Day 9 Rictameter Poem for #NationalPoetryMonth and "30 poems in 30 days"

Welcome to Day 9 of our “30 Poems in 30 Days” challenge. Today we are going to write a poem that has nine lines. It’s called a “Rictameter Poem.” I’ve used it a number of times over the years for this challenge, but it’s a unique poetry form and if you center it on your page, it looks really cool as each line increases in syllable count until it reaches the middle and then begins to decrease until the end. (Or it can all be aligned on the left).

Rictameter Poem ~ this poem focuses on the number of syllables per line. It doesn't matter if they rhyme of not. 

Here is the pattern for a RICTAMETER POEM ~ be sure to use the same word(s) for the first and last line!!

A rictameter is a nine line poetry form. The 1st and last lines are the same, syllable count as follows:

       ~ line 1 - 2 syllables - same word(s) as line 9

       ~ line 2 - 4 syllables

       ~ line 3 - 6 syllables

       ~ line 4 - 8 syllables

       ~ line 5 - 10 syllables

       ~ line 6 - 8 syllables

       ~ line 7 - 6 syllables

       ~ line 8 - 4 syllables

       ~ line 9 - 2 syllables - same word(s) as line 1  

EXAMPLES:

Marriage

Eternal love

In spite of the hard times

We have so much fun together

Until the years have refined us in ways

We never would have expected

The best is yet to come

Our kids have kids

Marriage

                                               

                                      © 2019 Stephanie Abney

Baby

Sent from heaven

Our prayers have been answered

Sweet to smell and soft to cuddle

Eyes sparkling, dimpled grin, little chin

Angelic face and tiny toes

Oh how we all love you

Bundle of joy

Baby 

  

                                                                         © 2018 Peggy Barker

China

My first time here

I came to teach English

You students were eager to learn

Our team taught you many wonderful things

And you taught us things in return

I hope I can come back

To my new love

China

                                  © 2016 Stephanie Abney

PLEASE REMEMBER ~ any poetry found on this blog, written by me, is my personal property and may not be used without my permission, other than sharing it as an example in a lesson or to read it to someone. The same goes for any poems that are shared in the comments of this blog or elsewhere online as a result of this challenge. They are the creative property of the person who writes them. These poems are their original work and no one may use them without their permission. It is understood that they own the copyright to them as soon as they post them. Thanks so much!

Also, if you choose to post your poems on your own blog ~ that’s awesome. But PLEASE don’t just copy and paste my daily instructions, but rather post your poem on your blog or your FB wall or wherever AND LINK BACK TO THIS BLOG POST for others to come here to read the instructions. I’ve spent considerable time researching the poetry forms and writing them up to share with you. Thanks for respecting my work.

Image 1 - Pixabay

Photo 2 - Nico Grütter at Pixabay

Photo 3 - courtesy of Stephanie Abney

DAY FIVE ~ “Cinquain Poem” (PATTERN ONE) for “30 Poems in 30 Days”

This is one of my FAVORITE forms of poetry - sweet, simple and to the point.    
                                                             

Cinquain Poem ~ there’s more than one style of cinquain poem – so we’ll call this “Pattern One.”

Cinq is French for FIVE ~ this poem has five lines that follow a specific pattern and THAT’S why I chose it for Day Five!!

This is a short five-lined poem doesn’t have an actual title; rather, the FIRST line (one word with 2 syllables) becomes the title.

It does not rhyme and in this version you count the number of SYLLABLES per line and each line has specific subject matter requirements. The first line has 2 syllables; each line increases by 2 syllables until the last line, which returns to 2 syllables:

1^st line ~ two syllables – the subject (or title) or your poem

2^nd line ~ four syllables that describe the title/subject

3^rd line ~ six syllables that express action

4^th line ~ eight syllables that express a thought or feeling

5^th line ~ two syllables synonym for title (restates subject using a different word)

EXAMPLES ~ here are 4 cinquain poems I wrote - two today and two a number of years ago. BE SURE THAT YOUR WORDS MATCH THE PURPOSE OF THAT LINE AND THE NUMBER OF SYLLABLES!! HAVE FUN!! ENJOY!!

Happy

Feeling joyful

A smile that endures

Whether in good times or bad times

Content

Stephanie Abney ~   © 2014

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

Oranges

Fragrant delight

Juice running down my chin

Sticky bites of satisfaction

Sunshine

Stephanie Abney ~   © 2014

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

Children
A gift from God
Grace our lives for a time
Remain in our hearts forever
Precious
Stephanie Abney ~   © 1999

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

Comfort
Feeling secure
Where judgment has no place
Wrapped in the safety of your arms
Husband
Stephanie Abney ~   © 1998

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

Your turn ~ give it a whirl - just pick out anything you are thinking of that is a two-syllable word, follow the pattern and see where it takes you. Feel free to post your poem in the comments, on your FB wall, your personal blog AND hopefully, in a poetry journal!! [You can follow me on Twitter by using @AbneyAuthor] Cheers!!

 

Forty-three years and COUNTING!! Happy Anniversary to US!!

Today is Aug. 5th ~ 

43 years ago, at the tender age of 19 (I know, I look about 14 in my wedding pictures), with only a year and half of college under my belt, I made the most important decision of my life – I married James Alex Abney on August 5, 1970 in the Los Angeles LDS Temple for “Time and All Eternity.” The rest . . . as they say . . .  is history!

We met in a college (BYU) snowball fight in November of 1969, started dating the end of January, 1970, got engaged, April 20^th and married August 5^th (all accomplished in less than a year). Were we crazy or what? Luckily, things have turned out well. Not that it’s been all sugar and spice. It’s been darn hard, but for where we are today, so worth it.

Thought I would share the story of the bright flowered bridesmaid dresses; a story I don’t think many of my family members have heard over and over, if at all. 

Back in 1970 the style was for bridesmaids to all wear the same pastel color, floor-length empire style dress, usually made with flowing sheer rayon voile fabric. Nope. That would never work for me. I LOVE color – I mean I REALLY love lots of BRIGHT vibrant colors – just go to my Pinterest Board (Color Splash – I LOVE Color) and see what I mean.

My mom and I decided to go to the fabric district in L.A. so we could have a large selection. Holy Cow! Too many stores with rows and rows of fabric. It was dizzying. I told my mom that I at least wanted to find a floral voile fabric. She had her doubts but we began to search the shelves of material.

And then, it happened. My mom didn’t MEAN for it to happen. She was trying to make a joke. She saw a bolt of the brightest yellow fabric with crazy colored daisies (one of my favorite flowers) on it. Mom picked up the bolt, showed it to me and said, “Here you go. This one has flowers on it.”

My eyes lit up and I reached for the flowered material as my mother tried to snatch it back out of my grasp. “This is perfect, Mom! I LOVE it!!”

“Yes, but I was only kidding.”

“I’m not. Let’s buy the bolt.”

And THAT is how we got my very BRIGHT bridesmaid dresses. I think my sister was always secretly glad that she was the maid of honor, and as such, her dress was solid yellow (her favorite color) with only a band of the floral print. (And the band for the bridesmaids was solid yellow).

People went through our receiving line with their eyes WIDE open!! It was such fun!! I LOVE these dresses.

Fun dresses at the wedding are no guarantee, that’s for sure. We’ve had plenty of struggles, financially and otherwise. We buried our youngest son nearly 13 years ago when he was just 16. We’ve each buried both of our parents. In fact, for Jim – his dad, Kenneth Abney, died in a plane crash when he was only 9. Then his step-dad who had been part of his family since Jim was 11 died in 2000; same year as my dad, his mom and our son (my mom passed away at Christmas time in 1998). Those were all some challenging times. And there have been other things that might surprise someone looking in from their vantage point, but that’s just life. We’ve weathered lots of things but where we are today, is a very wonderful place to be. Many wonderful experiences as well to round out the edges of our life together. So, here’s to many more years with Jim. Cheers!!

Today we have been married FORTY-ONE years!!!

41 years ago, Jim and I were sealed in marriage for "Time and All Eternity" in the Los Angeles Temple. We're still kickin' and loving life. It's been good, bad, wonderful, hard, funny, sad ... you name it, but it has all been worth it and that's what matters. 

Here is a cinquain poem I wrote years ago - still applies: 

Comfort
Feeling secure
Where judgment has no place
Wrapped in the safety of your arms
Husband

Stephanie Abney ~   © 1998

I couldn't hope to "re-cap" 41 years so I posted what has emerged as our "theme song" ~ "Through the Years" by Kenny Rogers. Enjoy - I'll be busy ...

BOOK REVIEW: A Mighty Heart by Mariane Pearl

I finished A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life And Death Of My Husband, Danny Pearl
by Mariane Pearl the other day. In some ways it reminds me of Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. Both take place mostly in Pakistan and both are so powerful that you reflect on them for days and even weeks to come. Both have some rough language but it was nearly transparent to me as the heart-wrenching frustrations in each story resulting in such words were so overwhelming that I hardly noticed the harsh and sometimes foul words, normally foreign to me. (And in both cases, I listened to the book on CD driving to and from work over the course of a couple of weeks. I still consider them books that I "read").

I remember when this occurred as the world held it's breath for five long weeks, sending up prayers in many languages for Danny's safe return. He was a reporter and the South Asia Bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal. Danny put himself in harm's way to shed some light to the side of the news that might bring about world understanding. Instead, in this instance, it brought a type of horror that proved to be both universal and yet painfully personal for his wife, Mariane, who was pregnant with their first child, a son.

On January 23, 2002, on his way to what he thought was an interview at a village restaurant in Karachi, Pearl was kidnapped by the militant group, "The National Movement for the Restoration of Pakistani Sovereignty." This group claimed Danny (of Jewish heritage and an American) was a CIA agent. Before he left for the interview, he told Mariane that he might be late for dinner. He never returned.

Mariane's riveting account of realizing her husband was missing and working to help the authorities piece it all together, leading up to Danny's eventual and brutal murder will leave you forever changed. Mariane is also an award-winning journalist and shares a very detailed step-by-step account of what took place. Surprisingly, interwoven throughout every page of the book, is a love story so intimate, intense and tender that you'll find often yourself smiling and feeling very privileged to "know" these remarkable people, including those surrounding Mariane during this difficult time ... each with their own "mighty heart."

The book on CD is read by Mariane. You really need to concentrate to understand her as she was born of an Afro-Chinese-Cuban mother and Dutch-Jewish father in France. She is a practicing Buddist. Mariane was raised in Paris and has a very unique accent. It's a good thing that you have to listen so carefully as you want to catch every detail and no one else would ever be able to tell the story as she does. It's a story I shall not soon forget. It makes you grateful and also sad but leaves you in awe of the courage of so many of our brothers and sisters half-way around the world, especially Mariane, whose heart is every bit as mighty as her husband's.

Marriage is a gift to make us holy

The Lord is always ready and willing to teach us something... are we just as ready and willing to learn? Sometimes the lessons come in the most unexpected places. For example:

Jim and I went to a wedding on Saturday ~ Troy and Lynda ~ They are not of our faith. It was held in a Lutheran Church. As a life-long member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints, I always find non-temple, non-LDS wedding ceremonies interesting; many I have observed are very sweet - not the same as the eternal blessings pronounced in the temple, but sweet, nonetheless. This was such a wedding. I sat there enjoying the ceremony and the priest said a couple of rather profound things. One thing he said was that marriage was not given to us to make us happy. Rather, marriage is a gift from God to make us holy… and that would make us happy.

A typical definition of holy is “dedicated or devoted to the service of God.” I really like that. In marriage, if we strive to become holy, then happiness is a natural progression. It makes sense. We are told in scripture that “Men [and women] are, that they might have joy.” It also says in Mosiah 2:41 (one of my favorite scriptures): “… consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.”

I can’t think of a better “gift” than one that would make us holy and prepare us for an eternity of happiness with our eternal companions. And marriage is a pretty good place to get the prickles and rough spots rubbed right off of ya’. Just something to ponder on. Take care.