June 21, 2025
For the Beatles 'Lay it to Me' song Contest by Charles Messina
The old iron curtain came down
But soon a clown reclaimed the crown
Ruthless and hollow-souled he rose
Now a foul Soviet wind blows
From the east it battered Ukraine
Spreading such cruel and endless pain
The past returns in blackened char
“Back in the U.S.S.R.”
Categories:
octosyllabic, conflict, history, international, pain,
Form: Lay
A fine family of foxes,
a feisty mom and her two kits
living near humans by shrewd wits.
Her constant success flummoxes.
Kits are tiny jack-in-the-boxes,
heads bobbing while mom baby sits.
NB: Other - Sextilla: A Sp. stanza form of six octosyllabic or shorter lines. In the classic period, the usual rhyme schemes were abbaab.
Categories:
octosyllabic, animal, baby, environment, family,
Form: Other
Now my posh palette is laid waste.
Winter, winding its way to fore,
lays its whiteness at my front door.
Vivid colors become murky paste
and lose their hue with rash haste.
My parquet is covered with hoar.
Other – Sextilla: (1) Six-line stanzas of eight-syllable lines rhymed either aabccb or ababcc…poetscollective.org
*(2) A Sp. stanza form of six octosyllabic or shorter lines. In the classic period, the usual rhyme scheme was abbaab...oxfordreference.com
Categories:
octosyllabic, autumn, color, leaving, winter,
Form: Other
Breath of life in a forlorn one,
uplifted face to brace the wind,
called His name with prayer to send.
Forgive me! I have come undone.
I lost my way, now moribund,
and all I’d hoped was to ascend.
*Other - Sextilla: A Sp. stanza form of six octosyllabic or shorter lines. In the classic period, the usual rhyme schemes were abbaab,...oxfordreference.com
Categories:
octosyllabic, death, emotions, hope, judgement,
Form: Other
Heavenly Spring
(Decima)
Colorful blooming pear and apple trees
Beautiful within the first weeks of spring
Everything is heavenly blossoming
With gentle blowing winds and humming bees
The time to plant some vegetable seeds
With the sunshine and rain all the seeds grow
Glorious rainbow putting on a show
Colorful flowers raising from the ground
Nature showing its beauty all around
With summer coming, time for spring to go
Decima is a style of poetry that is Octosyllabic and has 10 lines.
Given the flexible method of counting syllables in Spanish verse, where an "Octosyllabic" line could easily have seven or nine syllables (as normally counted), in writing a decima in English it would seem not unreasonable to write in iambic pentameter (theoretically ten syllables), which comes more naturally to English verse. So for English verse you would use 10 syllables per line.
The rhyming scheme is ABBAACCDDC.
so in English.. you would have 10 lines of 10 syllables per line... rhyme is above....
Categories:
octosyllabic, imagination, nature,
Form: Free verse