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Poetry

a-thirst-quenched-jason-stadtlander
  • Jason Stadtlander

A Thirst Quenched
A Thirst Quenched 2560 1678 Jason Stadtlander

The thirst, the endless, desiccated thirst
The pain of the heart, arid and unquenched, not beating
Void of that camaraderie that it requires
The loneliness that fills the void is like air within a canyon
It is space filled but without substance
The depth of isolation that can be reached by no other means than seclusion
No emotions for oneself and empty within
It is not depression as much as a missing piece of an incomplete puzzle

Then there falls that first drop of rain
That sight of her beauty
Eyes that stare back with an impossible warmth
A connection
Another drop
A link
Another drop, another drop
The contours of the puzzle piece perfectly shaped
Another drop, another drop, another drop
Each, space, each thought, ideal

Now a trickle, it gently flows, slowly to every dry tributary
Drop after drop after drop
A trickle becomes a stream
The intellect, the conversation, the humor
A stream gains momentum as it flows gently from one branch to another
The hands, delicate hands, the touch
A stream becomes a shallow river feeding point after point
A beat
A small devil smiling at me.

The lips, those precious lips, delicate and smooth
Another beat
The voice, soft, accented, beautiful
Another beat, Another beat
The flow becomes stronger a gush as the river flows faster
Beat, Beat, Beat, Beat
Her thoughts fascinate me, Her movements mesmerize me

I am alive
  • Jason Stadtlander

PFP (Ode) Ode to Kitty
PFP (Ode) Ode to Kitty 1024 713 Jason Stadtlander

“Ode to Kitty”

Oh my kitty, how you fascinate the mind
Your quiet moments in time do rewind
The gentle touch as you knead me to pet
For if I do not, you may get upset
In the flash of a moment you change to the red
As eyes flash with anger and hatred instead
Then the next second, you switch to love and are kind
Tearing me through this emotional grind
There are many a moment you make me feel awed
And many a more that I know I am flawed
But you handle each day living in present
Focusing on the good, not the unpleasant
As mad as you make me, our bond is so true
Holding you close, there’s nothing like you
Keep your claws in or I’ll use my profanity
I do love you however, despite your insanity

About This Poetry Form

Name: Ode
Description:“Ode” comes from the Greek aeidein, meaning to sing or chant, and belongs to the long and varied tradition of lyric poetry. Originally accompanied by music and dance, and later reserved by the Romantic poets to convey their strongest sentiments, the ode can be generalized as a formal address to an event, a person, or a thing not present.

This particular poem is about someone very dear to me.

About This Series

Read more about this series here.

Father and Son
  • Jason Stadtlander

PFP (Sonnet) The Benevolent Son
PFP (Sonnet) The Benevolent Son 1024 681 Jason Stadtlander

“The Benevolent Son”

Tho new upon this world you came in love
You showed me that the white clouds were parted
As new breath came in your lungs it started
If touched by you, a person holds the dove

You show us truth and ways to see above
Kindly, your conduct incites bighearted
Showing those around you, love restarted
Bereft of anger, your soft words speak of

As a youth, you guided with your actions
Showing me how to give to those in need
Stating “Daddy, give her a dollar please?”
I was surprised by your benefactions 
Proud to call you my son, through each good deed
United, father and son, friends in ease

About This Poetry Form

Name: Sonnet (Italian)
Description: A Sonnet is a poem of an expressive thought or idea made up of 14 lines, each being 10 syllables long. Its rhymes are arranged according to one of the schemes – Italian, where eight lines called an octave consisting of two quatrains which normally open the poem as the question are followed by six lines called a “sestet” that are the answer, or the more common English which is three quatrains followed by a rhyming couplet.

This particular poem is about my youngest son and is an Italian Sonnet which follows the form abbaabbacdecde (each letter representing a line). Each of the corresponding lines will rhyme with the last word with each line being 10 syllables long.

About This Series

Read more about this series here.
  • Jason Stadtlander

PFP (Elegy) Legacy of an Artist
PFP (Elegy) Legacy of an Artist 900 360 Jason Stadtlander

“Legacy of an Artist”

The brush, what soft lines you have created in stroke
Your voice, trompe-l’œil at masters hand
Upon the easel do you lay in dark
Your soul, now still, living no more the dreams
The fragrance of turpentine hangs in air
Slowly thinning in the shadowy depth
Of studio now once again basement
Oh creator! Oh master! Where have you gone?
Hollow and bare of beauty that was

Your hand was an instrument, oils your note
As the music of your dream revealed worlds
Seen through the tender eyes of woman
Your view of a simpler time was woven
Your canvas, portal to antiquity
Of scenes you made dreams come true as to touch

Time continues, clouds drift across the blue
The future unravels, minutes progress
And yet on, your elegance continues
Long removed from your peaceful sleeping
Your view of life shines on in those who love
Continuing your legacy, art and soul

About This Poetry Form

Name: Elegy
Description: An elegy is a poem that follows either dactylic hexameter or pentameter, though modern elegies have followed iambic pentameter rhythm or free verse format with no set rhythm. One of the more famous elegies is Oh Captain, My Captain by Walt Whitman in memory of Abraham Lincoln.

Generally an elegy is broken into three parts:

  • Part 1: Expressing sorrow at the loss
  • Part 2: Singing the praises of the person or group of people
  • Part 3: Offers solace and speaks of the peace or good of their legacy.

I have written this particular poem about my grandmother and artist Barbara Stadtlander who created several hundred paintings in her life.

About This Series

Read more about this series here.

Brotherhood
  • Jason Stadtlander

PFP (Ballade) Brotherhood
PFP (Ballade) Brotherhood 680 510 Jason Stadtlander

“Brotherhood”

The small boys walk to the edge
Staring at forever stretched beyond
And small tho they be, they both pledge
As ducks drift upon the pond
The boys are brothers with hair of blonde
The stand holding their small stone cache
They promise to be there on and on
Tossin’ rocks in the water, just to see ’em splash

The months and years pass with age
Families grow and kids are spawned
Time and stress test the gage
Of brothers promise and childhood bond
Respect is lost and none respond
The boys don’t talk as words are rash
The friendship lost by brothers kedged
Tossin’ rocks in the water, just to see ’em splash

Then come one day nearby the hedge
A brother falls upon the ground
Though words are bitter upon the ledge
They mend the years, though moribond
Hands are held counting each second
The years melt away, no longer lash
Two boys are one in brotherly fond
Tossin’ rocks in the water, just to see ’em splash

They talk of the past and fail to reason
Why they let their friendship crash
The purity of youth destroys despond
Tossin’ rocks in the water, just to see ’em splash

 

About This Poetry Form

Name: Ballade
Description: Poetry which has three stanzas of seven, eight (this poem has eight) or ten lines and a shorter final stanza of four or five. All stanzas end with the same one line refrain.

There are some variations of the ballade form that should be mentioned.

  • Ballade royal: This ballade variation uses four stanzas of seven lines instead of three stanzas of eight, lacks an envoi, and is always written in iambic pentameter.
  • Ballade supreme: A ballade variation that has three stanzas of ten lines with a rhyme scheme of “ababbccdcD” and an envoi of five or six lines with a rhyme scheme of either “ccdcD” or “ccdccD”.
  • Double-refrain ballade: A ballade variation in which line four of the first stanza, as well as line eight, become refrains. The rhyme scheme of the envoi changes as well, becoming “bBcC” to reflect the double refrain.

About This Series

Read more about this series here.

Jason
  • Jason Stadtlander

PFP (Acrostic) First Moments of Fatherhood
PFP (Acrostic) First Moments of Fatherhood 1536 2048 Jason Stadtlander

“First Moments of Fatherhood”

In the hallowed warmth of blankets he lays swaddled,
Warm and still in the first moments of life.
Bundled in blue and white wrappings,
Can such a beautiful thing be possible?
I am at a loss for words, I am mesmerized,
I gaze at the wonder of this human in my arms.
Gentle dawn of life, this singular soul I have helped create.
I feel alterity, isolated in an unbreachable moment of time, I hold my boy.
As his small eyes flutter behind new eyelids, he dreams of what?
My son and I are solitary in this moment,
Held in a point I want to cradle forever.
I feel and I am devoid of thought, for in this moment
I do not remember the past or care about the future.
Surpassing intrigue, time itself slows, as I hold my son for the first time.

About This Poetry Form

Name: Acrostic Poetry
Description: An acrostic poem is a type of poetry where the first, last or other letters in a line spell out a particular word or phrase. The most common and simple form of an acrostic poem is where the first letters of each line spell out the word or phrase. In this particular poem you will find who I am devoting this poem to by incrementing a letter on each line from the beginning going down.

About This Series

Read more about this series here.

 

 

red-tailed-hawk
  • Jason Stadtlander

PFP (ABC) The Hawk
PFP (ABC) The Hawk 900 586 Jason Stadtlander

“The Hawk”

Aloft on the wind I fly
Breathing the fresh, cool air
Careening from side to side
Diving, I accelerate and snap my wings open
The air is my paint and I am the brush as I delicately construct my art

 

About This Poetry Form

Name: ABC Form
Description: An ABC composition is the kind of poem where every word starts with a consecutive letter of the alphabet.

About This Series

I have decided that I’m going to focus for a while on poetry form, something I have not done for a long time. There are generally 55 main accepted forms of poetry in modern literature. Some I have written in before, some I was not even aware they existed.

My plan is to go through each form and write a poem. What I would like from you is to take a moment and read each of the poems, then rate them. At the bottom of each post you’ll see 5 stars that you can rate it with. Leave your comments at the bottom. After I have gone through all 55 forms, I’ll pick the top ten rated poems and submit them to literary magazines, all thanks to your guidance!

Maybe you like the content but not the form? Maybe you like the form but not the subject? It’s all good! I’d just love to hear your thoughts. You can find everything in this series here. I will publish my first poem this morning at 8:30am.

 

jasonstadtlander.com
  • Jason Stadtlander

Poetry Form Practice (PFP) – You be the judge!
Poetry Form Practice (PFP) – You be the judge! 400 299 Jason Stadtlander

I have decided that I’m going to focus for a while on poetry form, something I have not done for a long time. There are generally 55 main accepted forms of poetry in modern literature. Some I have written in before, some I was not even aware they existed.

My plan is to go through each form and write a poem. What I would like from you is to take a moment and read each of the poems, then rate them. At the bottom of each post you’ll see 5 stars that you can rate it with. Leave your comments at the bottom. After I have gone through all 55 forms, I’ll pick the top ten rated poems and submit them to literary magazines, all thanks to your guidance!

Maybe you like the content but not the form? Maybe you like the form but not the subject? It’s all good! I’d just love to hear your thoughts. You can find everything in this series here. I will publish my first poem this morning at 8:30am.
  • Jason Stadtlander

The Horses
The Horses 1000 665 Jason Stadtlander

Dreams of the horses which ride on the waves

Seas of the night for the horses to raze
Darkness succeeds but seldom is won
Holding its grip returning when done
For when light is now gone, what is left is the stark
And the horses alone stand await in the dark.

Reality brews the harshness of truth
Steeping day after day providing the proof
Time unravels our lives in the grey
Providing the illusion that we know the way
But the world will evolve unraveling thread
And the horses will run staying ahead.

Imagination provides us the host for the cast
A chance for future and dreams that could last
It’s nothing but clouds floating about
Hoping for substance to keep the dark out
Sometimes it leads down a new path
And the horses will follow, closing the gap.

The day is the truth, raw and so clear
Showing the light no matter how near
For the light is the life and the blood as it flows
Following darkness and ebbing the woes
The day is the light and the life that is new
And the horses will stand, examining you.

When the night is what’s left, when all else has gone
As pictures are painted and sketches are drawn
In your mind all alone, these images breath
Not night but the day and all that is free
For reality is all what is left in the end
The horses are free and running again.

The dreams of reality are imagination that’s true, 
But the day and the night return me to you
One last breath and I look deep in your eyes
As the horses raise me and carry me up into the skies.

  • Jason Stadtlander

Blood and Water
Blood and Water 150 150 Jason Stadtlander

The blood pumps in your veins
And keeps you alive;
From the family you came
It’s all that survives.

What now of that blood
And how it connects you;
It can bury you in mud
Or it can make you blue.

The wrath of the kin
Clouds the sky with stark grey;
Drives a spike through the sin
Keeps the angels away.

That blood also flows
Through your body and mind;
In all that it shows
Alone it is blind.

How then can you choose
What path you must take;
Tolling on kin to amuse
Or in solitary wake.

To stand proud and be kind
Regardless of blood;
The water will then unwind
For it too is a flood.

Water is not as thick as blood
For blood will endure;
If you allow it to bud
Only then is it pure.

Water crests in a wave
But then it is gone;
Leading only to save
What once was in sun.

The life giving liquid
Leads toward your future;
It need not be frigid
Or twist you with torture.

Do not let your blood haunt you
Or betray you it will;
Follow your heart true
And your life it will fill.

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