RONDEL

Another beautiful but neglected poetry form having lost its popularity to others in the passage of fashions. Basically its a 13 line poem which forms around two rhymes. There is a refrain, which is set up by the first two lines of the first stanza.
The rhyme pattern is A. B. a. b.. and .a. b. A. B. for the first two stanzas and a quintain for the final stanza that mirrors the first two stanzas, with the last line repeating the first line of the first stanza a. b. b. a. A.

The meter is open but like most French poetry, usually of eight syllables and this is one of the forms that in its purest form does not repeat any of the rhyme words.

As a variation the second line may be added to the last stanza to make it a Rondel Prime or a French Sonnet. Doing this also allows a variation in the rhyme pattern, so there can be: a. b. b. a. A. B., or a. b. a. b. A. B. as required.

The Rondel

With just thirteen lines and two rhymes.
The first two lines -- the first stanza --
Form a refrain and the central rhymes.
(Hint: simple like Tony Danza!)

A few choice words of better times
Beauty, love, the fruits of Kwanzaa
With just thirteen lines and two rhymes.
The first two lines, the first stanza,

Form the refrain the poem's Chimes;
BUT! Quintain reigns the last stanza
Like Juan Bautista de Anza,
So you extract its basic primes
With just thirteen lines and two rhymes.

Rev. Armitage Shankz (ver 36.0.17)
RONDEL EXAMPLES
Contents

Gloria Carpenter

Guiding Flight
I repeat
My time
Never have I known

Doreen Harris

Colliding Ships

Lori Martin

Goodbye
Song of the Lori Jaye

Kevin McKinney

Colorfast
Tender Tender

Leny Roovers

Fear
In Times Unknown
Moonlight

Gloria Carpenter

Guiding Flight

Oh, show me how you learned to glide
in raised relief, enhanced with light,
unruffled by the surging tide,
serenity within your sight.

I see your canvas opened wide,
soft traces etched by wings of white.
Oh, show me how you learned to glide
in raised relief, enhanced with light.

It is my wish to fly beside,
to share your vision from such height.
I look to you to be my guide,
a fledgling on a virgin flight.
Oh, show me how you learned to glide
in raised relief, enhanced with light.

-----

I repeat

Redundantly excessive, I repeat
So difficult to simplify a thought
Superfluous, unnecessary feet
In verbiage expressed when overwrought

Such overstated views seem incomplete
Exaggerated intellect spouts naught
Redundantly excessive, I repeat
So difficult to simplify a thought

In jargon specialized for sects elite
Like esoteric theories often taught
Forgotten states of mind become distraught
Hypothesizing abstracts oft concrete
Redundantly excessive, I repeat

-----

My time

My time goes fast when searching , I’ll explain..
I love to learn ~ it stimulates my mind.
Selected poems of yours bestir my brain.
They send it off to see what it can find.

Each link joins in a never-ending chain
to hold me here, as if I was confined.
My time goes fast when searching, I’ll explain..
I love to learn ~ it stimulates my mind.

And yet it is my choice, for I remain
discovering such wonders intertwined.
It is a journey far from the mundane.
So, Tezza ;) , thanks, I’ll say it once again ~
My time goes fast when searching , I’ll explain..
I love to learn ~ it stimulates my mind.

-----

Never have I known

I’ve heard it tell that, truly, love exists,
but never have I known a lover true.
I listen to the songs and reminisce,
yet, memories just take me back to you.

So strange how truth was hidden and dismissed.
Through all those years, I never really knew.
I’ve heard it tell that, truly, love exists,
but never have I known a lover true.

I sometimes wonder, was it in your kiss?
It tasted sweet ~ a sugarcoating, too?
Your twinkling eyes betrayed their shady view;
I fell beneath their spell in dreams of bliss.
I’ve heard it tell that, truly, love exists,
but never have I known a lover true.

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Doreen Harris

Colliding Ships

A kiss on full lips crash colliding ships
They meet in firm touch, their claim to ensnare
Together they ride, they roll in the dare
Under stars on cool waves with white, frosty tips

Taste of warm breath and mingling cool air
Fine balm to a soul amid ocean dips
A kiss on full lips crash colliding ships
They meet in firm touch, their claim to ensnare

Motion o'ertakes them, the waves at fast clips
Gather power between the swollen, red pair
On waves of collision throws caution beware
To the winds of the cooling night airy whips
A kiss on full lips crash colliding ships
They meet in firm touch, their claim to ensnare.

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Lori Martin

Goodbye

It appears again I must say goodbye,
letting love fly through mist of pain,
releasing my hold with heavy sigh,
vowing, never shall I trust again.

Tears overwhelm will not to cry,
shattered heart leaves bloody stain;
it appears again I must say goodbye,
letting love fly through mist of pain.

If life were black or white 'stead of murky grey)
and lovers would mean what they say.
Understanding not the how or why,
it appears again I must say goodbye,
vowing, never shall I trust again.

-----

Song of the Lori Jaye

silence burdened with her plaintive song
the melancholy cry of the Lori Jaye
to fly beyond this cage, her clipped wings long
despite Fate's decree that here she must stay

green gold eyes weep while heart yearns to be gone
as each morn she watches dawn of new day
silence burdened with her plaintive song
the melancholy cry of the Lori Jaye

wills her mind to accept, tries to be strong
unable to fly, her strength slips away
rainbow-hued aura slowly fades to gray
a comfortable life but its essence wrong
silence burdened with her plaintive song

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Kevin McKinney

Colorfast

If I shine, I shine because of you,
My prism; you paint me in rainbows;
Coloring my dreams as you pass through,
To fire up my heart until it glows.

From my throat new melodies issue
Unbidden as the songs of sparrows.
If I shine, I shine because of you,
My prism; you paint me in rainbows.

Preceding, one note was all I knew,
Whereas in time we've come to compose
A livelier tune and one more true
In nature to true love as it grows.
If I shine, I shine because of you,
My prism; you paint me in rainbows.

-----

Tender Tender

Dear lady, I would have of thee no less
Than I would offer thee of me; My heart.
Let's join hands happily and with our best
Intentions, live as equals from this start.

All partnerships experience duress,
Yet none so dire as needs tear them apart;
Dear lady, I would have of thee no less
Than I would offer thee of me; My heart.

Embarked so, allow as I'd suggest,
True love requires more of work than art;
The sense to keep the horse before the cart
And gentle gratitude in its progress.
Dear lady, I would have of thee no less.

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Leny Roovers

Fear

I feel this person in my head
He's trying to take over me
And makes me stop to live instead
So now my life's no longer free

The thoughts he thinks are really bad
I feel him watching me with glee
I feel this person in my head
He's trying to take over me

Some days I'm longing to be dead
Then I won't have to pay the fee
Which will be mine when I'll be lead
To that I just don't wish to be
I feel this person in my head
He's trying to take over me!!!

II

Ever so slowly I can feel
My mind being taken over
The world is becoming unreal
As I day by day discover!

No matter how I may appeal
Or may try to find a cover
Ever so slowly I can feel
My mind being taken over

I cannot escape this ordeal
My spirit has to uncover
Need a hiding place to deal
With this dread that seems to hover
Ever so slowly I can feel
My mind being taken over

III

I feel I'm being drawn apart
And bits and pieces of my ME
Are slowly breaking from my heart
Will there be any left to be?

I feel I have to be on guard
For all these parts of me I see
I feel I'm being drawn apart
And bits and pieces of my ME

Are growing like a vicious wart
They listen to the name of WE
Where is the I, I used to be?
I'm searching; don't know where to start
For bits and pieces of my ME
I feel I'm being drawn apart!!!!!!!

IV

I feel I have to find a way
To reunite these many I's
It's too confusing every day
To listen to their many lies

I need to find a way to stay
Just one, at least in my own eyes
I feel I have to find a way
To reunite these many I's

If I can switch most off I may
Be able to live without cries
Find strength to live just through today
I don't want yet to say goodbyes
I feel I have to find a way
To reunite these many I's

V or the end of it

I think I found a way at last
To stop those voices in my mind
To get rid of fears from the past
Or jolly well pay back in kind

Today I found in my mind vast
A way to freedom from this bind
I hope I found a way at last
To stop those voices in my mind

Go back to sanity real fast
A message read in eyes not blind
I look into those eyes and find
For me the die has not been cast
I know I found the way at last
To stop those voices in my mind!

-----

In Times Unknown

In times unknown we must have met
How could we else have met this time
To our destiny we were led
To find at last a love sublime

It is not easy as of yet
To tell of this is not a crime
It took awhile before we met
We had to wait a long, long time

But after everything's been said
I really couldn't give a dime
I'll send you in this little rhyme
All of my love and heart instead
In times unknown we must have met
How else could we have met this time?

-----

Moonlight

Last night I was awakened by the moon
'twas bright and full and shone into my room.
Its light did penetrate my dreams too soon,
before they could have come into full bloom.
Because of that I fell into deep gloom.

The dreams had been so very promising,
they took me far away across the skies.
The moon however, caused the vanishing
of longed for loving and passionate cries.
The dream was gone, by moon changed into lies.

The only thing that was still left to me,
to chase away the feelings of dark doom,
was writing down these words to set me free.
When peace returned, I went back to my room,
in newfound dreams I joined my nightly groom.

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