Poetry: Day 5

And now for today’s prompt (optional, as always). Love poems are a staple of the poetry scene. It’s pretty hard to be a poet and not write a few – or a dozen – or maybe six books’ worth. But because so many love poems have been written, there are lots of clichés. Fill your poems with robins and hearts and flowers, and you’ll sound more like a greeting card than a bard. So today, I challenge you to write a “loveless” love poem. Don’t use the word love! And avoid the flowers and rainbows. And if you’re not in the mood for love? Well, the flip-side of the love poem – the break-up poem – is another staple of the poet’s repertoire. If that’s more your speed at present, try writing one of those, but again, avoid thunder, rain, and lines beginning with a plaintive “why”? Try to write a poem that expresses the feeling of love or lovelorn-ness without the traditional trappings you associate with the subject matter.

SonNOT 18
(Inspired by the movie "Gone Girl" and survivors of domestic violence)

Shall I discuss thee with my lady friends?
Thou art more cruel with vile temperament:
Rough times do shake the rosy buds each day,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime heated is the marriage to fear,
And often rose his rage complexion high;
And every pain from fist sometime must hide,
By chance, or fear that hides her, under here
But thy eternal spirit shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st:
Nor shall Death bag thou by his angered hand,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st;
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So women live with this and must give light to it.