Gaines Verse/ Three Poems

Reading the Silence

Once, I savored quiet times
to search within myself.
Now I'm wondering
why silence has betrayed me
by screaming out my fears.
I just wish that you
would break this precious silence.

(Gaines Verse proper form: Seven lines with syllable counts of 7,6,5,7,6,5,7)



Tea Leaf Betrayal

Steeped black magic, swirling fate -
in bottoms of teacups
lay futures, foretold.
Sinners beware - truths exposed.

(Gaines Verse short form: Four lines with syllable counts of 7,6,5,7)



Life and Death of a Poem

Silently conceived, a thought,
developed for a time,
laid out on paper
being born from my mind's eye.
I fed it my own breath,
tossing it my words.
I then gave it my own voice
so that it could be heard.
But, when it grew teeth
and started biting me back
with ideas of it's own,
I knew it was time.
I just had to give it wings
and toss into the air -
wasted words tumbling,
a crumpled miscarriage - trash.

(Gaines Verse long form: up to infinite lines with syllable count of 7,6,5,7,6,5,7 etc. ending with 7)