I Write - Decade Edition - Roaring 20's

Divine Inspiration - Syllabics

I need a line, a floundering line.
One that speaks its mind without contempt.
One that powers me into divine
Inspiration and fuels my poor soul
Lifting me up beyond the pale bars
That threaten darkly to hold captive
Imagination that seeks freedom.
Counting, counting, drawing out a line;
Letting it stir the embers found deep
Within my very heart, dormant now;
But soon a flash, an explosion of
Colours, sights and smells that carry me off
Into a world no one has dared dream.
Painting word pictures on a canvas
That is my life, my soul, my being.
And for that, I am forever grateful.

Lines = 16
Free verse - syllabic poem

Notes ▶︎

This was written during the Oak Bluffs Library Online Poetry Session from 4:30 to 6 pm on January 5, 2022.

The topic was Syllabic Poems. "The term syllabics is usually used to refer to a kind of poetry in which the principle of organisation of the line is by number of syllables and nothing else. That is to say one does not fall into traditional metres (like iambic pentameter) in a syllabic poem - one might actually struggle to avoid them." From our class notes.

I really like this poem. We were given 30 minutes to write and this is what emerged. Even the extra bits (below) that I discarded because they did not fit my 9 syllable lines made an interesting poem:

Extra bits - of life
Into a world like no other
My imagination that seeks freedom
My imagination that bounds forth
Lifting me up beyond the pale

In the main poem each line is 9 syllables, except for the last which is 10. It follows a similar to the structure - last line different number of syllables - as Dylan Thomas's poem In My Craft and Sullen Art.
This piece won 2nd place in Test Your Poetry - January 2022 - The awardacon is for that piece.