A Summer Bug in the Ear
A summer breeze, a little bug to plant
Inside your ear before the season turns.
I’ve noticed how your verses walk and chant
In five-beat strides, a rhythm that returns
Like steady habits or an afternoon
Spent trading gossip in a shaded yard.
It wanders into four beats, late or soon,
But mostly keeps a conversational guard.
And Mary Oliver was right, of course:
The pentameter is a porch, an easy chair,
A voice that speaks without an urgent force,
Meandering through the warm and heavy air.
But if you want to strike a spark,
To cut the fabric to the bone,
To leave a deeper, sharper mark—
Then compress the tone.
Shorten the stride.
Tighten the line.
Let nothing hide.
Make it design.
Three beats will beat
A harder drum,
To turn the heat
Till meanings come.
It works quite well, this casual, easy pace,
And what you’ve written here is finely made.
But looking forward to a gathered place—
A book where all these changing pieces fade—
You’ll want a menu that can shift and shake.
The grandest feast will eventually bore,
If every party brings the chocolate cake,
And nothing else is knocking at the door.
at the door.
-
Author:
crypticbard (Pseudonym) (
Offline) - Published: July 20th, 2026 04:45
- Category: Unclassified
- Views: 12
- Users favorite of this poem: sorenbarrett, Tristan Robert Lange
Offline)
Comments6
Variety is the spice of life my friend, good write
Indeed, it is. Like a DJ we make and run the playlist. 🙏🕊️
much enjoyed my friend
Thanks so much🙏🕊️
Once again my friend you have brought complexity to simplicity and metaphorically set the place at the feast's table. Poetry one course and how boring if everyone brings a cake sweet and chocolaty iced with love's sweet syrup. How much better a variety of bitter and sweet, sour and salty. Not with artificial sweeteners but the real sugar from the cane. And even then when full a pause to let all digest with pleasant conversation before sitting for another course, a cigar for some a nightcap for others maybe an after dinner mint. Another fav my friend thank you for the meal
So glad that this got through intact and expounded. Thank you, dear friend. 🙏🕊️
My pleasure Cryptic
We'll be sick if everyone brings chocolate cake. lol. Good write A.
A summer bug in the ear? Someone sent me away with a 'flea in my ear'! lol.
So true! Thanks, O🕊️🙏🏻
I'll scweam and scweam until I'm shtick (sick). Someone said that somewhere. lol. (Just William series: Violet Bott).
3️⃣ My friend, this speaks directly to something I consider when building collections. A familiar cadence may serve individual poems beautifully, yet a full body of work needs contrast, surprise, and room to move. Loved this, arqios! 🌹🖤🙏🕯️🐦⬛
Neva be pigeon holed or confined to any one model, poetic genre or particular paradigm is my motto .. be prepared to learn to grow and always write on .. N 😎
Variety is the Spice etc.
Good Write.
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