Ten-Finger Exercises

i am Bic Pentameter. Who are you?

I've been playing all day with this excercise from Dave and Cookie in "Invalid Item"  to write a poem with a line of iamb, one of trochee, one of dactyl and one of anapest.

These are vaguely familiar terms I met once long ago but whose names I couldn't place. Their faces looked familiar: that Meter family, I think. They do look a lot alike.

It's a treacherous assignment. I can either make sense and have extra syllables, or the word train is pretty loosely connected. Oh, I forgot to tell you: it's supposed to rhyme too.

So, having mangled it around in my mind enough today, I'll show you how hard it was. Then you can show me how easy it is.

Let me dance in the light anapest midnight rain!
If I could shuttle the dactylic train,
Misty, mushy trochee brain, I’d
Decry iamb debris, no strain.

You can see I was trying to show off by getting all the little guys' names in there too.

The second time I eliminated that silly, who thought of that? rule, and mostly stuck with the first line, which I thought was enchanting.

Let me dance in the light anapest midnight moon
If I can shuffle and carry a tu-u-une.
But I cannot find a beat to
Re-find my balance on my situ. (Or"feet--Ooo!")

***

Ah, bubula, would you care to trochee with me?
Anapest! It sounds dactylic! Iamb yours!