When I need inspiration
I summon my muse.
When she doesn’t come through,
Then I check out the news.
Posts Tagged ‘Quatrains’
A Muse Quatrain
Tuesday, December 20th, 2022Fair Game
Monday, April 6th, 2015Fair Game
By Madeleine Begun Kane
I would never purport
to engage in a sport
unless mockery counts;
I do massive amounts.
I make comments in sport
that make some people snort.
I’m unsporting, some claim,
When at pols I take aim.
But those pols are fair game.
Their behavior’s to blame,
And they reap what they sow.
So it’s on with the show.
Yet Another Anti-Winter Poem
Friday, March 20th, 2015Yet Another Anti-Winter Poem
By Madeleine Begun Kane
Oh damn you winter! Go away!
Why can’t you take a hint today?
Intruding on our spring delights
With snow is NOT within your rights.
The calendar has made it clear
It’s spring. So why are YOU still here?
I’ve foolishly already stored
Our boots and shovels, long abhorred.
I’m forced to fetch them one more time
For duties not at all sublime.
Your crime of trespass? No mere gaffe!
I just might sue on spring’s behalf.
A Playful Quatrain
Wednesday, January 7th, 2015There’s wit that is lambent.
There’s humor that’s bent.
I’m feeling quite sheepish;
Had to search what “lambent” meant.
(Inspired by the Twitter #WordStew prompt: LAMBENT.)
View my Lambent quatrain image here.
Verse for the Birds (Limerick and Quatrain)
Monday, January 5th, 2015Happy “National Bird Day!”
A birder who’d frequently swear
His toupée was in fact his real hair,
Was caught by a gust,
And his toupe, not just mussed,
Flew the coop, leaving pate rather bare.
*****
“A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” —
People tell me that all of the time.
Such axioms give me a pain in the tush.
Were I queen, I would make them a crime.
Post-Christmas Lament
Friday, December 26th, 2014Post-Christmas Lament
By Madeleine Begun Kane
The Christmas season’s ended,
So shopping’s at a stall.
But exchangers have descended.
When’s it safe to risk a mall?
Happy Peculiar People Day (January 10)
Thursday, January 9th, 2014Here’s my two-verse quatrain poem, in honor of Peculiar People Day. (January 10)
Ode To Peculiar People
By Madeleine Begun Kane
My peculiar predilection:
I like people who are odd.
I’ll applaud a little strangeness,
But find “normal” humans flawed.
That makes perfect sense: they tell me
I am rather “weird” myself.
I don’t mind critiques and putdowns—
Just don’t call me “off the shelf.”
Queasy About Quaterns
Thursday, March 1st, 2012Every once in a while I like to experiment with a new (to me) form. Today, it’s the quatern.
Writer’s Digest’s Poetic Asides Blog, which is holding a quatern contest, describes the form as follows:
Quatern Poetic Form Rules
1. This poem has 16 lines broken up into 4 quatrains (or 4-line stanzas).
2. Each line is comprised of eight syllables.
3. The first line is the refrain. In the second stanza, the refrain appears in the second line; in the third stanza, the third line; in the fourth stanza, the fourth (and final) line.
4. There are no rules for rhyming or iambics.
Here’s the quatern I submitted to WD’s contest:
Queasy About Quaterns
By Madeleine Begun Kane
As I attempt to write this verse,
I must confess I start to curse.
A quatern is what’s been assigned.
Already I am in a bind.
I feel confused and somewhat terse,
As I attempt to write this verse.
So please forgive me if I whine.
My limericks are where I shine.
I’d like to stop, but can’t refrain
From trying this quatern again.
As I attempt to write this verse,
I fear that it is getting worse.
I’m tempted to reject this form.
About its rules I feel lukewarm.
I’m getting ill. I need a nurse,
As I attempt to write this verse.
