Most of My Life Lies Behind Me

National Poetry Month, Day 22

"Woman Reading in Garden"   painting by Renoir




I wrote today's poem for a contest on Allpoetry called "Wow Me Not With Verbotechnics."


From that phrase , I was struck by the 4 beat , trochaic rhythm  ( stressed/unstressed pattern)so I ended up using that pattern. It's the same pattern Henry Wadsworth Longfellow used in "A Psalm of Life"  and  Edgar Allan Poe used in  "The Raven."  Here's what spun out of that:

  Most of My life Lies Behind Me

 

Wow me not with verbotechnics-

Summer gardens work just fine.

Gladioli shock the clerics -

delicate but so divine.

 

Star magnolias fill the air with

suntan lotion’s thick perfume.

Then I’m thanking Heaven’s goldsmith

when the air is filled with June.

 

I feel old when nests remind me

I don’t have much future here.

Most of my life lies behind me;

still I call the summer dear.

"Star Magnolia"   painting by Don Wright

"Birds Nest"   painting by Jennifer Priest