W is for Window and Waka

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

The waka is a Japanese 5-line poem (or stanza) that is often considered synonymous with the tanka, because both have the 5-7-5-7-7 syllable structure. The waka groups lines together so that the first 2 lines should make one thought, the next 2 lines the next, and the final line can stand on its own, or complete the second group, making a 3 line thought.
End stop, or use other forms of punctuation after lines 2, 4, and 5. 

 

Window to the sea

You awake the child in me –

Salt in my hair and

periwinkles in my hands –

I look out and hold this world. 

by Donna JT Smith ©2025

 

V is for Vase and Virelai

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

 

The Virelai is a French poetic form with alternating rhymes and line lengths. Here are basic guidelines:

• nine lines per stanza
• lines one, two, four, five, seven, and eight have 5 syllables
• lines three, six, and nine have 2 syllables
• the five-syllable lines rhyme with each other and the two-syllable lines rhyme with each other for the rhyme pattern: aabaabaab
  
• the end rhyme for the short lines continues on in the following stanza: bbcbbcbbc
• the final stanza's short-line end rhyme should be the same as the long-line end rhyme in the opening stanza (to complete the end-rhyme circle) ccaccacca
• So with 3 stanzas it would look like this: aabaabaab, bbcbbcbbc, ccaccacca
  
  
  
  

  
  

  Faced with a Vase
  

  
  

  Reflections I face

  as I pause in space

   

  by bed

  water in clear vase

  six flowers embrace

  re-fed
  

  I grant each a place
  

  for petals misplaced

  and spread
  

   

  It seems that I've read
  

  blooms have no dread
  

  when picked

  and a vase doesn't shed
  

  a tear it is said

  when nicked
  

  blooms pink, orange, red
  

  and vase are instead
  

  sore tricked
  

   

  Though tall walls constrict
  

  they see no conflict
  

  of place
  

  warm sunlight is clicked
  

  the sky that's cloud-slicked
  

  replaced
  

  they all contradict
  

  and only depict
  

  dead space

  
  

  by Donna JT Smith ©2025

  
  

  Oh, my.  That was tiring and trying.  This form has quite the structure.  I may try it again, but it takes a lot out of you.  Trying to make it make sense, have a flow, and follow syllables and rhyming repetitions was like wrangling cats!  You have to make sure you have enough words that rhyme and are usable, before you even start or you will run out before the end or have to just say gibberish.  It then becomes less a free-flowing expression and can get very mechanical and deliberate sounding.

  Tomorrow is W and I am not ready.  Wagon, wheel, witch, willow, window...maybe window.  That could be fun.  See you later, when I know and have done what I'm doing.
  

  
  

   
  

   
  

  
  

  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  

  
  

   
  

  
  

U is for Ukulele and an Ubi Sunt

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

Ubi sunt comes from the Latin meaning “Where are they?” The phrase “ubi sunt” begins many medieval poems, most of which are a meditation on death and mortality,  but has come to mean any style of poem that tone, and using a similar rhetorical questioning device. 

There is a sense of nostalgia, the idea of the transience of life, and a pessimistic tone; that all things end, all things die, and things were better back long ago. The format is not the issue in this type of poem, it is the sentiment. 

After writing this I decided to make it a shape poem also.  Lol!  'cause why not? And after way overworking and overthinking and overpainting.  I stopped and said, "Enough already."  No exclamation point.  Just a firm period. And order.  It's a uke. Take it or leave it. You should have seen the first one.  And I thought this would be easier than a turtle.

 

Ukulele

Where

did our

small

"my

dog

has

fleas"

makers of joy go? Did

they have all four strings? 

Were they supposed to? 

Were they in

tune? Did it really

matter?  Did anyone care? 

"Bicycle Built for Two" is the 

best song ever. We will sing it 

forever. Do you want to

ride bikes?

by Donna JT Smith ©2025 

History of me and ukuleles, and this poem:

When I was young, a friend and I used to play ukuleles in the summer. I doubt that we were anything to sing about, but we had fun. I decided to get a uke a few years ago. I thought it would be something to do. It would occupy some very alone times that were coming.

I took it with me to the nursing home when I was there recovering from a fortunate fall down a full flight of stairs (fortunate because I should not be here, but am). It fit in my wheelchair I had to use for a while, and I took it to the next room. And I was able, even with braces on both wrists, to strum the chords to a couple of hymns and play and sing to the 96 year old woman next door.

I now own 10 ukuleles. And I play weekly with the Skidompha Strummers. I’m not good at it, but I don’t need to be. I’m having fun.

T is for Turtle and a Tetractys

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

T is for Turtle and a Tetractys.  I wasn't delighted with the Box Turtle I did.  But I decided not to scrap it and just post it regardless.  I'm still hurrying too much and overthinking.  That's when it gets messy.  The head was my favorite part, and if I'd thought it out better and slowed down I could have done it all better.  But I didn't.  Still every time I do a painting, it gives me hope that I might do better the next time, that I am improving. But do you know how hard it is for me to be patient and watch paint dry????

I wrote a Tetractys to go with the painting.  I copied and pasted the info about Eastern Box Turtle from Wikipedia...and took only a sparse amount of the information I found, to write the poem.

The Box Turtle is a very interesting animal!  They are now on the Vulnerable List for extinction due to their slow movement (getting hit by cars), urbanization of their habitat, and low reproduction rates. In captivity they can live up to 100 years, but hardly every do, because of their complex needs in habitat.  You really should go to Wiki and look them up.

Tetractys, a poetic form invented by Ray Stebbing, consists of at least 5 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 syllables (total of 20). They may be written with more than one verse, but then must have an inverted syllable count.
Double Tetractys: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 10, 4, 3, 2, 1
Triple Tetractys: 1, 2, 3, 4, 10, 10, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 10
It could also be written a with reversed syllable pattern: 10, 4, 3, 2, 1.
"Euclid, the mathematician of classical times, considered the number series 1, 2, 3, 4 to have mystical significance because its sum is 10, so he dignified it with a name of its own - Tetractys. The tetractys could be Britain's answer to the haiku. Its challenge is to express a complete thought, profound or comic, witty or wise, within the narrow compass of twenty syllables." - Ray Stebbing

box
turtle
in the grass
moving slowly
sporting flowery scuted carapace
envy of butterflies and bumblebees
which boxes munch
with mushrooms
snails and
slugs


By Donna JT Smith ©2025

S is for Sofa and Sedona

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

For the letter S, I wrote a Sedona to go with my watercolor of a sofa.  A Sedona is an old form that is unrhymed two stanza poem of three lines in each stanza.  Each stanza is a poem called a Katuata which has syllable structure of 5-7-7.  The two katuata's may address the same subject from differing perspectives from the first to the second.  I think I did it in mine today.

Sofa

Your cushions so soft

invite me to come snuggle

with a good book and hot tea.

 

Ball drops in my book,

wagging tail threatens my tea.

Sofa, quiet time later?

 

by Donna JT Smith ©2025

R is for Rabbit and Rictameter

 It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

Today I have my watercolor rabbit and a Rictameter poem form.

Here's the decoder ring for writing a Rictameter:

2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2  denotes the number of syllables in each line, increasing by two syllables for each line until the fourth line, then decreases by two syllables.  The first line starts with a two syllable word and the last line is the same as the first line. 

So, here we go.  Rabbit has two syllables...so I already know the first and last lines, unless I change it to "hopping" or "bunny" or "springtime"...

 

Rabbit

Shy, retiring,

Nibbles dandelions

In the evening as sun sets

Nose twitches, each breeze delivers more spring

She freezes, Fox trots through the field,

Into the scene she melts,

Invisible

Rabbit.

by Donna JT Smith ©2025

Q is for Quilt and Qadrilew

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

Today is Q, and I have done a watercolor for quilt and an accompanying Quadrilew.

Created by C. G. V. Lewis, the Quadrilew is a form of quatrain poem with an abab rhyming scheme, repeating lines, and contains an alternating syllable structure.

The first verse may either start with a five or six syllable line. If the choice is five then the 'sounding' syllable count is (and opposite if the count is six):

VERSE ONE,
Line 1, 5 syllables.
Line 2, 6 syllables.
Line 3, 5 syllables.
Line 4, 6 syllables.

VERSE TWO,
Line 1 is a REPEAT of line 2 of the FIRST verse and has 6 syllables.
Line 2 new line of 5 syllables
Line 3 new line of 6 syllables
Line 4 new line of 5 syllables.

VERSE THREE,
Line 1 is a REPEAT of line 3 of the first verse, and has 5 syllables.
Line 2 new line of 6 syllables.
Line 3 new line of 5 syllables.
Line 4 new line of 6 syllables.

VERSE FOUR,
Line 1 which is a REPEAT of line 4 of the first verse, and has 6 syllables.
Line 2 new line of 5 syllables.
Line 3 new line of 6 syllables.
Line 4 new line of 5 syllables.

If the first line of verse one has 6 syllables then the pattern is
Verse 1, 6565,
Verse 2, 5656,
Verse 3, 6565,
Verse 4 5656: (the rhyme pattern still being abab.)

For a longer poem, the next verse must be a completely fresh set of four lines, following the same pattern of rhyme and repeats.

This was a challenging poem.  The repeating lines were nice to have as a relief of having to think about that particular line, but it meant having to think ahead so much to what you wanted to rhyme with and how many syllables it had to be.  The first stanza becomes very important.  It is the beginning of each stanza thereafter.  So, big responsibility!  I rewrote this a couple of times, saving lines I wanted and rearranging their appearance in the poem.  But the good thing is, I love a challenge and a puzzle.  So I took way too much time out of my day enjoying this, but pretending that I didn't...do either of those things.  I did not spend too much time and I couldn't have enjoyed it.  I'd be lying.  So here it/they are.  I took too long on the painting, too.  But as least I didn't have to rework it.  It came out pretty much as I thought  it would.  And I'm not too unhappy with it.  There are parts I like, even.

 

Quilt

Cape a hero wears

red, blue and yellow scraps

patched together squares

so cozy taking naps

Red, blue, and yellow scraps

march on side by side

around me twice it wraps, 

long and plenty wide

       

Patched together squares

colorfully designed 

love worn, but who cares?

re-stuffed, re-sewn, relined

So cozy taking naps

no quilt’s quite like mine 

it’s not scridges and scraps

on the back it’s signed

By Donna JT Smith ©️2025

P is for Paradelle and Pail

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

My word and watercolor today is Pail, and has a poem form called a Paradelle.  According to Shadow Poetry:

"The Paradelle is a modern poetic form invented by Billy Collins as a parody of the villanelle. Billy Collins claimed that the paradelle was a difficult, fixed form consisting of four six-line stanzas with a repetitive pattern invented in eleventh century France, and the press believed the story and ran with it. Due to the extensive publicity, the Paradelle has made its rounds in the poetic community. Even though the form was invented as a hoax, the Paradelle has taken on a life of its own. It is still a difficult form, nonetheless, to practice which can be fun and rewarding even though the inventor may not have intended it to be."

It is only 4 stanzas of 4 lines, of which 4 lines are repeated verbatim... easy enough so far... now for the complications...

For the first three stanzas:

The first two lines and the third and fourth lines must be the same (repeat). But now when reaching fifth and sixth lines... these lines must contain all the words from the preceding four lines in the stanza using them only once to form completely new lines.

And then the last (fourth) stanza:

This final stanza does not repeat lines like the preceding stanzas. The final six lines must contain every word from the first three stanzas, and only those words, again using them only once to form completely new lines.

So simple, right?  

It goes like this:

Stanza 1: 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4
Stanza 2: 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 8
Stanza 3: 9, 9, 10, 10, 11, 12
Stanza 4: 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 (using all the words in lines 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12 in another order)

Examples I've seen often mix the words up more, and may rhyme.  But nothing in the description says you have to... so I didn't.

 

Pail

In a pail for the parched,

In a pail for the parched,

We carry water from the well,

We carry water from the well

For the parched we carry water

From a well in the pail.

Let it sink into the water,

Let it sink into the water.

Drop the pail, draw it up,

Drop the pail, draw it up.

Drop the pail into the water;

Let it sink, draw it up.

Do not spill it everywhere,

Do not spill it everywhere.

For the thirsty, we will need it.

For the thirsty, we will need it.

Do not spill it; we will need it

For the thirsty everywhere.

Drop the pail in the well;

Let it sink down into water.

Draw it up, do not spill it!

For the parched, for the thirsty

We carry water everywhere;

We will need it, from a pail. 

 

by Donna JT Smith ©2025

O is for Osprey Octelle

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

 

Arggghh!  I did what I set out to do after a lot of thought.  But it wasn't good.  This is how it ended because I didn't want to start over.  Made a couple major errors and it muddied!  But I never said I was good at this!  I just enjoy doing it...generally...just not this one.  But I told myself in the beginning I was just going to do it, good or bad.  It's all learning.

I wrote an Octelle is a poem consisting of eight lines using personification and symbolism. The syllable count is 8, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7, 8, 8, and its rhyme scheme is aa/bb/cc/aa, with the last two lines repeated for the last two.

I followed the format but not the "personification or symbolism" part.  I'm spent today, or I'd overwork this, too! 

Osprey Nests


To withstand time and weather tests

Osprey construct log cabin nests

Perched atop a pole or tree

Built so they can hawk-eye see

Weather as it's rolling in

Or a fish's silver fin

To withstand time and weather tests

Osprey construct log cabin nests.

Donna JT Smith  ©2025

I DO hope P is not as persnickety! 

N is for Nove Otto and Nuthatch

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

 

The Nove Otto poetry form was created by Scott J. Alcorn. It is a nine-lined, isosyllabic poem (meaning it does not have to have a particular meter) with 8 syllables per line. Its rhyme scheme is: aacbbcddc. 

 

Nuthatch

 

The nuthatch is a plumpish bird,
a shortish bird, of grumpish word
who fights to keep neighbors away.
 

Its name translates to nut hackers,
expert avian nut crackers,
who feast in fall on nuts all day.

In bluish-gray and rusty buff,

this little bird with ‘tude enough,

struts down a tree the head-first way.

By Donna JT Smith ©2025

M is for Mailbox and Monotetra

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

 

 

M is for mailbox.  I had no idea what I was going to do.  Moose came to mind.  But then probably because I'm about to replace my mailbox for the 4th time in 3 years, mailbox came to mind.  I think the town plow guy has mailbox stock.

The poem form I used is a monotetra.  If you read the description first, then the poem, then the description again looking at the poem, it helps make sense of it.  

This is the basic format:

• It is written in quatrains (four-line stanzas) in tetrameter (four metrical feet) for a total of 8 syllables per line
• Each quatrain has lines that end in like rhymes, so it has the rhyming pattern aaaa, bbbb, cccc, etc.
• The final line of each stanza repeats the same four syllables
• The poem can be as few or as many quatrains as wanted

Mailbox

In summer words are warm as toast,

But winter’s when they warm the most;

Communication on the coast

Is on a post, is on a post.

We trudge to get the daily mail

No matter wind, no matter hail;

And even flyers touting sale

Are not a fail, are not a fail.

Some little word from friend or store

Reminds us of the world past shore;

The mail truck does its daily chore

From door to door, from door to door. 

Each afternoon come rain or shine, 

Between the ledge, among the pine,

Each mailbox visited in line;

Grape vine lifeline, grape vine lifeline.

By Donna JT Smith ©️2025

The Progressive Poem and L is for a Locket and a Loop Poem

Today my AtoZ Challenge offering for L may be found half way down the page, just past the Progressive Poem post by Janet Fagal – 

And now from Janet Clare Fagal, Day 14's new line!

Even though I am blog-less I have participated almost every year of the Progressive Poem thanks to wonderful poet friends. Thank you, Donna, for hosting me this time!!  You can find me on FB as Janet Clare, I love to write for Margaret Simon’s This Photo Wants to Be a Poem at Reflections on the Teche, but have been busy in other arenas of late. I respond to PMs and email and love to read what you all are up to!! 

The Progressive Poem was begun by Irene Latham at Live Your Poem and is now organized by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche.  

It is a collaborative poem with one new line written each day, with a different author adding each new line.  At the end of April, we'll have a completed poem.  No one knows what path it will take! 

New contributor Cathy Stenquist, contributed a beautiful line, explanation and blog post filled with lovely art as well. Welcome and thank you, Cathy. I enjoyed reading about your process, thoughts and analysis.  I, too, am drawn to lilacs. Though hydrangea are a favorite beginning at my grandmother’s garden so many years ago.

I was drawn to Cathy’s word “gifts”. We have so much to be grateful for especially the healing and renewing power of nature.  I've added my line at the end, bolded.

Open an April window

let sunlight paint the air

stippling every dogwood

dappling daffodils with flair

 

Race to the garden

where woodpeckers drum

as hummingbirds thrum

in the blossoming Sweetgum.

 

Sing as you set up the easels

dabble in the paints

echo the colors of lilacs and phlox

commune without constraints

 

Breathe deeply the gift of the lilacs

Rejoice in earth’s sweet offerings

 

On Day 14 I offer these words and now pass this along to my dear friend, Carol Varsalona, who I am sure will add sweetness and beauty to our poem. All of my kidlit and other poetry friends inspire and guide me even when I am not being as productive or involved weekly as I would like. My heart is still in this wonderful community and I am drawn to your words, your blogs and your April projects.  Thank you all for everything you contribute to the world of poetry.

 

Come join in following along with the Progressive Poem. Here's where the poem has been and is going:

• April 1 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
• April 2 Tricia Stohr-Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
• April 3 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
• April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
• April 5 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
• April 6 Buffy Silverman 
• April 7 Jone Rush MacCulloch
• April 8 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
• April 9 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference 
• April 10 Marcie Flinchum Atkins
• April 11 Rose Capelli at Imagine the Possibilities 
• April 12 Fran Haley at Lit Bits and Pieces
• April 13 Cathy Stenquist
• April 14 Janet Fagal at Mainely Write
• April 15 Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink
• April 16 Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm
• April 17 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
• April 18 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
• April 19 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
• April 20 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
• April 21 Tanita Davis 
• April 22 Patricia Franz
• April 23 Ruth at There’s no such thing as a Godforsaken town
• April 24 Linda Kulp Trout 
• April 25 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
• April 26 Michelle Kogan 
• April 27 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
• April 28 Pamela Ross at Words in Flight
• April 29 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry
• April 30 April Halprin Wayland at Teaching Authors

I look forward to reading more of this poem and am grateful for the experience once again! Special thank you to Margaret for all she does!  And to my friend, Donna, for giving me a place to nest this time around.

AAAAAAAAA...to...ZZZZZZZZZ

The Blogging from AtoZ Challenge begins here! My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

Loop Poetry is a poetry form created by Hellon. There are no restrictions on the number of stanzas nor on the syllable count for each line. In each stanza, the last word of the first line becomes the first word of line two, last word of line 2 becomes the first word of line 3, last word of line 3 becomes the first word of line 4. This is followed for each stanza. The rhyme scheme is abcb. 

The Locket

precious locket gleaming

gleaming on its chain

chain of yellow gold

gold cradles love and pain

pain of love's retracing

retracing with the heart 

heart of one who's longing

longing time's restart 

restart the days to linger

linger on each gaze

gaze to rest upon a love

love that sweetened days

days evoking laughter

laughter more than tears

tears still counted treasure

treasure all the years

years to grow more memories

memories for a locket

locked gilded golden

golden picture pocket 

by Donna JT Smith ©2025 

K is for Kayak and Kyrielle

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

Today for the letter K in the AtoZ Challenge, I have a Kyrielle and Kayak.

The kyrielle is a French four-line stanza form with a refrain in the fourth line. The rhyme scheme may be: aabb, abab, aaab, abcb.  

The poem can be any length, but at least 2 stanzas, in order to have a refrain.  Each line must have 8 syllables. 

So here goes.  I painted a couple kyaks as seen from above...I think a king was flying a kite that had a kamera attached to kapture the scene...or knot.

Two Kyaks

nigh granite shores and guards of pine 

on waters deep and bluish green

just overhead gray gulls protest

two kayaks gliding through the scene

the sun points down with golden rays

where osprey could peruse and glean 

the herring school just swimming past

two kayaks gliding through the scene

 

soft waves lift fingers stroking air

as bouncing buoys in cove lean

the sun retreats, gray clouds browbeat

two kayaks gliding through the scene

by Donna JT Smith ©2025

 

J is for Joseph's Star for a Jaguar

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

I painted a Jaguar for today.  And I wrote a Joseph's Star poem.  It has no rhyme, and is written with 1,3,5,7,7,5,3,1 syllables, center aligned and no stanza limit.  Each line should have a complete statement in each line - or be able to stand on its own.

Jaguar

hush

hunger stalks

dappled shadow leaps

repast requires energy 

satiation allows nap

dappled tree limb calls

birds resound

fest

by Donna JT Smith ©2025

The bad or good thing about this watercolor is that, as I was painting, I kept forgetting it was a jaguar, not a leopard... I almost saved it for L..I still have some things I want to experiment with...or with which I want to experiment...

I realized that at the very least I could just try again painting a leopard! LOL! I learned about how the spots are different on the two beasts, and the size difference.  Very interesting.  So I get to try another one, unless I chicken out.

I was feeling unhappy with this one at so many stages, I almost threw it away. But I'm trying to persevere no matter what mess I make.  And trying to give time between adding to it.  It can quickly turn into a brown blob if you don't let it dry.  So hard for me to not end up with a piece of trash.  I'm still learning to wait.

Tomorrow is K.  I don't have a clue...klue...kitchen, kettle, ketchup, key, kerchief, knife, king, kitten (I already did cat for c, so no)... kayak, kilt, kelp?  A king dressed in a kilt wielding a knife to cut his kayak out of the kelp?

Any ideas?

I is for Iguana and Imayo

 It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

 

Oh, my goodness!  I decided to try to paint an iguana for I... Why not?  It came out better than I imagined.  Not as well as I'd like, but better than I expected.  I've never seen an iguana, so had to go exploring online to see what they looked like.

Then I had to search for some form of poem that begins with an I.  There are not a lot of poem formats for the letter I, but I did find the Imayo.

It is a 4-line Japanese poem that has 12 syllables in each line. There is a caesura (or pause) between the first 7 syllables and the final 5 of each line.

The imayo was originally written to be sung, but that's not a requirement, so I won't be singing it today. Feel free to sing.   Also, poets have free range on subject matter, which is handy because a love poem to an iguana would be difficult to write.

My Imayo to an Iguana

Iguana high above us – contemplating lunch
Leafy greens a camo screen – privacy to munch
Water far below you know – stage left exit plan
Predators won’t make the leap – they’d prefer you ran

By Donna JT Smith ©2025

I have nothing for J yet.  I'm thinking jaguar.  But a jack o'lantern would be easier, or a jar of jam.  I guess I'll see how much energy I have for it.

H is for Hat and Haiku

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

The 8th day is H.  And H is for a hat...and a traditional Haiku of 3 lines, with the tradional 5-7-5 syllable counts per line. As much as I like to "do whatever", I'm a traditionalist at heart.

posied hat poised, tipped

dewy morning memorized

adventures await

 by Donna JT Smith  ©2025

G is for Giraffe and Ghazal

It's April, so the Blogging from AtoZ Challenge is in full swing. My theme is Watercolor and Words.  This year I am painting a watercolor to go with each letter and composing a poem to accompany it with a type of poetry that starts with the letter of the day.  I am mostly experimenting with the watercolors still, so don't expect perfection....

Clicking on the letter of the day will bring you to the main site which has links to get to other participants if you would like to go on an alphabetical adventure!

Today I have a ghazal for a giraffe.  The ghazal (pronounced "guzzle") form has many rules. In order for a poem to be called a ghazal, it must adhere to the following:

• typically about love.
• written in couplets, or stanzas of 2 lines each.
• has no less than 5, and no more than 15, couplets.
• couplets must be end-stopped.
• the same number of syllables in each line. Written in meter, but contemporary ghazals don’t require this.
• has a radeef - a refrain repeated at the end of lines 1 and 2, and then at the end of lines 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, etc., and often titles the poem as well.
• has a kafiya - a rhyming phrase that precedes every radeef. The poem cannot repeat any kafiyas.
• the poet usually refer to themselves in the final couplet.

The giraffe (pronounced jer-af'):

• is a long necked mammal, standing approximately 5 meters tall, give or take a meter
  
• does not understand poetry
• does like to listen to music
• runs fast
• kicks hard
• eats leaves way up high
  

 

 

A Ghazal for a Giraffe

Tallest of the earthly animals, dear Giraffe.
Is there another mammal to compare, Giraffe?

You view the world beyond our limited vision,
Seeing all, as from the top of the stair, Giraffe.

Splotched with warm brown fingerpaint,
You are a unique fingerprint of hair, Giraffe.

As a voracious eater of aerial leaves
You send sunlight for shorter plants to share, Giraffe.

Long, limber legs spread awkwardly to lower you.
Stay alert for danger, drink if you dare, Giraffe.

Fast runner, strong kicker, Donna defers to you,
Power tower!  Oh, predators beware! Giraffe!

by Donna JT Smith, ©2025

Phew...so many rules, such a tall order. 

In this poem, the kafiyas are: compare, stair, hair, share, dare, beware.  They precede the radeef "Giraffe".  Each line has 12 syllables.  Each stanza could stand alone and has end-stop punctuation.  I am in the last stanza.  The title has Giraffe in it.  Maybe it isn't exactly a love poem, but I think it's close enough!

Maybe tomorrow will be a one word poem.  Is there one?  Maybe I'll invent it. 

The "Title" poem: 

• It's just one word.  
• The title may be more words than the poem.  

Here's my Title poem for this image:

The Tallest Mammal on Earth (title)

Giraffe (poem)