Feminine Rhyming Couplet with Variations

Another Engl 131 Assignment! We basically had to write a descriptive couplet in iambic form, but with a caesura after the second foot of the first verse, a trochaic substitution in the third foot of the first verse and another one in the first foot of the second verse. The rhyme scheme is A A. Each verse contains 11 syllables, the last one is unaccented, thus the name of the exercise: feminine rhyming couplet with variations. Nice deviation from the standard line in iambic pentameter. Pattern is as follows:

/ x ´ / x ´ , / ´ x / x ´ / x ´ / x

/ ´ x / x ´ / x ´ / x ´ / x ´ / x

We had to choose one subject from our list of "Walmart nonsense words," so I -- naturally -- picked "hammer." Once again, we weren't allowed to use metaphors. Simple plain rhetoric. One word: mindf*ck. I hope you enjoy.

Hammer

The modern head: steel for efficient bounces.

Standard can weigh from ten to twenty ounces.

Cheers,

Charmander Char

Drifter

DON'T open that window!
Hours searching for the right words
for my mental show & tell--and it's here!
A THOUGHT hit my mind--now it's mine.

DON'T open that window!
The in utero snapshots of my seed
will burst OUT of my soul,
leave the room,
crawl out the window,
seep back into the world.

Windows closed, my pen drifts, to find
peace in the dreams I crochet with paper.

There's me--drifting
drifting under a cumulus sky,
Interstate flooded with my stepping-stone trucks.

I play hopscotch on the freight trucks
with catlike surreptitiousness;
I claim my nighttime alley roof
in broad daylight.

I drift as I dunk the spectators' thoughts
into the ice water of my imagination.
I feel. The scorching heat
heat of the day adheres to my skin,
kissed away by the healing wind.
My cured feet, naked, they wander
above the star-studded asphalt.

Fin

You may open the window now.

~
Cheers,
Char

Engl 348 (Iambic Pentameter)

I like the way our Teacher looked like drapes.
Her shoulders--wrapped by floral prints and leaves--
they seemed to me, were rods that held up yards
of flowers that cascaded to her feet.

Last Ballet Class (Iambic Pentameter)

And I remember when Poseidon died--
a day before my grandpa killed himself--
as I was twirling on the tip of my
new Sanshas. Fall from a passé, I cried.

Walmart Poesy

Recently, our Engl 131-Intro to Poetry Writing class had to go to Walmart for an odd assignment. We had to name and write down as many products as we could... Bread, artichoke, frying pan, trash can, brassieres--everything. Needless to say, we ended up with hundreds of words. Then, the professor asked us to write a couple of verses in iambic pentameter using words from one section of the store at a time. Our professor often gives us odd assignments like this one, but they all have a valuable purpose. He said we had to learn to weave words together without having to worry about meaning or depth, at least not yet. Baby steps. I expect to be writing some mad free verse by the end of this semester.

Examples:

Clothes
pajamas, nightgown, collar, button, sleeve

Tools
compressor, hammer, level, pulley, screw

Kitchen
fork, skillet, ladle, saucer, baster, spoon


Cheers,
Charmonsta'