I Stand Up – A Tanka

I stand up then fall

Like a toddler past his prime

Every step my first

I suppose life works this way

Until the day of our death

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Pride – An Ethere

Pride

A sin

So deadly

Corrupting heart

And corrupting soul

Showing ones arrogance

The father of all others

Giving birth to six progeny

In spite of being self-absorbed

Plaguing this world for eternity

.

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Mornings Ritual

Sumatran wafts through silent home

Gently caressing the olfactory.

Warm rays of gold wash across rested faces,

Coaxing them to greet the day.

Is this the making of perfection,

What Heaven on earth must be like?

~

Morning stings the unaccustomed eyes;

Only temporary as adrenaline trickles

Leading us back to life.

So miraculous, so mundane,

Routine in its simplicity, this art of waking,

Rising from slumber.

~

Taking in the new day

Like breath Into lungs, body, soul,

Thankful for all that I have,

All that I will give.

With cup…steaming…

I am ready to meet the day.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Song In My Heart – A Haiku

This song in my heart

Each stanza sung just for you

A passionate tune

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Today – A Ghazal

O’ my love, why must I suffer this hell today.

Like so many days before, I fell today.

.

I’m trying to move on, but my heart won’t allow,

It’s afraid I’ll forget you if I quell today.

.

Your passing lives on in my blood and my bones,

Like a mystic potion I’m under it’s spell today.

.

Without you my sweet I am no longer whole,

Subsisting as nothing but a broken shell today.

.

Tonight I will drop to my knees and I’ll pray

That pain can be confined to it’s cell today.

.

Through tears in my eyes, for comfort I look.

There is no one to whom I can tell today.

.

So with a heart that is heavy Dom must wish you goodnight,

I’ll bid you adieu and farewell today.

.

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I have to say that this is the toughest poetic form that I have tried to date.  It requires a great deal of forethought to have it make sense and yet I still am not sure if I succeeded.  If you want to give a new form a try, this might be the one to put you to the test.  It certainly tested me.

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FORM: Ghazal – (Pronunciation: “guzzle”) Originally an Arabic verse form dealing with loss and romantic love, medieval Persian poets embraced the ghazal, eventually making it their own. Consisting of syntactically and grammatically complete couplets, the form also has an intricate rhyme scheme. Each couplet ends on the same word or phrase (the radif), and is preceded by the couplet’s rhyming word (the qafia, which appears twice in the first couplet). The last couplet includes a proper name, often of the poet’s. In the Persian tradition, each couplet was of the same meter and length, and the subject matter included both erotic longing and religious belief or mysticism.

No Art Lies In Pain – A Tanka

No art lies in pain

Pain simply feeds the master

Like bread the hungry

Nourishing body and soul

Statue of David

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Loneliness – A Septolet

Loneliness,

self imposed

out of shyness,

A struggle.

 .

Afraid

of hurt,

I’ll remain invisible.

.

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Prejudice – An Acrostic

Painful

Raping ones identity

Extracting their soul

Just to claim superiority

Unfathomable to the logical mind

Disgusting to those blind to difference

Inclusion makes us grand

Communion makes us stronger

Ending prejudice

.

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

I Think – A Tanka

I think…I’m thinking

Ne’er ceasing, ever changing

Like tides ebb and flow

Under natures influence

Yet free to carve my own course

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

This Blanket Of Snow

This blanket of snow,

Holds no greater chill than that of my soul,

Tangled in frigid fingers of emotion,

Drowning in a veritable ocean,

Whose frothy foam I call home.

~

I ask not for your sympathy,

Desire not your empathy,

This road I must travel alone,

A path my heart to me has shown,

Until my thirst has been sated.

~

To struggle forth and never find,

Reeks with havoc a fragile mind,

Constantly reaching to dull the pain,

No matter how subtle to keep me sane,

Darkness hides the tears I grieve.

~

Let not this smile I outward show,

Mislead you that I carefree go,

Buried deep within sullen core,

Bolted and locked the iron door,

My feelings trapped in dungeon black.

~

I pray one day to find the key,

To let in light so that I might see,

The gift of worth in this life I’ve led,

Before I join the cold stone dead,

On a sea of stark eternity.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~