Comments on Climbing Rose

Climbing Rose

Oh rose! You cling and climb with flair

A seedling, grown in early prime,

Parading beauty shines in air.

Oh rose! You cling and climb with flair

Attracting critters flying near

In morning, noon and even time!

Oh rose! You cling and climb with flair

A seedling grown in early prime.

“Climbing Rose” takes the form of a triolet with a rhyme scheme abaAabAB.

The triolet is a short poem consisting of a stanza of eight tetrameter verses. A tetrameter verse measures 4 metrical feet. A stanza of eight verses is called an octave. The triolet is particularly pleasing because of certain traits about it. The roots of this form date back from medieval French poets. The earliest written form of this petite poem goes back to the late 13th Century. The earliest known forms of the triolet composed in English were written by Patrick Carey, the Benedictine monk, who it is said used them in his religious activities. When analyzing the triolet there are two essential things in its nature. Firstly, the naturalness of the refrain verses, and secondly the alteration of the refrains meaning. The triolet is a reasonably rare form. However, its terse nature is a good start for new poets. The triolet is used more than anything in cards and love letters because its short beauty makes it a perfect gift.

One of the many instances in the Bible where the rose flower is mentioned is found in the Song of Solomon 2:1 says; I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys.

Rose flowers grow in many different colors; red roses and bi-color roses are among my favorite flowers. In any beautiful garden rose flowers are to be found. Roses are beloved garden flowers and a symbol of affection and honor for a wide range of human events, both celebratory and somber. One of the oldest plants under human cultivation, all modern roses derive some part of their DNA from one or more of eight rose species that were native to Europe and Asia. All roses fall into one of three form classifications, being either bush, climbing or shrub roses. However, more than two centuries of breeding and hybridizing have served to produce many thousands of rose species and cultivars, each with a unique mix of characteristics. They have strong links in antiquity.

In ancient history it is purported that Romans out did the Greeks when Nero, the hedonistic emperor, 1st Century AD, dumped tons of rose petals on their dinner guests.  Cleopatra had her living quarters filled with the petals of roses, so that Marc Anthony would always think of her when she was not around him. Also, those affluent women in Rome used rose petals much like currency, for they believed that rose petals could banish wrinkles if used in poultices. Rose petals were often dropped in wine, because they thought that essence from rose petals would stave off drunkenness.

The red rose figured prominently in the “War of the Roses” fought in England during the 15th Century. The Nobles of York rose against Henry VI of Lancaster who was considered to be a feeble ruler. The War of the Roses” was a civil war in England that lasted from 1455-1487. The House of York adopted the white rose; the House of Lancaster decided to take a red rose. Tudor Henry VII merged his Lancastrian rose with the red rose of his York bride and thus created the Tudor Rose, the Rose of England.

The rose is the official flower of the United States of America. There is a section in the White House called the Rose Garden. It is adjacent to the Oval office and the West Wing. Ellen Louise Wilson first established this garden in 1913 and it was renovated during the Kennedy administration. The Rose Garden is the site of many formal and informal events and was the location for Tricia Nixon’s wedding in 1971.  Tricia Nixon Cox is the eldest daughter of 37th President of the United States of America, Richard Nixon and First Lady Patricia Nixon. Here is a picture of the bride and her father in the Rose Garden.

Click on this link for video tour of the Rose Garden. 

Comments on Christmas Time Again

The poem “Christmas Time Again” is a seasonal poem with imagery that captures the meaning of Christmas and the spiritual rebirth of mankind after the fall of Adam and Eve. The blessed hope of a better world fuels the minds of the Christian world. The history of Judaism has significant links to the Christian world. The Jews trace their roots to Abraham, who established the belief that there is only one God, the Creator of the universe; and that belief I embrace as a Christian believer. Contemporary Jews or Israelites follow with fervor their ancestral roots.

 

My Christian faith is compatible with Judaism in a harmonious and peace abiding coexistence. I gained much understanding of Jewish ways of life when I stayed with Dr Gold his beautiful wife and their two children (Martha and Solomon) a Jewish family on Cold Stream Avenue in Toronto, Canada during my student days at a Canadian Business College in 1968. The lighting of the Hanukkah was truly amazing for me. I got to understand that it means “dedication” in Hebrew, and begins on the 25th of Kislev or the Hebrew calendar and falls usually in November or December. Often referred to as the Festival of Lights, the holiday is celebrated with the lighting of the menorah, traditional foods, games and gifts. This eight-day Jewish celebration dates back to the second century B.C. of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, where according to legend Jews had risen up against their Greek-Syrian oppressors in the Maccabean Revolt. Jews in Barbados are amazing for they assisted in the building of this nation in so many pleasing ways. The oldest Jewish Synagogue in the western hemisphere is right here in Barbados. It is an amazing tourist attraction right in the heart of Bridgetown.

 

“Christmas Time Again” is written in the form of the Rictameter but with an added feature known as the “swirl”. The basic pattern of the Rictameter is maintained as shown below. However, the swirl is created by merging the 9th line and 1st line by stringing them together, thus creating a swirling movement of that 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

word into the next line as mapped out in red below: 

Christmas←←←←←←←←←←←←| First line

     ↓                                                                         
Comes once a year
For Christians everywhere
Celebrate the Nativity
And Jews blend well with their Hanukka too
Lots of wishes and blessings flow
From the hearts and the soul
Should continue
     ↓ 
 All year ←←←←←←←←←←←←| Line 9 swirls in Line1
     ↓ 
We wish for you
The joys the New Year brings
And resolutions we will made
Springs of hope revitalizing the mind
The gift of love hangs on the Cross
Easter He arose gave
The Blessed gift
     ↓
Bestowed←←←←←←←←←←←←| Line 9 swirls into Line1
     ↓
By our Maker
God’s gift of atonement
Through His beloved Son, Jesus Christ
So mankind can reclaim their paradise
From the hands of that evil one
Called corrupter of souls
That Lucifer
     ↓
Is hell←←←←←←←←←←←←←| Last line

Comments on Christmas Season

Christmas Season

Christmas...

Comes once a year

All Christians everywhere

Celebrate the Nativity

A Christian festival with lots of cheer

That bring the dawn of a New Year

And humanity flows

From the soul at

Christmas...

Colors alight

And lots of jingle bells

We sing carols both old and new

Which we all wish would last throughout the year

As we nurture folks who are poor

To grow with pride and much

Glad tidings at

Christmas...

Comes after Eve

When busy crowds subside

And the malls become deserted

Turkeys' necks have all been cut with the ducks

And the chickens no longer cluck.

Under the mistletoe

Folks shout: Merry

 Christmas...

Is in the air

With lots of laughter too

Presents all wrapped with pretty bows

Now sit beneath the lighted Christmas tree

With tiny ornaments that dance

To jolly Santa's laugh

Oh! Ho! Merry

Christmas...

Trees shine brightly

To help us find our way

And in the air the church bells ring

To tell us, it is time for midnight mass.

We hear voices in the choir

Blend sweet soprano, bass

And tenor at

Christmas...

Rich and poor mix

In unison they sing

The glorious songs of the Yule

To families and neighbors far and near

Are but some of the good tidings

Of love to all mankind

That folks share at

Christmas...

(December 2003)

Genre:    Seasonal Poem

Form:     Rictameter

Tags:      metrical feet, nativity, season, syllabic count

“Christmas Season” falls into the category of a seasonal poem. It uses imagery to depict a particular season celebrating the nativity with lots of goodwill and cheer. Season in its broad sense is a time characterized by a particular circumstance or feature of nature in all its various dimensions. The Christmas Season highlights the Nativity of Jesus Christ or the birth of Christ as it appears in the gospel of Matthew and Luke in the New Testament section of the Holy Bible. The Christmas Season does not mean a single day. It is a period in which Christians enter more deeply into the mystery of the One who came to earth as one of us to save us from our sins. The combination of Advent, Christmastide and Yuletide are synonymous with the Christmas Season. Advent is the period from Advent Sunday through the start of Epiphany. It starts on November 30 (Saint Andrew’s Day) or the nearest Sunday to it. It is the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day (December 25). In its broadest term, Advent means the first or the expected second coming of Jesus Christ. In the Christian Church, it is the period or season between Advent Sunday and Christmas. Christmas is a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, and incorporates various Christian, pre-Christian and secular customs. Christmastide is synonymous with Christmas Season, the Twelve Days of Christmas and Yuletide.

The structure of the “Christmas Season” poem is like climbing a hill the poem’s base structure starts at one foot (two syllables) and gradually increases the foot to reach the peak at five feet (10 syllables); descends by decreasing each step by one foot to return to the base as shown in the Rictameter graphic below.

          

The Rictameter graphic portrays the metrical feet use in creating the Rictameter poem. The unit of measurement in poetry is called a metrical foot, which is a set of syllables, usually two or three with only one receiving a stress. A metrical foot is made up of a particular pattern of stress and unstressed syllables. Bear mind the every syllable has a vowel and when that vowel is stressed the syllable automatically becomes stressed; when the vowel is unstressed the syllable is unstressed as well. The Rictameter is made up of nine lines and each line has a specific syllabic count as shown in Table 27. Notice too, how each syllabic count measures a specific metrical foot.

Table 27

Rictameter  Grid
Lines	Syllables	Syllable Measurement
1	2	1 foot
2	4	2 feet
3	6	3 feet
4	8	4 feet
5	10	5 feet
6	8	4 feet
7	6	3 feet
8	4	2 feet
9	2	1 foot

Comment on Choices

Choices

Ejects and dejects cried;

Same game on either side;

You go in; you come out;

Your choice is, smile or pout;

You drop it in, and wait;

The choice is yours Gaye Tate.

What choice do I have Drew?

But sit and chat with you,

And hear your point of view.

Thank you Gaye for your ears;

Amid the hype and noise;

There is always a choice;

My point to you is this;

Crackers they will dismiss;

Ignorance is not bliss;

Take a slice off whole bread;

Choice is always widespread;

To wed on not to wed;

Lesbian, straight or gay

Wrong or right, what's your say?

Why you ask this of me?

Not in closet but free;

Gay by name and nature;

Thanks to legislature.

Have you read Charles Strite's post?

Pray tell who is this man?

Don't know him from Adam;

So you don't eat toast bread!

I dab it with glow-spread.

He was an inventor

Of the pop-up toaster;

Check him out on Google;

Such knowledge is useful.

Don't have a computer.

You have got to be kidding!

No! No! Not rich like you.

Where is the sun today?

All day the sky will weep;

Still I must feed the sheep;

My eclipse biscuits fell                

In stew, what to do, Drew? 

Don’t you be a baboon!

Fish them out with pot spoon

Eat and chat with Lorraine,

A balanced life maintain... 

Drew, you controlling freak,

I asked simple question;

Not a lecture session.

Bravo my friend we do

Have choices, in a queue;

My point to you is this:

Ignorance is not bliss.

So now I am stupid,

And you are so lucid?

I am simply saying,

It's an undertaking

To weigh, the pros and cons;

Think, why shoes hurt your corns?

Oh come off it, you freak,

With your lecturing streak!

The poem “Choices” is a dialogue where two personas are in a conversation. Poetic dialogue is written in verses where verses can be acted out just like in a play, hence the term dramatic dialogue. The prefix “di” means two. This poem has triple quatrains of five stanzas, each with twelve verses.  Quatrain has four verses; a triple quatrain has twelve verses. These verses measure three metrical feet hence the reason why they are called trimeter verses. The prefix “tri” means three.

In this poem the rhyme scheme is; aabbccdddxee fffggghhiijj xkkGgllmmlnD hooxDppqqrss ddGGttnnuuRr. In any rhyme scheme the “x” stands for a word that does not rhyme and a capital letter in a rhyme scheme for word that rhymes with itself.

Hearing the dialogue when Gaye asked Drew, what should he do with Eclipse biscuits that were in his stew brought a smile on my face? I remembered how “eclipse biscuit” made by the West Indian Biscuit Company (WIBSCO) was a staple at breakfast for many Bajans during the island’s colonial era; indeed eclipse biscuits was the popular school snack served at ten o’clock  with a plastic tumbler of milk  (made from powdered milk) to pupils in the public Elementary Schools. These eclipse biscuits, square in shape were decorated with thirteen tiny pin-like holes which pupil would count them from various angles as though they were reinforcing their counting skills. See picture below. Sir Errol Walton Barrow frowned on this and introduced hot meals in all the public Elementary Schools.
                                                                                                                                           

Eclipse Biscuits played a prominent role among housewives who used them when preparing stuffing for chicken they would bake. Toast bread was not popular among ordinary folks during the era of British rule. Eclipse biscuits were the ‘working class” toast. Toasted bread was popular among the bourgeois class, the servants made toasted bread by flipping them over with hand held tongs over fire from wood-stove tops. The pop-up bread toaster became popular in Barbados during the Independence era, the birth of modern Barbados. The Americans’ influence on this tiny island was very great even now. It was classy for Bajans to have in their homes products made in North America. The pop-up toaster called the “toastmaster” became popular in Barbados during the 1960’s and is still very popular in Barbados among the various classes which make up modern Barbados. It took approximately some forty-one years for the “toastmaster” invented by the American from Florida, Charles P Strite in 1919 to reach the homes of all Barbadians. Of course, a search of Google would provide much more information on this American inventor. Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were at Stanford University as PhD students. They incorporated Google as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. The Headquarters of Google is in Mountain View, California. This multinational corporation specializes in internet-related services and products. These include search, cloud computing, software and online advertising technologies.