Souls’ tears, or: Nigh

Posted on by ben Alexander

My first Fibonacci poems in rhyming Sestina form

I

Why?
I
So cry...
Oh, to fly,
Oh, to soar sky high!
Need I, need I write what comes nigh?

II

Nigh...
Why
Get high?
Human, I.
Nigh, shall my soul fly;
Skies pouring forth tears that souls cry.

III

Cry!
Nigh,
I'll fly
To my Why.
Just sweet Why and I,
Eulogizing ourselves from high.

IV

High.
Cry
Shall I
When the nigh
Night shall arrive. Why
Were men given no wings to fly?

V

Fly
High,
Dear Why!
Will you Cry
When the night is nigh?
Need you cry for a one like I?

VI

I
Fly,
Night nigh.
Rise up high,
Wondering: why cry?
Wingless, merely a soul, to Why.

VII – Haiku

I weep from on high,
Fly, raining tears men shall cry,
Nigh to join the Why

d’Verse is taking a break for the holidays so there won’t be any prompts for a while…

So I’ll be trying out a few new forms with prompts born of my mind instead!

I considered the idea of responding to prompts from other groups, but d’Verse satisfies my creative curiosity more than well enough – and I don’t want to spend all of my time responding to poetry prompts.

Some thoughts

  • Sestina and Fibonacci poetic forms were not intended to be woven together like this, and with good reason.
    • The combined limitations resulted in six Sestina stanzas that are all very similar, which I find monotonous.
    • In particular:
      • The Fibonacci form dramatically limited the syllables per stanza; and
      • The Sestina form required me to end every line with one of six particular words
    • Given these limitations, it was easy enough to turn the final three-line stanza into a haiku, so why not?

59 thoughts on “Souls’ tears, or: Nigh”

        1. Thanks, Samreen –

          I don’t celebrate Christmas as a Jew (and, sadly, Chanukah is already over this year), but I greatly appreciate the sentiments! What holiday are you celebrating this season?

          -David

        2. We celebrate Eid holidays which is over already, this season we will be welcoming the new year the same way as everyone will, with this hope of normalcy again. 😊
          Have a good day David 🌻

  2. Beautifully penned, Ben. Literary delight. I love this. Quite inspiring. Feel like doing one myself just the way you did this.

  3. You certainly set yourself a challenge here David, and you rose to it well with this philosophical poem! I do think it’s funny how dVerse is taking a break but the poetry goes on! I wrote that I am taking a break, but so far, I haven’t 😅

  5. I was just having a conversation with a dear old friend
    It felt so good, as the elder sitting before me when speaking about tears that do draw nigh, so close, yes always closer than yesterday, always closest in the now in present time

    Then you arrive, much younger than I
    With a haiku overflowing in weeping
    So i draw nigh, and weep with men who do cry.

    You are an amazing writer ben

    1. TBH, Punam, I am somewhat startled that it’s been getting positive responses, and that’s not me being humble – this was only intended as an exercise!

      Thanks so much!
      David

      1. David, maybe because the combination you tried has never been tried before ( at least I have not read before!) and in my opinion, the repetitive rhyming worked extremely well.
        My pleasure.

    1. Well, they make me curious – I mean… I have nothing against free verse, per se, but all of these forms do exist… it just makes me wonder what effect they might have on my words.

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