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Best Poems Written by Suzette Richards

Below are the all-time best Suzette Richards poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Suzette Richards Poem

I balance my illicitly obtained bottle of absinthe from a man who knows a man, for an exorbitant amount of Euros, on the worn wooden windowsill of my topmost room at the rundown pension overlooking the harbour. Next to it, I place my well-thumbed copy of La Nausée.* The dark apartment window reflects back the sparse furnishings behind me. I open the window to get a better view and my eyes are immediately drawn to the four cafés on the quayside – the object of my pilgrimage. Their incongruous proximity to one another always fascinated me as it couldn’t possibly be conducive to fair trade. The incessant wind from the Channel they have to endure in this enclave during each January was a bad trade-off for escaping the snow elsewhere.
The lights from the cafés flicker at this distance like teenagers taking selfies. What is it with people’s constant desire to touch base with one another? If we’re alone in the universe, it would be a tragic waste of space; if we’re not alone, it’s still a tragic waste of space.
I shut the window when the scent of a Gitanes lit by the occupant below wafts into the night air.
THE END

200 words (Neither THE END, nor the title count towards the word count in micro fiction)

Four Cafes
Sponsor: Julia Ward

Added AFTERWARDS
Result: N/A
Title changed

BACKGROUND
The four cafés are mentioned in Sartre’s first book, and my statements 'my well-thumbed copy' and 'pilgrimage' led me to switching to the past tense. The mention of 'Euros' & 'selfies' places the piece squarely in the current modern milieu. One would not spend more than a few minutes with the window open in the middle of winter; the cold Channel wind is the prevailing wind on the north coast of France. It seldom snows in Normandy, where this book was set. As Le Havre (a fishing village until the 16th century) is now the site of heavy industry, this tale is pure creative licence.

Pension: boardinghouse in Europe.

Absinthe was banned in France for close to 100 years; only produced for export.

*La Nausée, 1938, is a philosophical novel by the existentialist philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre. Existentialism is a form of philosophical inquiry that explores the issue of human existence. The incessant reminder that human endeavour is and remains useless makes the book tragic as well.
______________________________________________________
‘The universe is a pretty big place. If it's just us, seems like an awful waste of space.’ ~ Carl Sagan

Details | Suzette Richards Poem

I Don'T Give a Rat's Tail

This is the tale of a soul reaching out to others,

		  but receiving a cold shoulder wherever she goes.

							           Words and phrases

								are misconstrued,

							meanings attached

				which cloud the issues

			which she wishes

		           to address.

			      A passel

				   of jaded poets condescending;

						  who sear and cauterise

							       synapses 

						of intellect, and

					in the 

				    bud,

				         it’s 

					      vim.

						     I

						      don’t

						give

					    a

	        rat’s tail anymore.	
 
Copyright © Suzette Richards | Year Posted 2019
REPOSTED 11 July 2021 with white space added between the lines.

POET'S NOTE: The expression with reference to a rat that I use in my shaped poem, could perhaps be related to a phrase ‘don't give a dead rat’ from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).

‘The Mouse’s Tale’ (which was my inspiration for this concrete shape) is a shaped poem by Lewis Carroll which appears in his novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Though no formal title for the poem is given in the text, the chapter title refers to ‘A Long Tale’ and the Mouse introduces it by saying, ‘Mine is a long and sad tale!’ As well as the contribution of typography to illustrate the intended pun in this title, artists later made the intention clear as well.

Details | Suzette Richards Poem

Alone

When you are alone you are all your own. ~Leonardo da Vinci

the Milky Way that rises like a sea fret 
forging a way amongst the infinite stars 
draws inspiration from the souls gone before 

alone 
I’m my own master 
to thy  
I will soon return
refreshed

Details | Suzette Richards Poem

Withered On the Vine

When your ambition didn’t tally with mine, 
we had to learn to steer a common course. 
Our earlier dreams withered on the vine 

Our individual pasts were our source. 
In the interest of our joint future 
we had to learn to steer a common course. 

If at different rates we would mature, 
then allowances we must surely make 
in the interest of our joint future. 

To be genuinely woke or a fake,
focus only on a global career; 
then allowances we must surely make. 

From humanitarian course don’t veer: 
for that, I am eternally grateful. 
Focus only on a global career. 

The temptation for you to be spiteful 
when your ambition didn’t tally with mine; 
for that, I am eternally grateful. 
My earlier dreams withered on the vine.

Details | Suzette Richards Poem

Discord and Peace

When conflicts raise its ugly head real soon, 
our nations won’t inevitably swoon;
a time that real détente and peace attune.	
Some people still record the slights most ever stored.
Thus escalate discord, their armies can’t be bored.	
But bearing painful past in mind, endowed
ensuing loss with angst, so many bowed 	
with hidden resentment and furrow browed.
In corners hide the past, persistent ghosts which last. 
The indiscretions vast: those overboard and fast. 	
It shan’t depend on inner child if strewn:
‘To never stand against the wisdom roared.’
Do kowtow when rambunctious children vow	
t’ ensure revolt replaced by great repast.

Details | Suzette Richards Poem

The Welkin - and - the Influences

1. The Welkin
Wind blows / clouds race / vast blue sky
Breeze tugs / trees sway / great green hills
Sun scourged / sand glares / small white beach
Skip stones / thoughts nag / mind fug stills

2. The Influences
Seeds sprout / stems firm / youth glean part
New buds / core splayed / new growth hearth
Weeds choke / leaves furl / old rot stench
Chance lost / child left / seek fresh start

_________________________________________________________

'[A] single rhyme in even-numbered verses (lines)...'

Jueju (Chinese, meaning severed sentence) is a curtailed verse of Chinese origin that grew popular amongst Chinese poets during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). Some of the formal rules of the regulated verse forms were applied in the case of the jueju curtailed verse. These rules, as applied to the jueju, include regular line length (either 5* or 7† stressed monosyllables per line in each quatrain), the use of a single rhyme in even-numbered verses (lines) example 1, strict patterning of tonal alternations (see the updated definition of jueju here at PS), use of a major caesura before the last three syllables, optional parallelism and grammaticality of each line as a sentence. Each couplet generally forms a distinct unit. The first introduces a reference to nature, and the third line generally introduces some turn of thought or direction within the poem, often introducing humanity. The final line ponders the meaning and draws the parts together by means of the final three syllable phrase containing a recurring reference to the subject first introduced in the first couplet. It uses a common MOTIF per quatrain, which is ideally a single poem because of the difficulty in composing a quality jueju.

The English form was first taught by Dr Jonathan Stalling at UC Berkeley in 1997 who introduced the rhyme scheme aaba (mimicking the Rubaiyat) example 2, and a dictionary of monosyllable words to be used in the phrases. The word units should pair off, more than they do between the groups, ie, into phrases of 2, (2—optional), & 3 syllables—natural caesurae (and presented as illustrated). The first groups of words in each line are spondees. The words are imagistic, and the use of symbolism are encouraged. It creates a mood rather than tell a story.

Unlike haiku (a Japanese poetic form), Chinese poetry do have rhyme (as discussed above) and metre. See my article, Introducing Three New Sonnet Forms, for the picture of metres summary.

Punctuation in jueju is superfluous. A title is optional—it is usually identified by the first two words of the jueju, but I have elected to use headnotes in these instances.

GLOSSARY
*The five-syllable form is called wujue (meaning five titles of nobility)
†The seven-syllable form qijue (meaning good grace)

RECOMMENDED READING
1. My latest article on the subject of HEADNOTES.
2. poems.com/features/what-sparks-poetry/jonathan-stalling-on-spring-snow/
3. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jueju
4. LINK (A highly recommended read with a fine example of the structure of jueju poetry): About English Jueju

Details | Suzette Richards Poem

Memo To All Journos - Buzzwords

A poet's work [like journalists] is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, to start arguments, to shape the world and stop it from going to sleep. - Salman Rushdie

Don’t think that you could EVER in a million years put a story to bed
And do remember to get their ages 110% right even if it kills you dead

The neighbour, age 18, saw the milkman, age 59, deliver the goods
The postman, age 70, turned a blind eye and so would you have if in his boots

Another struggle veteran, dead at 20, after the injustices and COVID he had to weather
The herd immunity is bought by the sheeple, as they usually flock together

Quoting a source out of context and deepfake photoshop send me around the bend.
Cut-and-paste could land you in hot water if not fact-checked before you press SEND.

The false news item during June 2021 regarding the decuplet birth in South Africa
Damaged the credibility of the newspaper and he had to apologise for his faux pas

Protocols of mask-up, washing hands and keeping a social distance are easy
All this international data-sharing has made each of us a virologist—easy-peasy

Peer review of your work draws many comments from wannabes, even if not in their remit 
Birds do it; billionaires do it; brownies will help you do it; the sky is the limit

You must give your 110 percent, but my maths teacher is turning in his grave
Top-up funding and tax-relieve to keep you from going under and bankruptcy to stave

Running on empty as you can’t toe the line of your budget line, is the rub
Don’t keep it bottled up; let it all hang out while the empty whisky bottles pile up

PowerPoint presentations and playing the game won’t pass muster, however much you try
Taking one for the team, but Olympic gold for our dream team is just a pie-in-the-sky
 
Climate change is not the same as weather, whether you grasp that fact or not
And the California dreamin’ boat had already sailed—it’s too bloody hot!

The Chief Honcho
____________________
SIGNED 
30 July 2021

PS He was too young to have been a ‘veteran’.
PPS We know that he is dead, but the term is: ‘died/dies aged …’ You could show a bit of respect here, please.

Buzzword Bingo Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: John Anderson

Best Poems Written by Suzette Richards

Mona Lisa's Paramour

A Tree

The Dilatory Thought

A Waste of Space

I Don'T Give a Rat's Tail

Alone

Withered On the Vine

Discord and Peace

The Welkin - and - the Influences

Memo To All Journos - Buzzwords