Now Zen Now Zen

Gayle is our host for the Meeting the Bar night and here is what she proposes.

The Alouette was created by author, Jan Turner, who has created numerous poetry forms, some of which we’ve covered at dVerse. You can find many of her forms at Shadow Poetry.  This form consists of two or more stanzas of 6 lines each (sestets) with the following set rules: Syllables/Meter: 5, 5, 7, 5, 5, 7 Rhyme Scheme: a, a, b, c, c, b The name is a French word meaning ‘skylark’ or larks that fly high.  The word ‘alouette’ can also mean a children’s song (usually sung in a group), and is reminiscent of the style of short lines used for their lyrics. Preference for the meter accent is on the third syllable of each line but I won’t hold you to it.

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i am writing Zen

it is NOW not then

being as the Buddha would

in a moment true

while the minds eye view

rages as a rivers flood

 

finding inner peace

inner soaring Geese

trying  hard to still my mind

but it will not come

too much left undone

mental knots inside a bind

 

merging back with self

contact inner Elf

see life as it really is

take a breath and smile

walk a joyful mile

alouette’s gentille bliss

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes it helps to celebrate

Life can come at you with a heavy hand, and we end up dealing with it the best we can. With this in mind, I have this overwhelming need to celebrate something. Anything! Even if it’s just the fact I wrote another poem, and persuaded you to write one as well. That is cause to celebrate in itself.

Prompt from Walter J Wojtanik over at dVerse for Tuesday Poetics

~~~   ~~~   ~~~   ~~~   ~~~   ~~~   ~~~   ~~~   ~~~

Sometimes it helps to celebrate
when all around is anguish and sorrow
Can you learn to be with this now

here we live in strange times indeed
perhaps a moment of reflection
Sometimes it helps to celebrate

war and terror fill our daily screens
and we wish we could look away
Can you learn to be with the now

at times it can overwhelm us
and we may stumble on the road
Sometimes it helps to celebrate

what if you, perhaps,were wronged somehow
and you do not wish to forgive
Can you learn to be with the now

when all that, is is said and done
the world will spin and turn again
Sometimes it helps to celebrate
Can you learn to be with the now*

*The highly structured villanelle is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem’s two concluding lines. Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2.

Mr Angry: the conclusion

He found it easy to talk. There was a stillness about her, a knowing and understanding kind of presence. He reviewed the events of the day. The separation talk, the punch, the police station.

She listened well and he appreciated it. When he was done she leaned in and said to him, “I think I can help you”

‘Yeah, sure you can” he answered her sarcastically.

‘I understand your scepticism, but I see with a different set of eyes these days”

She turned her head in my direction. Me, the ghost, the witness. Could she sense my being here?

As if to answer my question, she spoke, whilst maintaining her sightless stare.

“You are not who you think you are”

Mr Angry spoke.

“What do you mean?”

“You are not all there. It is as if a part of you is missing”

Her gaze was still fixed firmly on my position. “Maybe you are hiding a part of yourself ”

Mr Angry looked up. ” Funny you should say that. I have always felt incomplete, unsettled, anxious.  Like I was missing a piece.”

He swallowed a mouthful of Guinness and then rolled his head in a circular motion, cracking stiff vertebra in his neck.

“How can you know that though? We just met”

“Like I said” she clarified, “I see things differently.”  Her gaze had not altered once whilst he spoke.

Her hand whipped out towards me suddenly and I felt myself being pulled. How could this be happening on my first day? No one had said anything about this sort of occurrence. I would be complaining to my supervisor. I was spinning, falling, sliding and then I stopped. Abruptly. It felt like hitting a wall. I lost consciousness.

As I came too I noticed that my perspective had altered and that I felt different. The woman was still looking at me but was smiling.

“Welcome home” she said.

What was she talking about and why was she talking to me?

“Can you see me” I asked.

“Of course” she said, “You have been here all the time. You just didn’t know it”

Didn’t know it? What on earth…..???

She reached across the table and touched my arm……MY ARM!!!!!!!!

I looked down and saw hands, attached to arms, attached to a body…..what was happening? When I scanned the bar I realised Mr Angry was nowhere to be seen. I was sat where he had been sat.

I …..was….. sat…. where…. he…. had…. been…. sat.

 

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