Win For Paid Membership) Poetry Contest
Sponsor : William Kekaula
Covidy Covidy
Donald the President
Stood on the balcony
Out of his mind
Muttering matters most
Incomprehensible
Still looking beautiful
Lit from behind
© Gail Foster 6th October 2020
*Lurched Lousy Limbs*
thick soles seducing
eerie earth scrunching
tracing tactic trudges
cowering cornered crushes
pale paths tucked
gaunt gaze; gulp!
mystic monster smirked
nocturnal nature athirst
felon fondling first
then a twist
lurched lousy limbs
dactyls callous covering
goblin moved monster
dragging dainty disaster.
19:12:18:16:54
~Note~ A goblin fought with a monster who'd claimed dominance before its arrival. At the approach of the goblin, the dactyls made per the feet of the monster were covered by the enormous goblin's. The goblin at that moved the monster and then a fight ensues. A claim on dominance.
I.
Higgledy piggledy
Roger de Coverley
Fonder of hoofing it
Than of romance
Found himself typified
Characteristically
King of the Reels and the
Lord of the Dance.
II.
Willety wallety
William the Conqueror
Wanted his subjects to
Quail at his power,
Crowing to Londoners
Hyperdespotically,
“Look, everybody, I’ve
Built me a tower!”
III.
Rickety tickety
Wolfram von Eschenbach
Sought for a subject to
Fashion a tale;
Tiring of writing so
Eschatologically,
Rather, he turned to the
Quest of the Grail.
NB. The nonsense opening of a Double Dactyl was originally, and is still most frequently, "higgledy-piggledy", but it can be any alliterative pair of dactyls. Here, the opening of the second is from the adapted version of the Scots folksong "Wee Cooper o' Fife" in the schoolhouse sequence of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds-- though some postings online mishear it as "willaby wallaby" or "willicky wallicky". The nonsense opening of the third is from Tom Lehrer's "The Irish Ballad".
A prehistoric dragon, with a taste for Pterodactyl;
felt a major hunger pain while penning a few dactyls.
Dropping hammer and chisel, he flew off for his hunt;
it wasn’t long at all when, he spied himself a runt.
The tender meat, to him would be a tasty little treat
but, runt’s fly fast and could he last till capture was complete?
His aim was great so, in he flew to the Pterodactyl nest;
but a runt did dragon spot and it put him to a test.
Though dragon was of middle age; eight thousand years or so;
his agility was still quite good and he gave the chase a go.
His meal once caught, he’d sear and eat; his fire was good and hot
but, an easy catch, this little runt was not.
Its swiftness was unusual; though speed he couldn’t clock.
He was certain he’d not slowed down but, then he smacked a rock!
Oh my, the stars that swirled around, his bruised and aching head;
the runt was gone; dragon staggered home and lay down in his bed.
The moral of this story, have variety in your diet;
you’ll always have enough to eat; just try it.
Thank you dear / Debbie for / pointing out / my mistakes!
Now I can / see where I’ve / been getting / out of step.
“Statuesque” / was one of / my early / efforts and
Then I had / not learned the / rhythms of /poetry.
If I were / Writing it / now I’d be / tidier.
I’d know my / dactyls and / iambs and / … other stuff …
But since the / subject was / utterly / frivolous,
Frankly Ms. / Guzzi, I / don’t think I / give a damn!
.......................
I thought my original entry in Debbie’s meter contest was in
dactylic tetrameters.
Sadly it was not – but this one is!
Limerick Gimmerick
Jason of Pendleton
Tried double-dactyls while
Fearing the worst.
Uh-oh-spaghetti-o!
They're all bass-ackwards cuz
He's used to anapest
(Dactyls reversed).
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.