These poems will be of most interest to those who love the traditional poetry forms as taught in classes from ancient to modern times. Rhythmic verses are often set to music and easier to commit to memory than more prosaic forms.
Metric stanzas, Haiku en tandem
By Mary Alice RanieriTrafford Publishing
Copyright © 2014 Mary Alice Ranieri
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4907-4633-3Contents
Chastising Earth, ix,
Preface, xi,
The Heart of Space, 1,
Recycled Twins, 2,
Aftermath, 3,
Angel-wing Rosary, 4,
Terra's Concert, 5,
Gardens of Art, 6,
Fog Mayhem, 7,
Greater Light, 8,
Mount Rushmore, 9,
Predators, 10,
Winter Wayfarers, 11,
Ode to Jasper Tom, 12,
Summer Break, 13,
Winter Canvas, 14,
War Victims, 15,
Conservation, 16,
Desert Rain (Haiku Duo), 17,
Earth Meets Sky, 18,
Self-Service, 19,
Pet Showoffs, 20,
September, 21,
Divining Tribes, 22,
Lethal Air, 23,
Rescue, 24,
Conscience, 25,
Roses, 27,
Wine and Roses, 28,
Around Texas, 29,
Oil Spills, 30,
Bittersweet, 31,
Musical Magic, 32,
Journey of the Soul, 33,
Seasonal Testing, 34,
Vespers, 35,
Advents, 36,
Summer Sunsets, 37,
Minding Trees, 38,
Touting Spring, 39,
The Child Inside, 40,
Tree-house, 41,
Rustler's Hill, 42,
TX-Mex Window Trail, 43,
The Hunter, 44,
Awesome Events, 45,
Fewer Redwoods, 46,
Contortions, 47,
Widowhood Dilemma, 48,
Freshets, 49,
Prairie Fire, 50,
Storm Sequence, 51,
Flower Family, 52,
Cryptic Sea, 53,
Saving a Crop, 54,
Haiku Duo, 55,
Chastening Earth, 56,
Spiritual Awakening, 57,
Divine Birthday, 58,
Ebb Tide, 59,
Fireflies, 60,
White Moon, 61,
Separation, 62,
A Soldier Prays, 63,
Journeys, 64,
Bittersweet, 65,
Seasonal Songs, 66,
Royal Dreams, 67,
Ballade, 68,
Extinctions (haiku), 69,
The Dream, 70,
Demanding Rights, 71,
Waterfalls, 72,
Gardener's Infinity, 73,
The Freedom Bell, 74,
Pollution, 75,
Home for an Artist, 76,
Annie, 77,
Sailor, 78,
Old Friends, 79,
India, 80,
Dynastic Art, 81,
Textures, 82,
The Talisman, 83,
Author's Page, 85,
CHAPTER 1
The Heart of Space
Passing through rows of wheat,
We observe one heaving heart-beat:
Yellowed wisdom stored in grain,
In rocks and shells along the lane.
Plundering stone for silicon chips,
We open Earth's chambered crypts.
Recycled Twins
Collided moons foment warm dough:
Kneading their risen batters,
Pre-earth absorbs Theia's air,
Leaving her twin in shatters.
Spinning around their star,
Fusion withdrawal begins:
Dark gravity and cosmic war
Recycle a pair of twins.
Life thrives on its lunar beam,
Could Theia now rule supreme?
Aftermath
Awesome lull in wake of a coastal storm:
Twisted dross, shell heaps, limbs astray,
Sand crabs dig nests precisely claw-deep,
If seaweed moss has cleared the way.
Angel-wing Rosary
Each God-fearing monk agrees
to become road running refugees,
San Antonio bound,
escaping Pissarro's hunting ground.
Ignoring their losses,
Franciscans leave El Paso crosses
to nesting wrens.
Let us follow our Tejas friends.
With Yucca for manna, Saguaro for shade,
they braved iguanas unafraid
from bluebonnet fields to sandy shores,
to armadillo hulls, and horns of boars;
angel-wing pendants
hang like rosary remnants
from tides of the sea
in Corpus Christi!
Terra's Concert
Nimrods no longer aim for shallow skies
when continents clash and Alps arise,
orchestrating their crashing tunes:
tectonic plates thump scales
like rustic Nordic runes
or songs of hump-back whales.
Sediments encroach our coral sea,
devouring pink-flowering anemone,
splitting glaciers as glockenspiels
of icy rain with the flap of wheels--
Calliope pipes or roaring trains.
Bassoons and a strumming viola reveals
other stalagmite chains.
Over boiling steam from a lava hump,
Flutes flounder for notes ...
bagpipes labor to pump.
Kilauea awakens from sleep in arsenic mud,
Hula guitars warn of lava's fiery blood.
Thunderous drums release ground light ...
Oh, how we long to rise in flight!
but masters of gravity ... mighty earthquakes,
hold us hostage. We quiver like accordion shakes.
Angelic trumpets withstand huge hurricane winds;
we moan and sigh to hear their ancient hymns.
Gardens of Art
I
Artist cleans hake and sable
To store in holding slots:
It's time to sow his Pansy seeds,
Transplant new sprouts from pots.
Pansy blooms become a gouache,
Or pose for a more transparent wash.
II
Oleanders once flanked the old hotel.
Blooms of white and mauve have lost
Protecting blades of sea-weed green
To coastal gales and winter frost.
Terraced garden swept by moist wind
Has smoothed the wrinkled sand
Packed down by salty breath of ocean air,
Zigzag shaped--a woodland turned sideways down.
Beachcombers gather shells--sand dollar,
Conch and angel wing survive
Their tramping feet ... the coup de grace
Diminishes a Paradise.
Fog Mayhem
Windy troubadour
Serenades a waning moon,
Strewing sand along the shore,
Carving a dune.
Transparent dew--
Glimmering drops of light,
Dark skies hide stars from view;
Dense fog has stolen the night.
Cathedral silence follows autumn
Around smoke stacks and flues
Leaving only a few pastels
Of summer's vibrant hues
Pointless footsteps remember the need
For the blush of spring, forgiving our greed.
Greater Light
Star gazers stomp and shout
Around their campfire logs of pine.
A circle of Yin and Yang devout,
Swing their lamps to align
With invisible Life Divine.
Mount Rushmore
Setting suns bedazzle
Highway tourists, commuting,
But taking time for saluting
Their Founding Fathers. Reborn in stone,
Noses sculpt aquiline,
Square-set jaws, and firm-set mouths,
Their eyes reflecting Life Divine.
Predators
I
Translucent clouds, as gray as doves, soon meet
To spawn their floating wombs in a pool
Of milky air on windy wings seeking a foal,
Amoebas ride to earth on snow and sleet:
Some crash on rocky cliff and shoal.
Descending creatures,
Spawning, seeding another shore--
From pools of chaotic soup,
We specify ourselves the more ...
II
(tanga - trio)
Chameleons turn
Bismarck blue or stay earth-brown
Straddling a log
Laughing at Beagle's creased nose
Daring to race color-smart clowns
Prowlers blind to light
Owl, night hawk, opossum
Stalk the quiet dark
Mating calls ride on waves of sound
Ocean tern, sea gull, pelican
Silver island cay
Floating slab--Morro Bay
Hungry seals foray
Tutored circus fleets--now clowns
Quickly leap for thrown-out treats
Winter Wayfarers
(haiku en tandem)
Icy Nome's routine
Borealis flaring green
Solstice crystalline
Igloo water holes
Seals asleep beneath white sheets
Deep hibernation
Honeysuckle vines
Lilac blooms are gone ... starved drones
Marking nectar trails
Merry shopping...
