Eleven? Yeah, I think so.

I'm gonna be honest; I looked at my screen for a while before I came up with this one. I even had written half of another poem. I was in a big mood for some structure playing, and so I tried out a new style called a Tanka. It's a Japanese five line poem whose first and third lines have five syllables while the rest have seven. Unfortunately, I looked at that poem and realized that it was not going to come out, so I started from scratch.

Keeping the whole playing with structure in mind, I decided something new: DIFFERENT SIZED STANZAS! As you can see, the first stanza has two lines, the second three, the third four, and the final has one. It ended up working very well with the new theme I came up with about rain. BECAUSE IT FINALLY RAINED TODAY! It never actually rains here, I've hypothesized. The sky threatens you, then the clouds leave, then they come back the next day. Seriously. I think the structure ended working out great with the poem.

Moral: things get resolved in one way or another.


Things sure have a style,
Like the sky: suspense.

I suppose the anticipated
Holds a certain glory
When strain is dissipated

And nothing is tense.
This is the weather’s story.
Because, as I saw, for a very, very long while,
This hanging remained,

But finally it rained.

Unpublished Material, ©2011 Cali Digre

NUEVE

So today I felt like doing a little throwback. I revisited an old favorite structure of mine: AAAAB CCCCB. Of late I've shied away from it of late because I think that it gets a little bit kitschy, but for the sake of sake, I decided to try it again.
Second throwback: me complaining about the weather= quintessential Cali poem. If you do not remember, in the spring all I did for poems was either whine that it was almost spring, wasn't spring, raining, snowing, snowing too late, or looking at pretty flowers. The weather here has not been particularly good, according to the natives, and it really hasn't. Yesterday was the nicest day we had since I was here, and it was supposed to be nice again today but then I woke up to monotone skies. Though it COULD be nice tomorrow. But in general, lots of overcast and brinks of rain. It didn't actually rain today but it seemed so impending I couldn't help but put it in a poem.

Moral: nothing is predictable. Not even authorities are always right.

The silver coats the road
As if it were immortal code
To act as though it all flowed
In harmony. A certain goad
Gave false hope to a tide

Of possible ways to hunt the time.
Often life gives way to a crime
Like lounging. Nothing. Sublime.
But the roads today are mostly grime.
I think that the weatherman lied.

Unpublished Material, ©2011 Cali Digre

Endless Rain

I've been writing a lot about the weather lately, but it's been so crazy here that I feel like I can't neglect it. It has been raining/ sleeting for about two days straight, and I cannot say that I'm pleased. I could use some UVA.


Sleet can carry endless weight
That deposits on the bank of snow.
Their muffled march and damage innate
On everything with sanguine glow
Is responsible for the landscape’s state.
Their numbers too boundless to flaunt,
Trees and snow and I go gaunt.

Inceptions, ends have no real value
In a spell like this. One drop falls
As another forms. They make two,
A third one, as it shatters, calls
For imperialism of the few
Puddle places. They may be clever,
But surely it cannot rain forever.

Unpublished Material, ©2011 Cali Digre

CRAZY WEEK AGAIN

Hey all-
So.. I did not post yesterday because I had too much going on with finals. Sorry. But I JUST completed this poem. Hot off the griddle. Or something.


Late Winter

The ground uncovers hope.
It may not be ready,
It may be premature to cope,
What matters is that it’s there.
The scenery a faded trope,
It’s nice to become more aware
As the winter and water eddy,
Brighter, gliding, white glare.
The drizzle slides. Steady.

Winter slithers in the rain,
Patches where spring will go
Here, and there. Ice is slain
Over in this puddle rind,
Softened to a liquid pane.
Gone, but I don't mind.
Rain is not my favorite, though
When optimism is aligned,
At least it’s too warm for snow.

Unpublished Material, ©2011 Cali Digre

Resolution

Oblivion treads many strides
Before the footprint etches in
The lawn. Too late for a protest
To fall gently on a delicate chest.
Across the field the guilt glides.
And then I excel at naming sin,
Thundering, to list them is to win.
Self-perdition I grant best.
I withhold any gracious sides.

My mind can wield its own crosier.
Absolution in familiar skies,
Thought out clean like splintered glass,
Crew cut on some dirt-baked grass,
Maybe given too much exposure.
But even I tell myself some lies,
Which but discourse can vaporize.
Before forgiveness comes to pass,
Rain always giveth closure.

Unpublished Material, ©2011 Cali Digre

Thirty-Five Degrees

The drizzle sideways from the bluster
Playing triangles with the ground.
Long ago this lost its luster
It only serves to maim and fluster
The colors that this autumn found.
Mutes are all left in a cluster
Trodden that they make no sound
When stepped upon. I cannot muster
The logic that this went around.

And as the precipitation fatter
Finds its way to swirl the street
It escalates from pitter-patter
As the frosts inquires, “What’s the matter?
Since when do ice and water meet?”
The rain slides quickly down the ladder,
And punches frost so as to greet.
The crystal fades, the earth grows sadder
And it at last gives way to feet.

Fickle temperature oscillates
Gives way to water, then to ice,
It beguiles them both with hopeful fates
But in the end it denigrates.
As if for fun that would suffice.
As if they both were given gates
That they could never traverse twice,
As if capricious weather hates
Them both for not quite being nice.

And though I say I would despise
The paradox in freezing rain,
I cannot help but realize
That though it brings the frost demise,
It also can fall prey to pain.
The promises, the whispered lies,
The coaxing that the breeze can feign,
I see it all before my eyes,
But they are blinded save their gain.

Unpublished Material, ©2010 Cali Digre