Over at dVerse we have a guest host today, Frank Hubeny. Frank is offering up a prompt to do with common meter.
A popular form used for poems, songs, nursery rhymes and ballads is common meter. It subdivides into many variations depending on where one puts the line breaks or end-rhymes and how one combines lines into stanzas, but its most basic structure is the repetition of seven pairs of unaccented-accented syllables which form an iambic, rhythmic pattern that is familiar and pleasurable to many listeners. Write a poem using common meter as its core structure. Think of it as a poem that will be heard rather than seen. That means feel free to format the poem any way that helps you write or read the poem, but imagine that the ideal listener will not see this formatting any more than someone listening to a symphony will see the score used by the conductor to lead the orchestra. The poem does not have to rhyme, but it should be clear to that ideal listener that there is a repetitive, rhythmic pattern of pairs of unaccented-accented syllables that suggest the poet is using common meter.
This is my second attempt, a fourteener I believe,and one in which I am aiming for a little more ‘Gravitas’
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in-fu-ture-times-we-may-look-back-think-ing-that-it-was-now
when-all-about-us-rang-with-change-and-we-were-asked-to-stand
to-make-our-voic-es-rise-up-high-to-make-our-pass-ions-known
to-fight-the-tide-that-threat-ened-here-to-sweep-us-all-away
a-call-to-arms-which-open-up-and-off-er-peace-and-love
and-march-ing-div-ine-fem-in-ine-so-pat-ri-archy-knows
a-path-of-bal-ance-is-a-way-that-hu-man-kind-can-walk
a-plan-et-full-of-hu-man-beings-not-nat-ions-drawn-with-lines
our-diff-er-en-ces-may-be-there-and-may-be-they-are-so
e-nor-mous-in-the-eyes-of-us-that-we-can-not-find-ways
to-di-a-logue-and-con-verse-with-and-sit-and-chew-the-fat
but-try-we-must-for-all-our-sake’s-or-walls-not-bridges-we
will-bring-in-to-our-fut-ure-world-and-close-the-door-to-friend
who-once-we-sat-with-for-a-while-to-pass-the-time-of-day
so-hearts-we-must-bring-open-to-the-con-ver-sa-tion-now
and-build-a-bridge-to-bet-ter-times-for-all-and-not-the-few
Paul Scribbles 
I could hear the iambic meter. It did have more “gravitas” than the first attempt.
Thanks.
Ah,, yes may we see a brighter future for the many and not the few.
Love the message of openness and having conversations with everyone ~ We need bridges and a longer table, not walls and fences ~ Have a good weekend Paul ~
We must learn to exist together, despite differing views. Excellent word