Forever Bound
Grief
is like
a rusty chain
wrapped tightly ’round
a tree
trunk,
slowly
sinking deeper
into the wood,
weighing heavy on
our hearts,
suffocating,
stealing
the light
from our eyes
and the oxygen
from our
lungs,
until
one day
we awake, only
to discover we
can breathe
again,
for
the chain
has grown to
become a permanent
part of
us.
(A hay(na)ku is a three line poem where the only rule is that the first line is made up of one word, the second line of two words, and the third line of three words. A reverse hay(na)ku is a three line poem composed in the opposite manner, so line one would be three words, line two is two words, and line three would be just one word. During the 2019 Poetry Marathon, I combined these two styles to create what I called the “mirror hay(na)ku”. This time, I have taken things a step further with the “Hall of Mirrors Hay(na)ku”, which is composed of five separate mirror hay(na)ku stanzas.)
Interesting poetic form – I like the mirroring aspect, which you helped with the color highlighting! The content, though surprising at first, also feels true. Thank you for this.
I’m glad you enjoyed this and my explanation of my mismatched made up format made sense! I actually took this concept from a conversation with an old friend several years ago shortly after her mother had passed. My late husband had passed a couple years previous, and I was still struggling myself. I came up with the chain and the tree explanation and it has just resonated with me ever since. This was the first time I actually expanded the idea, so it’s good to know it came across clearly.
Speaking of condensed poetic forms to contain grief and loss … are you familiar with The Minute? Cathy Bowers created it to write about her loss after her brother died. If you like brevity/conciseness, you should check it out! Her sample poem, “The Year I Got No Valentines” showcases the form.
3 quatrains (or 4-line stanzas)
8 syllables in the first line of each stanza
4 syllables in the remaining lines of each stanza
rhyme scheme: aabb/ccdd/eeff
written in strict iambic meter
So each stanza contains 20 syllables times 3 stanzas equals 60 syllables total.
Try it out – I think you’ll enjoy it!
I am familiar with the format but did not know the story behind it, I will definitely have to check it out! Thanks!