The Laina Project - Poems

Challenge Over, But Not Won

5/1/2015

So it's just past midnight on May 1st as I write this, which means NaPoWriMo is over! And sadly, I only managed 24 out of the 30 poems I needed. :(

Oh well, I tried. I shouldn't have gotten so behind; then I might've been able to manage it. (I took a break last week too, which probably didn't help).

Better luck next year!

Harvest Song

4/30/2015

A rondel prime.

Harvest Song
A Mountain Song

Grab your sickle and grab your rake,
Up with the sun for the harvest time.
Get ready the hillside fields to climb,
The fruits of the year to seek and take.

Help with the harvest for your family's sake,
It has to come in, whatever the clime.
Grab your sickle and grab your rake,
Up with the sun for the harvest time.

The corn and the wheat off the stalk must break,
The fruit, if you have it, should be free of grime,
And vegetables be ripe and in their prime,
If a good harvest we hope to make.
Grab your sickle and grab your rake,
Up with the sun for the harvest time.

Wizard Song

4/30/2015

This is a terzanelle, a 19-line poetic form that combines the lyricism of terza rima (a form created by one of my favorite authors, Dante) with the repetition of the villanelle (a French poetic form). I had never heard of it before today, so this is my first attempt at one. It was very hard to do.

Philip is a wizard who is Laina's mentor on her quest. He and his apprentices take the place of the three priests who accompany the nuns in Chaucer's text.

Wizard Song
Taught by Philip to his apprentices and Laina on the journey

Glory to our goddess lovely and pure
Who dwells up high in the heavens above
Yet deigns to hear the prayers mortals pray.

She cares for us with her unfailing love,
Yet chides us for the things that we do wrong,
She who dwells high in the heavens above.

To praise her we wizards sing out this song,
Like a mother she raises her children.
So she chides us for things we do wrong.

But repentance the goddess shall not shun,
And guidance to the right path she offers,
Like a mother she raises her children.

Pious desire in hearts she stirs,
That we might worship her of our own will,
For guidance to the right path she offers.

Therefore let your fears and worries be stilled.
Glory to our goddess lovely and pure
That we might worship her of our own will,
Who deigns to hear the prayers mortals pray.

Intro (Unfinished)

4/30/2015

This is also from the main collection and is an unfinished version of a sort of intro to the story. Unlike the High Queen's Tale, it stays in meter.

I have also put this under a "Read More" break as it is rather long.

Read More

The High Queen's Tale (Unfinished)

4/30/2015

This is one of the main poems for the collection. The High Queen of the People of the North is the teller of the tale, and is meant to be an equivalent to The Wife of Bath. It is at the moment unfinished. The portion posted here covers what would be the prologue to the Wife's tale in Chaucer's work, plus a little after.

This tale starts in the traditional iambic hexameter (12-syllable lines) used in the rest of the collection, then deviates to free verse because I needed to figure out the story and the meter was hampering me from doing so.

As the poem (as it stands) is quite long, I have put it under a "Read More" break.

Read More

Poems of the North - Courage

4/30/2015

This poem concludes the Poems of the North (for this challenge anyway). This poem, like "Floating Cities," is more serious even though it's a limerick.

Courage

To take courage in this time is a must
A necessity for those under oppression thrust
We must rely on the brave
Our souls all to save
And in the gods' power trust.

Poems of the North - Children

4/30/2015

Having done poems for this set on husbands, wives, and marriage, it made sense to do one on children.

Children

To bear children is certainly a gift,
And yet if they misbehave they can cause a rift
A chasm so vast and deep
That if you hope your children to keep,
You will have to make sure they go not adrift.

Poems of the North - Wives

4/30/2015

This is meant as a sort of companion piece to "Husbands".

Wives

Men, mind well who you take to wife
For a troublesome woman is the bane of life
Unless you do as she please
You shall never have peace
Nay, nothing in your house but strife.

Poems of the North - Flight

4/30/2015

Flight

Flight from city to city sounds grand
With the wind in your hair and the sky close at hand
But the wind here is thin and rough
To endure it for long is tough
Its pain only our people can understand.

Poems of the North - Worship

4/30/2015

Worship

To the gods give glory we do
With our rituals and offerings, 'tis true
Yet they seem uninclined to hasten
Our sins for to chasten
So why do we our sins rue?