Friday, April 27, 2018

Y is for YA YA and a Yadu

I am participating in the A to Z Challenge this month, and today's letter is V.
Click here for the list of blogs participating.

I have spent the past year-ish taking pictures of Maine vanity plates when I encountered them - most all in shopping center parking lots.

I am writing a poem for each one, and this year the poem form begins with the same letter.  I found 4 Maine vanity plates for today that begin with Y, and I chose to write a Yadu or Yatu.

The yadu (also spelled ya-du and yatu) is a Burmese form of poetry which consists of up to three stanzas of five lines. The first four lines of a stanza have four syllables each, but the fifth line can have 5, 7, 9 , or 11 syllables. A yadu should contain references to the seasons.
It has a climbing rhyme. The rhyme is on the fourth, third, and second syllables of both the first three lines and the last three lines.

---A 

--A-

-A-B 

--B-

-B---

This was not an easy pattern to follow.  I had to keep the format right in front of me for the whole time.  Now it seems not as difficult to remember, but it is hard to keep the flow with this pattern.
It IS done, though!  Yah, yah - ya ya - yeah, yeah, yay!



Almost

Almost summah!
Oh, yah, yah, yay!
Not fah, ya know
Till this snowin’
Stops blowin’ and tulips pop!

Then comes the sneeze
Caused by breeze through
The trees and grass;
Pollens pass by
En masse to nasal passage.

Almost summah!
Oh, yah, yah, yay!
Not fah, ya know
To nose blowin’
eyes flowin’ and tissues pop!


by Donna JT Smith, ©2018





These were all fun plates!

I can't believe tomorrow is Z - Z last day of A to Z!

6 comments:

  1. This is wonderful, Donna! A really interesting form that I'd like to try, and a very clever use of it for the season. Our noses can't win, can they?!

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  2. Finding your blog for the first time while still trying to visit blogs participating in the AtoZ Blog challenge. A fun theme, which makes me think my vanity plate that are my initials is boring after your examples for the letter Y. If you have time or interest, I have been writing about BOOKSHOPS, their architecture, loation and the great folks who sell books. There is an all poetry store in Boston, but I can't think the letter it is under. Hope you will search for it. Cheers!

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  3. I think it would be really hard to write poetry when you start with the form you have to follow. You've done such a good job all the way through. Congratulations!

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  4. Interesting and formidable poetry form that seems seamless from a reader's point of view. Lovely humor as we (all over the country) seem to keep waiting for spring! The license plates (what a collection) add a note of whimsy that fits perfectly. Congratulations! Beth at https://bethandwriting.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ha ha ... that is a funny, lyrical poem that captures summer feel perfectly and includes the not-so-pleasant bits as well.

    Seema, participant in #AtoZchallenge, Artist, Writer, Wanderer, and Dreamer.
    Yearning for a Boat Ride on Chilika Lake – Panthanivas, Satpada

    ReplyDelete

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