January Line by Line Challenge - 5 line poems

[Piscator]

Happy New Year to all! 2020 is now behind us and I silencerly hope that better days lie ahead.

This is the third of a twelve month series of challenges in which you are asked to pen poems of specified line length in each month, with line length increasing each month. We started in November, when you were asked to submit poems with 3 lines. In December, the line length increased to 4 lines.

It's now January, 2021, and line length increases to 5 lines. As before, any topic and number of poems and forms within the requisite number of lines are acceptable. Limericks will be tolerated, but frowned upon.

As before, feel free to add to the earlier challenges as the muse strikes you.

Thanks for your great response to the first two challenges. I hope this continues, with line count increasing each month, until we reach 14 line poems in October.

 

[29wordsforsnow]

Just to make this clear
an end is anywhere near
but people got into gear
making days less drear
so, Happy New Year

 

[Piscator]

Covid
counts continue
to mount yet I remain
hopeful vaccination will purge
virus



revised after second syllable count

 

[Tzara]

Tanka Attempting the Style of Yosano Akiko

Silence and moonlight—
I listen for your footsteps
on the gravel path.
Will I once again be left
awake all night with longing?

 

[Tzara]

Cinquain

Her voice,
As I descend
Between her parted thighs—
So low and inarticulate,
Those cries.

 

[Angeline]

Lover,
your hazel eyes
in the sheen of passion,
your smile transformed from its sweet curve
to Oh.

 

[Piscator]

There once was a lad named Davey
who longed to sail ocean wavy
his fore port would suck
but with rear no luck
till Davey was plucked by the Navy

 

[Piscator]

A loquacious lass named Bernice
sought to be Uncle Richard’s best niece
her mouth sucked Dick's dick
but her hymen unpricked
till honeymoon with Dick in Greece

 

[Piscator]

An ill-fated lad named Daniel
whose face resembled a spaniel
met a Domme called Annie
who admired his fanny
so Annie took Danny cockspanal.

 

[jthserra]

remember
the path of fingers
tracing night

to the moonlit edge
of a sated sigh

 

[Piscator]

The third-rate poet Piscator
stocked up at the Limerick store
but with the nation
in plague lacramentation
so quoth the Raven nevermore

 

[butters]

5 lines aren't the easiest thing
to harness some art and to bring
a poetic vibe
so readers imbibe
till heads, hearts and souls start to ring





^^prime example of how difficult it can be

 

[butters]

undressed the tree and swept
away those little bits that pierce
our skin—reminders of a year so desperately discarded

but we know no amount of sweeping
can brush it all away. be sure to wear your slippers, for now.

 

[HarryHill]

..
Five for now then say goodbye.
Kisses for finger tips, two for eyes.
Out the window and down the gutter.
Up the alley; look back.
Shadows dance on the window.

 

[Levitating_Bed]

Yin and Yang

once, long ago, when this followed that
that, then, returned the favor
until dizzy and old and
neither could recall
who had, at first, been braver

 

[Tzara]

Incongruity

Asleep,
she's beautiful—
even innocent, though
the ball gag needs some explaining,
I guess.

 

[Piscator]

Washington, DC - January 6, 2021

The humid air presages rain
in my mind Sweet Georgia plays
yet a rebel flag briefly waved over Capitol Hill.
Together we strive for better days
but inside lies a bittersweet pain.
​

 

[Moochienanu]

Let the rain fall,
Because it feels like the words
Once whispered again -
So until then, my Darling,
Let the rain fall.

 

[Piscator]

Looking for an Island of Passion
in this Ocean of Ennui
but always end up riding
a breaker which crests too soon
leaving me alone in tepid bathwater.

 

[29wordsforsnow]

tardy illusions

an old man found it strange to see
his own hand's work of 'we, we, we'
letters tall and small
in the mirror wall
an old man's turned into 'me, me, me'

 

[Remec]

Empty Chair

Time has come again;
left its mark upon us
by way of silencing yet another,
I must work harder or
there'll be none left.

 

[Lyricalli]

In a world made small
some obstacles are still too big
oceans too wide
and even immeasurable love
can't conquer all

 

[Rockymtnman]

Five lines
In rhymes
In time
Quinine
Saves lives

 

[Piscator]

I pledge

I pledge allegiance
To my Flag and to
The Republic for
Which my Nation stands
Indivisible

One Nation with
Liberty and
Justice for all
My allegiance

One Nation
Justice and
Liberty

For all
My Flag

Stands


I've taken a bit of liberty here, as only the first verse has five lines. The form is called a Diminished Hexaverse, but to quote Poet;s Collective " Most use the same definition which strangely ignores the meaning of hexa and describe the form with only 5 stanzas, diminishing from 5 lines and 5 syllables each to 4 lines and 4 syllables each and so on ending in a single stich of 1 syllable. With that description the frame would better be termed a Diminishing Pentaverse. "

Maybe next month I'll try a true Hexaverse.

 

[Rockymtnman]

A tall man Awaits for me
To trip across the sea
In bonds I do go
The sea will heave and ho
And that will be it for me