Spirits In Peace Blog

Photo Courtesy Of BigFoto

My usual style is free verse with ventures into form poetry such as haiku, tanka, and the etheree. I don’t normally write rhyme, although I have done rhyming etherees. But this piece presented itself more or less in non-metrical couplets, and all I had to do was arrange them in sequence. The Muse was most generous in sending me the lines in their entirety.

When I lived in Montreal, I saw so many lost teenage girls. Behind the heavy make-up of the prostitute was the face of a child of no more than perhaps at most fifteen. Something I recently read in a novel reminded me of that scene. How sad that our society lets this happen to its children - I used to wonder what kind of horror they were escaping at home if this life was perceived as better…

Montrealers commonly refer to rue St-Laurent, a long street which divides east from west, as “the Main.” By day, it is captivating and fascinating, and one can buy groceries or a lunch of any ethnic persuasion and do the usual shopping, etc. After 10 p.m., it turns into a nightmare…

I did not really intend this piece to be strictly metrical but rather rhythmical, and wanted to try some rhyme.

St-Laurent Strut

Little girl lost on rue St.-Laurent
top tugged down her breasts to flaunt,
black vinyl skirt and knee high boots -
she’s all alone, no talk of her roots.

Striding with sharp stiletto’d strut
she spends her nights in hovel and hut.
Arms gray-veined from needle and knife,
on fear and addiction she bases her life.

Prom preempted by pusher-pimp
who walks with a syphilitic limp,
she’s owned, dishonoured, and poorly kept.
How many tears has her mother wept?

On the street where daughter-dreams
are daily dashed amidst the screams
sirens are shrieking once again -
girl-child murdered on Montreal’s Main.

Picture Courtesy Of BigFoto

Not long ago, I encountered a website displaying a few rhyming etherees and providing some possible rhyme schemes. I didn’t tackle one right away, but more or less let the notion simmer on my mind’s back burner for a couple of months while I dealt with the horrific winter nature offered us.

Then, just this past weekend, I suddenly found myself working on one. I had not set out to do this so much as one wanted to be written, as often happens with poetry of all types. Over the past few days, I have played around with rhymes schemes, working to incorporate the additional pattern into the already highly structured etheree format. In my first attempt I used couplets(a-a-b-b- etc.), which are fairly straightforward. I then worked with alternating lines in the a-b-a-b-c-d-c-d pattern.

My most recent effort was with a rhyme scheme beginning with a-b-c-b, and I found this more intricate pattern interesting to work with, trickier than the simple couplets but perhaps less difficult than the alternating form. Nature, as usual, provided me with a metaphor for this somewhat spiritual piece.

A Heavenward Glide: A Rhyming Double Etherée

Let
me not
shed a tear,
so overwrought
about matters which
are well past my control
that I make myself daft, my
thinking on an unpleasant roll.
For I need to realize what dwells
within my power to alter or change,
conducting my affairs in a calm style
in such manner as I might arrange.
I must let worries and concerns
which simply add up to pride
float on the western wind
and heavenward glide
past clouds to safe
realms above
in God’s
Love.

© Carol Knepper

The final variation of the etheree to be dealt with in this series is the reverse double. I will leave triples and quadruples to the individual to pursue, as these are fairly rare and take a good deal of practice.

A reverse double has twenty lines, of course, beginning and ending with a ten-syllable line. Lines 10 and 11 each have one syllable. The complete produce will resemble and hourglass is properly configured. Like all the other forms, it may be punctuated or not, as suits the poem and the poet, and may be left or right-aligned, or centered.

The syllable pattern is as follows:

Line 1: 10 syllables

Line 2: 9 syllables

Line 3: 8 syllables

Line 4: 7 syllables

Line 5: 6 syllables

Line 6: 5 syllables

Line 7: 4 syllables

Line 8: 3 syllables

Line 9: 2 syllables

Line 10: 1 syllable

Line 11: 1 syllable

Line 12: 2 syllables

Line 13: 3 syllables

Line 14: 4 syllables

Line 15: 5 syllables

Line 16: 6 syllables

Line 17: 7 syllables

Line 18: 8 syllables

Line 19: 9 syllables

Line 20: 20 syllables

Here is a reverse double, let-aligned and without punctuation:

Saturday Recycler Thoughts: A Reverse Double Etherée

On Saturdays papers boxboard tins and
plastics build up at recyclers whilst
people divest themselves of a
great jumble of packaging
leading one to ponder
if companies which
blithely produce
such sundry
garbage
may
be
held to
a standard
in such issues
and if the shoppers
caring about this earth
must make a clear assertion
by rejecting merchandise which
is over-packaged and bring back the
old era of bottles used more than once

And a punctuated, centered one, in a much lighter vein:

Strike Up The Band

As Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
throbbed loudly on those record players,
I had not the slightest thought that
those aged sixty-four might still
be needed though far too
well-fed for their own
waistlines! Always
prepared and
prone to
be
a
willing
bridge over
troubled waters
at times, most truly
struggle to endure with
a little help from their friends,
while spending hours in Strawberry
Fields of wonder and accomplishment,
yet in due time to join the Grateful Dead!

Have fun with the different variations on the etheree theme. Try all the forms, and try some singles as series. When one finally looks perfect and packs a meaningful message, you have mastered the art.

Series © Carol Knepper 2009