“Don’t worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.” -Robert Fulghum
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Of Love and Fear
No slackers here for Day 5 of Na/GloPoWriMo. Here are the goals:
“(1) the villanelle form, (2) lines taken from an outside text, and/or (3) phrases that oppose each other in some way. If you can use two elements, great – and if you can do all three, wow!”
No trifle here.. so first question then. What is the Villanelle form?
“The villanelle has 19 lines, split into 5 tercets (three-line stanzas) and 1 quatrain (a stanza of 4 lines). There are two repeating rhymes and two “refrains,” or repeated lines.
- The 1st and 3rd lines alternate as the last lines of stanzas 2, 3, and 4. The last stanza uses the 1st and 3rd lines as a rhymed couplet. If we use 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.
- There is no set meter in a villanelle but there is a set rhyme scheme. There is no fixed number of syllables for each line in a villanelle.
- The villanelle is broken into three parts: the introduction, the development, and the conclusion. Most villanelles build up intensity and tone until they reach the conclusion.”
Of Love and Fear by Michael Romani There in the stillness is our choice Between things of love and fear We choose the limits of our voice To be anxious or to freely rejoice Anxiety laden or to find calmness in love There in the stillness is our choice Some say that it's a Hobson's Choice Exploring all that life might give We choose the limits of our voice We find we become what becomes our patois Finding and refining ourselves by voice There in the stillness is our choice Confidence becomes our method of choice It's a matter of utmost priority We choose the limits of our voice Stripping away, stepping away, we devoice Deciding that with love we best rejoice There in the stillness is our choice We choose the limits of our voice (c) April 5, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Anxiety, Anxious, Calmness, Choice, Confidence, Devoice, Explore, Fear, Find, Give, Hobson's Choice, Life, Limit, Love, Method of Choice, Na/GloPoWriMo, Patois, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Priority, Quatrain, Refine, Refrain, Rejoice, Stanza, Step, Stillness, Strip, Tercet, Villanelle, Voice
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First Principles: Freedom Is More Often Abridged By Gradual and Silent Encroachments Than By Violent and Sudden Usurpations
“I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.” – James Madison
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Abridgment, Encroachments, First Principles, Freedom, Gradual, Instances, Power, Silent, Sudden, The People, Usurpations, Violent
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Thought For the Day: Stoop Low To Rise High
“There are no persons capable of stooping so low as those who desire to rise in the world.” – Lady Marguerite Blessington, writer (4 Apr 1789-1849)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Capable, Desire, Lady Marguerite Blessington, Low, Person, Rise, Stoop, Thought For the Day, World
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Breathe the Legacy
The Na/GloPoWriMo Day Four challenge is to write a sad poem. That’s easy enough to do this time around. Someone who is increasingly important to me beyond nearly all measure of my meager words recently lost someone. I can only hope that someone’s footprint weighs heavy on the soul of this world.
Breathe the Legacy by Michael Romani Stepped in where steep begins Souls lost and no one wins Steeped in the truth of liberty Comes a heart deep in history Born in a modern world's hurt Alarmed by life into fully alert One woman barely old enough Forced to be both tender and tough We breathe in her fragrant legacy Where every lost child is family Brave fought into the last night Speaks well in defense of the right Her life defined as both poem and poet Her footsteps live on as Vancouver shows it (c) April 4, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Advocate, Born, Brave, Breathe, Dare, Deep, Defense, Family, Footstep, Force, Fragrant, Heart, History, Hurt, Legacy, Liberty, Life, Live, Lost, Lost Child, Love, Modern World, Na/GloPoWriMo, Photograph, Poem, Poet, Poetry, Right, Sad, Show, Soul, Speak Well, Steep, Step, Tender, Tough, Truth, Vancouver, Win, Woman
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Thought of the Day: If You Can’t Be the Poet Be the Poem
“If you can’t be a poet, be the poem.” – David Carradine
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged David Carradine, Poem, Poet, Thought For the Day, You
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First Principles: Useless Laws Weaken the Necessary Laws
“Useless laws weaken the necessary laws.” – Charles de Montesquieu, in The Spirit of the Laws (1748)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Charles de Montesquieu, First Principles, Law, Necessary, The Spirit of the Laws, Useless, Weak
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When It’s Gone
My Plan B poem for the poetry month event. It wasn’t necessarily meant to be the poem dealing with the passage of time. But then, as the words flowed, it’s exactly about that isn’t it?
When It's Gone by Michael Romani Off to school And taught to concentrate Learn the rules That serve to exacerbate Fitting in Learning to conform Seldom then Slipping out of uniform Leave behind Those childish ways Filled in mind So the teachers say Snowfall On the wood He doesn't recall What he understood Life leads to love That is shiny and new But God above Can't stop life or war for you So far away As the war drags on Birthdays pass and still you stay Until it seems home is gone Reunited at last The stuff of dreams So much time has past His daughter bigger than she seems Busy days filled With meaningless details More driven than thrilled Gone off the rails Costs to be cut Take away meaning Nothing comes from nothing...but Life kills the dreaming Chin up and all of that Life goes on And that's a fact ...Until it's gone (c) April 3, 2019 Michael Romani All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Birthday, Busy Days, Childish, Chin Up, Concentrate, Conform, Costs, Cut, Daughter, Details, Dream, Drive, Fact, Fitting In, God, Gone, Kill, Leave, Life, Love, Meaning, Mind, Nothing, Passage, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Rail, Recall, Reunite, Rites, Rules, School, Shine, Snowfall, Teach, Thrill, Time, Understood, Uniform, War, Wood
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Thought For the Day: Poetry Is the Evidence of Life
“Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.” – Leonard Cohen
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Ash, Burn, Evidence, Leonard Cohen, Life, Poetry, Thought For the Day
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First Principles: A Good Moral Character For Life Is The First Essential of Mankind and Formed By Habits Contracted Early On
“A good moral character is the first essential in a man, and that the habits contracted at your age are generally indelible, and your conduct here may stamp your character through life.” – George Washington (1790)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Conduct, First Principles, George Washington, Habits, Important, Indelible, Learned, Life, Mankind, Moral Character, Stamp, Virtuous
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