Young Writers Society

@Ventomology your comment inspired me to write this one! Some of them are half-rhymes, just like a few of my previous sonnets.

7. a) The Portal

Where he goes, the portal follows him:
a small green door with roses on the frame.
A round and small doorframe, the shape of whim.
And when he sees it, he looks away in shame.

This world collects the fancies of the mind,
assembles them into a prison house,
and his have filled the town with unreal kind,
from glowing streets to dwellings of the mouse.

Return, return, he thinks as the bells peal,
and maybe that will stop this endless chase.
The towers seem to echo this appeal
with wind that howls straight through their empty face.

But if he turns back now, he stands to lose
the very thing he’s left himself to prove.

*7. b) was a version where the main figure was the horse, but that didn't work out very well because I didn't know enough horse sounds.

Tried using a bit more alliteration and assonance here thanusual but not sure if it's noticeable.

An alternate version . . .

10. b)

They rust. The slabs of iron in this land.
They make the hills as jagged as a spine.
Only dust where rivers once ran.
I wait for her, who was never mine.

I saw the reddest ribbons wound so tight
around the tree, the day she came to me.
The morning light caught in her eyes was bright
as she descended from the branch with glee

like spirits glimmering in dappled gold,
appearing, vanishing – and fading fast,
her greeting echoed, like something ancient, old,
it hit me that her smile would not last.

I dye my sashes crimson just for her,
though our dream-like meeting may not recur.


Neither of these is very edited. I usually make some edits to the one I publish as my main poem but I procrastinated a lot today, so here we go.

11. a)

The spells that lock this cave are ancient ones.
A bother to undo – they keen and groan.
Dissolve the power of the distant suns;
return it far away, repay the loan.

Twin pikes of ice point upwards to the light,
beside them glow a dash of precious stones.
The cavern floor appears to bubble bright,
reflecting a few hundred bluish tones.

Reach behind the second stalactite
and twist the knob upon the puzzle’s side
And then? What follows, out of sight?
What will solve the thing – I can’t decide.

My years of learning falter now, I fear:
I was the one who made this puzzle here.

This is still a sonnet -- only instead of using iambic pentameter and end-rhymes, I made the meter of individual lines 'rhyme' with each other. For example:

Heptameter
Hexameter
Heptameter
Hexameter

In an ABAB scheme. The meters have fewer feet going down the poem.

I love this actually? It's like music in 5/4 but a poem, and the intentional meter change is like being put slightly off balance the whole time, especially when I read it out loud. I could like... feel the limbo. Super cool!

@Ventomology Oh that's a neat comparison - I hadn't thought of that! Glad you enjoyed, and thanks so much for the comment!

Writing a sonnet a day is hard :0 I had quite a bit of trouble with this one and even now I'm not too sure it fits my theme. An earlier version included the brief start of a backstory where the dragon was raised by rebels that wanted to use her to overthrow the king, but she wasn't into that.

i love 17 so much! i love how at a quick glance, every line looks the same, until you read it and see the pathways of art. i've always loved reading your poetry, lim, and this napo might be my favorite of yours <3