The water races through the rocks,
As grasses twist around the storm,
Plants bend their backs in window box,
Inside my house the fire’s warm.
As grasses twist around the storm,
Struggle against the potent wind.
Inside my house the fire’s warm,
Though the lights have long since dimmed.
Struggle against the potent wind,
I beg my beloved flowers,
Though the lights have long since dimmed,
Bright petals fly from stems that cower.
I beg my beloved flowers,
Hold on to flashes of colour,
Bright petals fly from stems that cower.
As the night gets ever duller.
Hold on to flashes of colour,
Plants bend their backs in window box,
As the night gets ever duller.
The water races through the rocks.
Notes
This is a pantoum
According to Stephen Fry in “The Ode Less Travelled”
- Malayan closed form with refrained lines
From The Poet’s Manual – A Pantoum has
- Interlinked quatrains
- Rhyming a-b-a-b
- Second and fourth lines of each stanza become the first and third of the next.
- Until you reach the last, where the First and Third lines of the first stanza become the second and fourth.
Have any of you tried writing in this form? If so, please link me to your poem, I would love to read it!