Cats are Iambic Pentameter

Light-footed cats are nature’s iambics
Each subtle feline step unstressed to stressed
Across a lawn, a counterpane, a heart
As a tail-twitching cat ballet, all grace

But dogs are four-beat Anglo-Saxon1 lines
Galumphing heavily and clumsily
Across a moor, a sleeping-bag, a heart
As a tail-wagging country reel (gone bad)

Soft-footed cats are nature’s iambics
And dogs are four-beat Anglo-Saxon lines


1Old English Anglo-Saxon (approx. fifth-twelfth century). Applies to four-stress hemistichal alliterative verse, e.g. Beowulf.

- Stephen Fry, *The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within

I will
Write the best Love Poem ever...
Define love, finally...
In free verse or in rhyme...
Refine love from all emotions...
Divine love for the lacking...
Confine the what, where, how and who...

Will style and technique suffice?
Shall I
Write trochee when catching my breath,
Carve words in spondee for lasting ecstasy,
Pen dactyl tri-syllables for your hair,
Use iambics for your lips,
If my best is anapest,
I'll use it for your eyes.
I can beat out tetrameters, pentameters,
And go as far as hexameters?

When I'm finally finished
Struggling over the number of lines,
I may settle for,
Elegy or sonnet,
Ballad, lyric or ode.

My final line should read:
That's all you need to know.

oh god, what have i gone and done this time.
i walk along the boulevard alone,
a cigarette is tucked behind my ear.
I want to say i hate your dress, except
you feel the same about this tie of mine.
laugh quietly and well, and smile often.  
keep secrets close, but try to not tell lies.
You look at me, your looking turns me on.
Inhale, exhale, breathe deep and do not stop.
Nothing you do, or say, can stop this pain.
Drink deep, sing gaudeamus igitur.
An electrical shock illuminates.
Short, long, and meter can make all the words.
Do not forget to tie your shoes today.

Nine in mind when thinking of intuitive

Intelligence honed, ‘swhen finger pressed pen
Narrowed of folks, lest one grasps thee ant
*** for tat induced, Anatol did conceive
Unsolder misfortune; twas this you lost heart?
Iambics in poets, well known from the Greeks
Treaties raised high, nations rise higher
Introvert dig deep, tis best; never lose sight of ones antipode
Versatile ‘twill  mold you, to truth will it lead
Eyes fixed on all creatures, tis they that know best

Umbridging the gap

and the platitudes of word-******

     as well as the Encyclopedic pimps of posh

spiced with lingual ice...



          Because I am a simpleton

with a thirst for the Beloved

             and its discriptive meanings, I am

                       scholarly lacking

    Juxtaposing my script to refer

to references Grecian or urn,

                     enflagrante artisan

                            spurts with superlatives and

personified iambics of rhetorical lines

       limned with deep shagrin

              because my verbs are linear

even when my chicken scratch

                          struck midnight a match stick

flame to illuminate

         my poetic fluffer's formulae

              schisms from my own mind's magician hat...

Not to be-little or slight those hands walking

        that yellow the pages

                     with slothly seeking rote

              for meandering bibliographies

a librarian's histology fingers for Captain

Cook / exploration's verbose

           exploitation if at most

                   connecting dots treasured maps

of purposeful / placement for imagery

                         in the textiles

              of poetry's destined and enlightening

       cloak & dagger or a Throw

                        or a goose-down warmth

of Love / to blanket the night away

                           just as would a mother's / tucking in

                from the day's overwhelming

lack of reverances, referenced

             oh how to closely listen   / or live

                        beyond the history

to be in the moment

              comparing and sharing

     our joys and the power of now . . . keep it simple

because I am a simpleton with a thirst

                         with a thirst for the Beloved,

        the Truth of a promise / endowed Tao of Us. . .

Poetry - Why Must There be Iambs?

Iambics are the sky through which words fly
Formations sweeping all five seasons across
In order royal and in right service to
The aspirations of all noble youths

For verses built without a careful plan
Fall but as clutter on a wasted page
Their meanings and intents broken apart
And lost (like sophomores between each class)

Free verse is only an unanswered why:
Iambics are the sky through which dreams fly

What wicked intent, wretched little Ravidus,
casts you headlong into my iambics?
Which god, ill-invoked by you, readies to stir up a crazed fray?
Or was it so that you can become the subject in popular chatter?
What do you want? Is it pleasing to be famous in whatever way you desire?
You will be, since you determined to covet my loves, along with eternal retributions.

Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                        Shakespeare: But I Gave You Your Start

                          Cf. Shakespeare’s Sonnets 79 & 80

Once upon a time you and I were alone
I wrote of your virtues and your beauty rare
You posed for me, for a portrait painted in verse
You gave my poor iambics a forever glow

Your best is so much better than my good
And so I understand if you have found another pen
To pleasure you with far more skillful words
While I am left with an empty, unmade page

There are other poets of superior art
But please remember that I gave you your start

Umbridging the gap,
and the platitudes of word-******
     as well as the Encyclopedic pimps of posh
spiced with lingual ice...
          Because I am a simpleton
with a thirst for the Beloved
             Her discriptives, meanings,
                      Am I / I am / scholarly lacking
    Juxtaposing my script to refer
to references Grecian or urn, an
                     enflagrante artisan
                            spurts with superlatives,
personified iambics of rhetoric, the lines
       limned with deep shagrin

              because my verbs are linear
even when my chicken scratch
                          struck midnight a match stick
flame to illuminate
         my poetic fluffer's formulae,
              schisms from my own mind's magician hat...

Not to be-little or slight those hands walking
        that yellow the pages
                     slothly seeking rote,
              for meandering bibliographies,
librarian's histology / fingers for Captain
Cook or Hook / exploration's verbose
           exploitation if at most
                   connecting dots’ treasured maps
purposeful / placement / the imagery
                         in the textiles
              of poetry's destined enlightenments

       cloak & dagger or a Throw
                        a goose-down warmth
of Love / to blanket the night away
                           just as would a mother's tucking in
                from the day's overwhelming
lack of reverances, referenced,
             oh how to closely listen   / hear
                        beyond the history
beyond the moments end
              comparing and sharing
     our joys power of now . . .
keep it simple

because I am a simpleton with a thirst
                         with a thirst for the Beloved,
        the Truth of an endowed Tao /
Promise of Us. . .
(All gaps and platitudes)