the midnight call

A ringtone past midnight is rarely good news
perhaps a call from someone’s pastor
with word of unforeseen disaster
A ringtone past midnight is rarely good news

Perhaps a call from someone’s pastor
comes midday (when most calls should)
but still with news that none calls good
Perhaps a call from someone’s pastor

Comes midday (when most calls should)
though sunlight’s no protection from the dark
life turns on a dime and leaves its mark
Comes midday (when most calls should)

Though sunlight’s no protection from the dark
in daytime you can see where you are going
at night you just move forward without knowing
Though sunlight’s no protection from the dark

In daytime you can see where you are going
the hope of living rises with the sun
nocturnal shuffles stretch into a run
In daytime you can see where you are going

The hope of living rises with the sun
a ringtone past midnight is never good news
dark hours accuse, misuse, abuse, confuse
The hope of living rises with the sun.

A ringtone past midnight is rarely good news
perhaps a call from someone’s pastor
with word of unforeseen disaster
A ringtone past midnight is rarely good news

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I think I will make Wednesdays my “New Form Day”. I found a list with 100 different forms, so that should occupy me for a couple years…

Today, the “Catena Rondo“

The name is from catena, which means chain, and connects with rondo, which means circle. And the poem is a bit of a “chain circle,” because of its intense repetition within stanzas and the poem as a whole

Here’s how to write a catena rondo:

• The poem is comprised of a variable number of quatrains
• Each quatrain has a rhyme pattern of AbbA
• The first line of each quatrain is also the final line of the quatrain
• The second line of each quatrain is the first line of the next quatrain
• The final quatrain should repeat the first quatrain word for word