Deo Volente

Posted on November 4, 2020 by Roland's Ragbag

DEO VOLENTE

Cometh the day
Cometh the ban
Yet another deprivation
Another death for motivation
Covid Nine still running wild
Meaning for us
Nothing good
Nothing mild
Just another tight restriction
This is now life
It is not fiction

I tell my family they cannot come
They are not surprised
They do not blanche
Just another faded chance
Not something else to life enhance

Will I one day
Look back and say
When this black cloud has blown away
I lived through covid
Took its measure
Saw it off
Without a cough
Survived to tell new generations
How grandad lived through such privations
Knuckled down
Obeyed the rules
Derided all those other fools
Who didn’t care
Who took it easy
Yet also lived to tell the tale

I can’t help but think
With a nod and a wink
Life’s still worth living
D. V. – God Willing.

Elfchen

Posted on October 9, 2020 by Roland's Ragbag

Today, I attempt to compose an ELFCHEN or, in English, an ELEVENIE

Wikipedia defines an Elevenie, or Elfchen, as follows:

“An elevenie (German Elfchen — Elf “eleven” and -chen as diminutive suffix to indicate diminutive size and endearment) is a short poem with a given pattern. It contains eleven words which are arranged in a specified order over five rows. Each row has a requirement that can vary.”

A simple form, similar perhaps to Haiku, Senryu or Tanka, in which the poet attempts to carry an idea within a set format of words and lines which imposes certain strictures of thought and form on the author.

The usual format requires a short verse of eleven words in five lines in the form – 1, 2, 3, 4, 1. An order which I have reversed in my last of the 4 elfchen below . . .

ELEVENSIE 1 . . . On Poetry

Poetry
Felt experience
Not always beautiful
But rich in meaning
Worthwhile

ELEVENSIE 2 . . . On Age

Years
Bring age
Not necessarily wisdom
Learn from your experience
Grow

ELEVENSIE 3 . . . On Lockdown

Constriction
Distorting minds
Playing with normality
Threatening well earned contentment
Lockdown

REVERSE ELEVENSIE 4 . . . On Covid19

Puzzlement
Why let us suffer
Whilst time passes
Our lives
Wasting

Prufrock On Lockdown

Posted on May 20, 2020 by Roland's Ragbag

Photo by Anna Shvets on Pexels.com

Prufrock On Lockdown

Today drags its pale length
as does the serpent
slow, stately, watchful
a day like any other
the day that follows yesterday
always preceding tomorrow
like a tedious argument

Unplanned
both shy of work
and play bereft
hot-desking
and agile-working
not working for me
my day now
structured by eating
measured by meals
by medication
by those forever coffee spoons

Nothing planned
so nothing to regret
meaningless moments
with nothing arranged
only possibilities are exciting
the five o’clock briefing
another dose of dead antiques
another bargain hunted down
one more home under the hammer
another escape to the country
to the chateau or the sun
but from my armchair
escape is no longer an option
glimpsed desires unfulfilled
and not a matter of money

The seaside too
still eludes me
retaining its magnetism
but with the pull of the tide
unable to reach me
The Lakes a mirage in my memory
a Prelude taught to feel,
perhaps too much,
the self-sufficing power of solitude
but this solitude no longer blissful

It now descends
the yellow fog
obscuring the future
taking with it the meaning of my days
rubbing its back against the window panes
of this my settled cell
licking it’s tongue
into the corners
of my every uneventful evening.
my every desultory day