first poemlet: mention your birthstone
\nsecond poemlet: use a word with three or more syllables
\nthird poemlet: mention your zodiac sign
\nfourth poemlet: use at least three capital letters (\u201cI\u201d on its own, and the beginnings of lines, do not count)
\nfifth poemlet: pick a color and use at least two synonyms\/varieties\/shades of it
\nsixth poemlet: use as many different kinds of punctuation mark as you can
\nseventh poemlet: surprise us with something fancy!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Anyway, this is an experiment that I’m unlikely to end up submitting to be published, so I thought I’d share it with my readers. \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n
[I would’ve wanted the roman numerals to be on the same level as the first line of each charmlet, with the rest of the stanza indented, but apparently that’s beyond my html skills and I’m too tired to figure it out now. So have this version, with the numerals above. \/end perfectionism]<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Charmlets<\/b><\/p>\n
i.
\nsticky summer, eating watermelon
\nby the bucketful, the richness
\nof it, like gobbling down
\nsoft tourmalines<\/p>\n
ii.
\npeeling back the centuries
\nto Caedmon\u2019s hymn
\nI shiver
\nat the reconstructed sounds,
\nthe stark vowels
\nhumming down in my throat<\/p>\n
iii.
\nScorpios keep secrets well, they say.
\nPerhaps I do, although I toss
\nhoroscopes down the drain.
\nAfter all, some secrets I kept
\nfor years. <\/p>\n
iv.
\nwhen I first met you,
\nand You, and YOu, and YOU,
\nmy heart didn\u2019t know
\nwhat wonders were ahead
\non this winding road
\nleading downriver<\/p>\n
v.
\nThat summer I learnt to laugh again.
\nThe grass seemed greener
\nthan heaven, as I sank down
\nonto the malachite bed
\nprepared for me
\nby nature \u2013
\nthat moss-fingered mother. <\/p>\n
vi.
\nOh \u2013 to struggle for it
\nand grasp it too! No fear
\n(no fear); just the blossoming woods
\nof my work: beauty written
\ndown onto each petal…
\ndare I? dare I?<\/p>\n
vii.
\nIf
\nI could
\nreach down into my soul,
\ngrasp a surety beyond the shoal
\nof slippery wishes, and see
\nmy future before me \u2013
\nif I could,
\nwould
\nI?<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Am on sick leave today because the wretched remnants of illness still lingered this morning. My New Year’s Eve was spent with a fever; I was so out of it that I was extremely content to be alone, and toasted the new year with a cup of peppermint tea. I’ve been under the weather ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,10,27,6,19],"tags":[28,12],"class_list":["post-95","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-novelette","category-personal-babble","category-poems-on-the-blog","category-poetry","category-short-stories","tag-prompt","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/snuu.kapsi.fi\/saranorja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}