Roll, or: Eyes

Posted on by ben Alexander

A sijo

Personalities don't change with age;
we learn to hide our crazy.
Enthusiastic and excited
every single time,
the world and I both roll our eyes
and take me with a pinch of salt.

‘Ronovan Writes’ poetry challenge

Sijo Wednesday #11

Ronovan encourages poets to use the word ‘excitement’ as their inspiration, as either a theme of their sijos or in their poems themselves.

Sijo?

A Korean verse form related to haiku and tanka and comprised of three lines of 14-16 syllables each, for a total of 44-46 syllables. Each line contains a pause near the middle, similar to a caesura, though the break need not be metrical. The first half of the line contains six to nine syllables; the second half should contain no fewer than five. Originally intended as songs, sijo can treat romantic, metaphysical, or spiritual themes. Whatever the subject, the first line introduces an idea or story, the second supplies a โ€œturn,โ€ and the third provides closure. Modern sijo are sometimes printed in six lines.

Let’s write poetry together!

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

–Ben Harper (b. 1969)

Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!

22 thoughts on “Roll, or: Eyes”

  1. Lol
    Such a lovely start out
    And then the pinch of salt got me
    Hilarious
    But somehow it got a hold of me
    Touchรฉ
    And I love how the way the world roll their eyes
    Which in mine
    Made a great Sijo

    You are so good at what you do.

  2. Hehe! I will take this with a grain of salt! I’m pretty sure we all have a touch of crazy tucked away from the world and only infrequently revealed – even to ourselves!

  4. Nice David. You know i think people become more and more of who they are as they age. just an observation. And good advice to take only with a grain of salt! ๐Ÿ’–๐Ÿ’–

  5. I am on the side of disagreement with your lovely poem. As I sit with my b-day today, I feel I am a very different person than I was 20 years ago. I like myself more, I am happier, and I appreciate more.

  6. You are right, David, personalities do not change but acquire new facets, if you will. And, of course, we learn to masquerade asocial tendences. Very insightful poem.

Leave a Reply

Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s