Colors of the Poems

Colors of the Poems

Sonnet

In Praise of You

The words that you sing, the songs that you hear,

they gather into the love that we share.

Jealousy, helplessly, all that we fear,

All that is carried by the pain we bear.

Yet by and by the distance we now close,

allow us to render in time ‘n control.

Good thought replacèd bad, habits we chose,

Our feelings, now mutual, are consoled.

Let Time fly by, we’ll look to the sky,

We see the same stars, same comets, same moon,

Rushèd deep thoughts almost making us cry,

Same loving hard thoughts, making us swoon.

Come my darling, hugs and kisses too.

Now that you are here, let me praise of you.

Villanelle

Cranberries and Pineapple

The things you do for your lover,

So many little things,

The things you would uncover.

The things you do for your lover,

The restless nights you’ll sleep,

The dreams you would uncover.

The things you do for your lover,

The songs you want to sing,

The feelings you would uncover.

The things you do for your lover,

Nothing as high and nothing as low,

The body you would uncover.

The things you do for your lover,

The juice that tastes so sweet,

The things you would uncover.

The things you do for your lover,

Cranberries and pineapple too,

The things you would uncover,

More fruits in different hue.

Prose Style

Animals You've Never Seen

Sea Dog, womp womp, we wallow in the waters and follow in the waves. In the upside down world, giraffes smoke seaweed and octopi sing in the trees. Tree octopus. Be careful, they don’t attack but they’re slimy and barky. Barky like a sea dog. And we run, flomp flomp, as the jackalopes cross. In the dry fields of a South Dakotan summer, the long ears quiver and the cotton tail shivers. So go to where you won’t shiver. On the continent of Australia, where the wild things are. Beware for spiders and crickets and cockroaches and cicadas. (They’re bigger than your face!) Beware, beware of the notorious drop bear. Hanging and hungry he’ll fall on your car, your roof, and even onto you. Beware when the drop dear drops, he’ll go chomp chomp.

Free Verse

Home in the Break of the Waves

Under the crest of the crashing white,

we feel the covers of a velvet blue,

we feel the colors of an aqua hue.

And we roam, letting the fish swarm,

And humankind enters the waters,

Blissful and oblivious to our slaughters.

Realization dawns upon the ocean family,

seaweed frail, the sea urchins crack,

oil spills leaving the ocean black.

Here was home but no one, not one little buddy, can stay.

Not even in the sea foam, where Aphrodite weeps from dusk to day.

Triolet

A Breath of the Coffeehouse

Inhale, the warmth, the spice, the haus.

Gentle workshop upon the bean,

Maybe drip, brew, caffeine for two.

Inhale, the warmth, the spice, the haus.

The heart, it pours, by cream n’ layer,

I love you a latte, now my prayer.

Inhale, the warmth, the spice, the haus.

Pitter, patter, the beans fall down.

Rondelet

A Night Alone

A night alone,

but I can imagine you here,

a night alone,

yet your spirit travels to me.

I’ve escaped by the thought of you,

so that my dream allow, no longer,

a night alone.

Author's Notes Upon the Colors of the Poems

You can't hear paintings. You can't see the hum of the hummingbird. Or can you?

In Praise of You 

This poem highlights the distance and closeness in a relationship no matter how far one could be, that two can still feel so close together, intertwined by love. I chose this to start of the series because we open our minds when we learn to open our hearts towards not just lovers, but friends, family, and all. In Praise of You is a sonnet, which is often a praise or love story, and so I tried to embody that with concepts of my own. I found flow with the inclusion of the typical night sky that makes us remember midnight madness and passions.

Cranberries & Pineapple

There is the stigma that men drink pineapple juice to taste better. Drinking cranberry juice supposedly does the same for women. Different bodies work different ways but ultimately there is one goal: pleasure to our partners. This poem is about love, sacrifice, feeling, and passion swirled into a story of fruits. There are underlying messages, found in lines such as "The things you would uncover." You discover each other's habits, mind, body, et plus. The repetition of "lover" and "uncover" allows us to focus on the many meanings and the intertwining of the two words. I enjoyed making my first villanelle.

Animals You've Never Seen

Creating this prose style poem had to be one of my absolute favorites. Having read people like Gertrude Stein before and not understanding their jargon, I think I've finally developed some part of that nonsense into this piece. Animals You've Never Seen are based upon mythical, folklorish, animal hoaxes around the world. In Australia, they talk about the drop bear. In South Dakota, they talk about jackalopes. There was a great internet sensation about octopi living in trees. Sea dogs came from youtuber Liza Koshy's skit in the Dead Sea. There's a lot of onomatopoeia going on to bring attention to each new animal and embodies their actions. It's hard to make true sense of these lines unless you've heard of these creatures. Otherwise it simply applies a playful tone. Go for it, search up these animals you've never seen. 

Home in the Break of the Waves

A plea is resonating throughout the lines to recognise the beauty of the ocean. Being in love with the sea, I intend to emphasize the contamination. The mention of Aphrodite is an allusion to Greek mythology as it was said that she was born from the crashing waves' foam, where Krono's parts landed in the ocean when he was slaughtered and thrown from his tyranny. Aphrodite is beauty and love, and the goddess must be crying, torn for the ocean's current state. There was no particular structure as to where the rhymes should've lied but I managed to create a rhythm.

A Breath of the Coffeehouse

I was sitting in Bakers & Baristas as I wrote this. The sound of whirring espresso and coffee beans poured into a funnel. The smell of tea, bean, and baked goods create the ambience of a typical coffeehouse. Long wooden tables and ceramic mugs. A triolet emphasizes a line thrice thought the poem so I had to find a meaningful, flexible line that could be stated three times. I spun off upon it, using it as my poem's theme. There is slight rhyme and an ending with an imaginable sound. "Pitter, patter" is often used for rain but in this poem, it refers to the coffee beans and connecting to the last line where "the beans fall down". 

A Night Alone

The rondelet is a short style, forcing us to squeeze all out thoughts we try to put out into 7 short lines. The brevity of the poem is meant to emphasize a theme and in this case, A Night Alone is the theme. I aimed to show a lonely night saved by the thought of someone you love. We often miss holding someone dear to us and falling into a dream can lead us to escape the heartache. This poem was written for someone I love and how even in the loneliest moments, I feel as if I'm with that one I love, whether I'm talking to them or dreaming. 

The whole series focuses on small details and happy moments. Hope you enjoyed!