Poetics of the Road

     Image: Northern Ireland by Mary Bach

Step out my dear and don’t look back

adventures gather ’round the bend,

and they’ll make up for what we lack.

Step out my dear and don’t look back

with sturdy shoes and rain-proof pack,

a map, a compass and a friend.

Step out my dear and don’t look back

adventures gather ‘round the bend.

 Over at dVerse Poets' Pub we have been asked to write "poetics; of the road" in eight lines.  I've chosen the eight line form called Triolet, which is defined as a stanza poem of eight lines where the rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB, and often in iambic tetrameter: the first, fourth and seventh lines are identical, as are the second and final lines.

Good Bye Dave

He jumped a passing songtrain,

with no reassurance
the plan's still on track...
The net is fragile --
there's the rub.

They were the first to catch
the note of grief
and the first to say

 'tis time to go at last! 

The wind is slowly rising
and will take you.

I miss 'em like hell.

These 55 words are for G-man at FF55, but they are also for fellow poet Dave King.  Over at dVerse Brian told us of Dave’s death, and of the friendship that had developed between the two of them even though they had never met.  And then he went on to talk about friendship in general and suggested we write about either Dave specifically, or friendship, particularly the friendships that have grown through writing and blogging.  I chose to write my 55 words about Dave King.  In fact these words belong to Dave King.  In some previous prompt somewhere (yes, I’m too lazy to look it up for you – please just take my word for it) there was a challenge to combine lines and parts of lines from other poets’ works to create something new and original.  And, as Dave was a better, more thoughtful poet than I, that’s what I did here.  This poem is pieced together with bits of the following poems written by Dave King:

“A Silly Little Nonsense Poem”, "I Miss Me Hot Flushes!", “Where To?”, “The Great Exchange”, "The Trees Are Pulling Up Their Roots" and “Fishing” (not in that order).

I’m pretty sure there is a name for this other than plagiarism, but I can’t remember that either.  And I may have changed a pronoun or a tense here or there.   And as for Dave King, even though I’d never met him in person, “I miss ‘em like hell.”