Witching Hour … and other responses to the last Wednesday Writing Prompt
“Alas! a woman that attempts the pen,
Such an intruder on the rights of men,
Sucha presuptuouos Creature, is esteem’d,
The fault can by no virtue be redeem’d …
How are we fallen, fallen by mistaken rules?
Ad Education’s , more than Nature’s foods,
Debarr’d from all improve-meats of the mind,
And to be dull, expected and designed …
-Anne Finch, The Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilesea, ed. by Myra Reynolds
as quoted by Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Shakespeare’s Sisters, Feminist Essays on Women Poets
I think our poets just had a lot of fun with the last Wednesday Writing Prompt,Spinning With Shakespeare, February 20, 2019. I had fun reading them and so will you.
Thanks Gary W. Bowers, Irma Do, Jan Goldie, and Anjum Wasim Dar. Thanks also to Cubby (Sonya Annita Song) for her contribution. Please welcome her warmly. She is new to Wednesday Writing Prompt. Special thanks to Irma Do and Anjum Wasim Dar for the added value of the photographs and to Anjum for her artwork as well. Appreciation to Clarissa Simmens for sharing her Shakespeare homage. They’ll be shared in a separate post.
I’m tickled to see that folks are commenting on one another’s poems and visiting one another’s sites. That what it’s really all about. Bravo! Readers will note that links to sites are included when they are available so that you can visit. If there’s no site, it’s likely you can catch up with the poet on Facebook.
Enjoy this unique collection and do join us tomorrow for the next Wednesday Writing Prompt.
To Scratch or Not to Scratch
To scratch, or not to scratch, that is the question:
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The itch and burn of abusive mosquito bites
Or to take arms against a sea of irritation
And by opposing end them:
To scratch, to rub, no more;
And by a rub to say we end
The frustration and the maddening,
Relentless shocks that flesh is heir to?
‘Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.
To scratch, to rub – to rub, perchance to slake:
Aye, there’s the bub,
For in that rub of satiation
What doubts may come
When we have abandoned
This self-restraint must give us pause.
There’s the inanity that creates confusion
Of such simplicity:
For who would bear the jolts and pangs of bites,
The insatiable lust,
The sleepless nights,
The pangs of irate skin,
The obsessive thoughts,
The insolence of the unbitten,
And the spurns that impatient scratchers
By the self-righteous take,
When he himself might his liberation make
With a sole finger?
Who would itchiness bear,
To shake and tremble
Under a tortured skin,
But that the dread of something
After the scratch,
The possibility of greater itch to come,
From whose scratch no human can deny,
Puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear the itch we have
Than scratch to others that we know not of?
© 2019, Sonya Annita Song (a.k.a. Cubby) (Reowr, Poetry that purrs. It’s reword because the cat said so.)
SONYA ANNITA SONG is a poet whose rhymes are loved by both adults and children. Her writing style for children is delightfully whimsical with a natural flow meant for reading out loud. Sonya’s goal as a children’s author is to create engaging rhyming picture books that children and parents will have fun reading together. One of her favorite memories as a child is going to the local library in the summer and bringing back shopping bags full of books to read. Books were, and still are, passports to incredible destinations full of joy and wonder, and Sonya hopes all children will discover the marvels of reading just like she did. Children’s site: http://www.sonyaannitasong.com; Poemhunter: http://www.poemhunter.com/sonya-annita-song/ . Clipped from Cubby’s Amazon page.
dj b.ill.e shex
how sharper n a SERPENT’S tooth
n one bare bodkin
[Dies.]
4sooth
singe my white head
4 b n old
2 b r naught
poor tom’s acold
ah words words words
r’t naught th point
o band o bruhs
time out
a joint
© 2019, Gary W. Bowers (One with Clay, Image and Text)
Recycling Shakespeare for a Better World – A Haiku Sonnet
In this brave new world
Plant a heart of gold, harvest
A bouquet of friends
Faint-hearted farming
Doesn’t yield food for the soul
Cold comfort hunger
Break the ice – Be brave
Be fancy free with warm words
Of love and welcome
All our yesterdays
Are meant to be composted
Nutrient wisdom
Silence can kill with kindness
But regretful words do not.
This was a fun and challenging prompt initiated by Jamie for The Poet by Day Wednesday Writing Prompt. She writes, “Fe, foh, and fun … Take a spin with Shakespeare and write us a poem using phrases of his that have come into common usage.” I honestly didn’t realize that all these phrases came from Shakespeare’s work! I’ve really only read “Romeo and Juliet” and some sonnets so seeing all these common phrases attributed to his work was quite a surprise. Check out this link if you want to see what Shakespearean works the phrase I used came from.
And of course, I had to do a sonnet to further honor The Bard. To give it a bit of my own flavor, I chose the Haiku Sonnet form. Again, I never new there was such a thing until I saw it in this website here.
Learning new things and new ways of looking at the world is one of the best gifts I’ve gotten from writing and reading poetry. What do you think of this recycled Shakespearean piece?
© 2019, words and photo, Irma Do (I Do Run. And I do a few other things too …)
Witching Hour
All that glitters, is not gold and
all’s well that ends well, he sighed.
Yet there was no method in his
madness, for the naked truth is,
he made the foregone conclusion,
that misery acquaints a man with
strange bedfellows, and that the
course of love never runs smooth,
which left him heartsick and lackluster.
At the witching hour of the night,
When churchyards yawn and hell
itself breathes out, and as he breathed
his one last breath, a ministering
angel of infinite space, came to save
him from the jaws of death, and
trippingly on the tongue, said,
What, a piece of work is man.
What fools these mortals be,
violent delights have violent ends.
Ah, There’s the rub.Truth will out,
he’s had too much of a good thing.
Love is not love which alters
when, it alteration finds.
And thereby ends the tale.
Which is tedious as a
Twice Told tale, but
What is done is done.
© 2019, Jen Goldie (Starlight and Moonbeams and the Occasional Cat)
In Words: A Shakespearian Tale
Neither a borrower nor a lender be!
As luck would have it, in this brave new
world I managed to break the ice,
discovering that brevity is the soul of wit.
The fellow refused to budge an inch, this
was cold comfort as conscience does
make cowards of us all. I, with bated breath,
In one fell swoop, decided to play it fast
and loose, set my teeth on edge
and with a heart of gold, proclaimed,
ill wind blows no man to good!
You have eaten me out of house and home,
For goodness sake! Good riddance!
I am more sinned against than sinning!
In my heart of hearts, I had to conclude
the game is on. Love, is blind filled with
forgotten yesterdays. I gave the devil
his due, for much ado about nothing.
“O God, O God, how weary, stale,
flat, and unprofitable seem
to me all the uses of this world.”
“My tongue will tell the anger of my heart,
Or else my heart, concealing it, will break.
And rather than it shall, I will be free
Even to the uttermost, as I please,
in words.”
© 2019, Jen Goldie (Starlight and Moonbeams and the Occasional Cat)
‘Tis the Road Out of the Frame
Who’s there? unfold yourself ‘
Oh ’tis the road, out of frame, once
in grace, wore an inky metaled cloak …
With memories sweet- on it
trotted Arabian horses, held by leather
reins, with mirth in riding, jingling bells
Would lift the learning loads and
stay on the beat- but
something is rotten, makes me sick
at heart- behold in silence it lies
So defiant in dilapidated defeat!
it seems to be there, still serving in retreat-
Though gone is the tar crush and concrete;
Ah Old Harley Road, I speak with reason,
You have the best on you, treading
You are replete with learning homes
words words and words,
But، Ah there’s the rub-
The craters humps and dilapidation-
Oh Lord, what are we learning
in this precarious condition?
That is the question-
While yet the memory of good times
be green ,me thinketh,
Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer,
the slings and jumps of outrageous travel-
The heart aches, thousand natural shocks
that the flesh is heir to-or to take up arms
against oceans of ditchy trouble,
Or by opposing, clean sweep them…?
Who would bear the whips and scorns
of time immemorial, the laws delay,
the repairs astray, the rains decay ;
all is not well, tis an unweeded garden-
do we continue to grunt and sweat
on a weary road? tis but my fantasy,
as foul deeds will rise’, beware the
Ides of March…
Oh Fair Poetess, soft you now ,
Ah there’s the bump..OUCH…!
Angels and ministers of grace defend us’
Shakespeare’s Home -An Artist’s View
© 2019, poem (English and Urdu), photograph, and colored-pencil drawing, Anjum Wasim Dar (Poetic Oceans)
کچھ خستہ و بدحال سڑک کے بارے میں
کون ھے؟
اپنے آپ کو ظاھر کرو
ارے یہ تو اکھڑی ھویؑ سڑک ھے زخمی
کبھی گہری شاھانہ پوشاک پہنے ھوتی تھی
میتٹھے سہانے سفروں کی یادیں سمیٹے ، گھنٹی
بجاتے تانگوں پہ بچوں کو سکول پہنچاتی تھی
اب خاموشی میں لپٹی اطاعت سے بچھی ھے
گر چہ اڑ چکا ھے تار کول ، غایب ھے بجری ساری
دلاؑیل سے بات ھو تو سوال اٹھے ، جھٹکے دھکے
کھا کر گزریں، کیا حاصل علم ھو ، روحانی یا کتابی
جب تک اس پہ گزرے وقت کی اچھی یادیں باکی ھیں
دل تھام کہ اٹھایں غلیل ،مرہم پٹی سب کرواین سرکاری
کون کرے انتیظار،قانون پہ انہسار، ھو بارشوں میں خوار
ملک مشکل میں ،کھرپا درانتی نا مالی، پھر خزانہ بھی خالی
اے شاعر معصوم انجم مہینہ مارچ کا سخت ھے بچنا زرا
یہ لو ، کھایؑ اک اور ظرب کاری speed breaker آیا آیا او
“POETRY PEACE and REFORM Go Together -Let Us All Strive for PEACE on EARTH for ALL -Let Us Make a Better World -WRITE To Make PEACE PREVAIL.” Anjum Wasim Dar
ABOUT
Poet and writer, I was once columnist and associate editor of a regional employment publication. I currently run this site, The Poet by Day, an information hub for poets and writers. I am the managing editor of The BeZine published by The Bardo Group Beguines (originally The Bardo Group), a virtual arts collective I founded. I am a weekly contributor to Beguine Again, a site showcasing spiritual writers. My work is featured in a variety of publications and on sites, including: Levure littéraure, Ramingo’s Porch, Vita Brevis Literature,Compass Rose, Connotation Press, The Bar None Group, Salamander Cove, Second Light, I Am Not a Silent Poet, Meta / Phor(e) /Play, and California Woman. My poetry was recently read by Northern California actor Richard Lingua for Poetry Woodshed, Belfast Community Radio. I was featured in a lengthy interview on the Creative Nexus Radio Show where I was dubbed “Poetry Champion.”
The BeZine: Waging the Peace, An Interfaith Exploration featuring Fr. Daniel Sormani, Rev. Benjamin Meyers, and the Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi among others
“What if our religion was each other. If our practice was our life. If prayer, our words. What if the temple was the Earth. If forests were our church. If holy water–the rivers, lakes, and ocean. What if meditation was our relationships. If the teacher was life. If wisdom was self-knowledge. If love was the center of our being.” Ganga White, teacher and exponent of Yoga and founder of White Lotus, a Yoga center and retreat house in Santa Barbara, CA
“Every pair of eyes facing you has probably experienced something you could not endure.” Lucille Clifton
Jamie Dedes' THE POET BY DAY Webzine 