Smoke Across this Land
A lai
Everything we see
Almost every tree
All burns
Western burning spree
Smoke rise up to thee
Ash turns
Beautiful debris
There’s nowhere to flee
Heart yearns
This poem is an example of a Lai, a form popular in France and Germany in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. It is written as a single nine-line stanza with the rhyme scheme of aabaabaab. The ‘a’, lines have five syllables, the ‘b’, lines have two syllables.
Written in response to the Literary impulse prompt ‘uncommon-poetic-forms’, fifteen of them as prompt’s in Somsubhra Banerjee’s excellent explanation of the forms in the link below.
Thank you to everyone at this wonderful publication for publishing my work, and for the important work you do towards, ‘social change through creative endeavours’.
If any of my friends and fellow poets would like to try their hand at any of these uncommon forms this is an excellent opportunity. Tagging just a small percentage of the talent we have here. kurt gasbarra, Lee Ameka, Melanie J., Thief, Anthi Psomiadou.
