Partners

There is a pool within my hand;
an open palm for you to swim,
to grow your dreams, and to expand
lively notions that will not dim.

And as you tread to ease your soul
you see a light to every goal
rejuvenated in this dip
with my support in our kinship.



Pamela A. Lamppa 
Copyright © 2016 
All Rights Reserved

Painting by Vladimir Kush

A Rispetto, an Italian form of poetry, is a complete poem of two rhyme quatrains with strict meter. The meter is usually iambic tetrameter with a rhyme scheme of abab ccdd. A Heroic Rispetto is written in Iambic pentameter, usually featuring the same rhyme scheme.

Just Yesterday (For Sarah)

Soft petals are the contours of your face,
grown woman from the rosebud you once were;
just yesterday, a babe in my embrace.

Where once you were adorned in bows and lace
your pleats and leathers happily occur.
Soft petals are the contours of your face.

How could I know that you would set the pace
to spin each year into this whirling blur!
Just yesterday, a babe in my embrace.

The world has turned yet I would not erase
the kindness that your heart beats to transfer.
Soft petals are the contours of your face.

My daughter, there could be no better place
than this, the growing kinship we prefer.
Just yesterday, a babe in my embrace.

Your grown-up beauty flows with style and grace
these tears within my eyes cannot deter.
Soft petals are the contours of your face;
just yesterday, a babe in my embrace.




Pamela A. Lamppa 
Copyright © 2016 
All Rights Reserved



The highly structured villanelle is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem’s two concluding lines. Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2.

Reference: https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/text/villanelle

Stepping Out of the Box

I walked the straight and narrow as you bade
and toiled for years to make it to the top;
that upper crust of sweetness that you laid - 
mere sugar laced with arsenic in each crop.
How blind I was to miss your hot crusade
not once to see or shout for you to stop.
But I the fool like those who'd come before
neglected to believe you'd want for more.

To all you "haves" and to the one's you've caught,
to those who dare to judge me where I stand,
I bid good day to all you precious lot!
No longer will I work at your demand.
Stripped bare am I and left to dance and rot
amid the rubble of this contraband
with nothing more than tear stains 'neath my eyes
for all your promises that came up lies.

And so, a wiser man have I become
as I remove myself from this affront.
Remorse no longer bids me to succumb
as if I should adhere to bear the brunt.
And those who feel established call me dumb
to step out of this worker-bee's false stunt.
Regrets are just a tool you've used to peel
the livelihood my youth gave you to steal.



Pamela A. Lamppa 
Copyright © 2016 
All Rights Reserved





Ottava Rima

A Ottava Rima is a poem written in 8-line octives. Each line is of a 10 or 11 syllable count in the following rhyme:

one octive poem. abababcc
two octive poem. abababcc, dededeff
three octive poem. abababcc, dededeff, ghghghii

...so on and so on

Reference: http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/ottavarima.html