INFORM POETS – BOKETTO

/ Poetic Bloomings

We had gotten a great response to our call for Mother’s Day tributes. And it was an unofficial start to our “planting” season. Today we begin in earnest with our first form exploration of the re-boot. Today we fete: the Boketto!

A while back, our friend Meena Rose wrote about the idea of boketto. Boketto is a Japanese word that really doesn’t translate into English very well. The concept of Boketto is akin to staring at the sky or into the distance without a thought… Getting lost in one’s own self; removing the self from a place mentally. There is no regard to the past and no connection to the future. There is only THIS moment.

From this thought I’ve experimented with incorporating boketto into a poetic form and thus the Boketto was born. The Boketto can be a very personal poem, or can be one of a random observation.

The Boketto consists of two stanzas, One of five lines (30 syllables – 7,7,7,4,5) and a three line (17 syllables – two seven syllable lines and a three syllable line which becomes a refrain if a string of Boketto are written). It expresses a single moment in time!

A variation of the Boketto makes use of two (three) ancient Japanese forms, the Tanka and the Haiku (Senryu). The moment of which you write will determine the choice. (Haiku – nature; Senryu – everything else).

###

Sara’s Boketto:

ROULETTE

My mind is a roulette wheel,
black daydream fears spin through red
Grandfather clock ticks off time
The world is still
Am I fulfilling

my life? Will seizures that plague
my dog ease? I have always
found life hard.

© Sara McNulty

**I was sitting in my “writing corner” of the living room, dogs asleep in a stream of sunlight. Prevalent sound was the ticking of the clock, and the sense of my thoughts whirling.

###

Walter’s Boketto:

WHITE NOISE

The air is filled with static,
a bombardment of senses
meant to irritate; annoy.
There is no joy,
this moment must cease.

I must escape in my mind,
hoping to find inner peace.
No relief.

© Walter J Wojtanik

**WHITE NOISE was a restless night with the television on. I’m not sure if the TV kept me awake or if I hoped it would soothe. It did not.

…and the variation…

SOLACE IN SELF

I am imprisoned,
lost in this moment in time.
I am writing rhyme
hoping to vacate this shell
and become one with my words.
 
not a sound is heard
silence becomes an ally
setting the soul free

© Walter J Wojtanik

**SOLACE IN SELF was a bout of writer’s block that plagued. The silence of this night filled my head with words.

###

 

260 thoughts on “INFORM POETS – BOKETTO”

  1. A strong moment presented here, Sara! You’re not alone at finding life hard from time to time. That ticking clock provides a perfect counterpoint; each click marking the passage of the moment. Well done.

    • Hello to all… beautiful beginning blossoms …lovely form… will be back to comment but wouldn’t miss the kick off!… even if I did not get myself centered correctly (in oh so many more ways than on the screen) Love to all and happy poeming and planting … 🙂

      • It’s a newly devised form , Connie. Something which I’ve developed and have tested here. I’m glad I have gotten a positive response from all who have tried the form.

        If anyone has an idea for a form and would like to try it out here in some future INFORM POET, send me an e-mail with the particulars and we’ll be happy to aid in that regard. AND to promote your obvious poetic genius!

      • You’re welcome Sara! We seemed to have hit the mother lode. Glad we got your access figured out! When you post comments, put your name in the second box, and our poets will know which of us it is. As I’ve told the rest, “Welcome Home” and welcome aboard! Officially!

  2.  
     
     
    WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN

    A semi swerves. Suddenly,
    We’re face-to-face, in my lane.
    A dozen scenarios
    Run through my mind;
    Weighing my options.

    Though it seems like forever,
    It’s a flash. And just like that,
    It’s over.

    © Marie Elena Good, 2016

  3. Sara and Walt: What a fabulous kick-off! I’m so excited that our little plot is springing back to life, with the two of you as the master gardeners. Feels like home! THANK YOU!!

  4. Thank you so much for the beautiful examples. You both have inspired me to try to write in this form.

    I glance through the French door’s glass
    partially covered in dew
    the sun streaks through and it paints
    a calendar
    page full of colors

    which signify a new day
    so many things I must do
    I stay still

  5.  
     
     
    Here and Now

    We exist in Here and Now
    As we gape, its moments shape
    The bowers none return to
    Made with hours
    Of showers and sun

    …no hand can hasten or halt
    The perpetual flow of
    Here and Now

    All we ever have is Here and Now. How will we use it?

  6. Pingback: WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN | pictured words

  7.  
     
     
    CHRISTINE’S LAMENT

    In the dark, the floor is cold.
    There is no one there to hear,
    she is weak; she has fallen.
    She is alone,
    the floor is so cold.

    Our greatest fear realized,
    no more can she be alone.
    Cries for help.

    (C) Walter J. Wojtanik

  8.  
     
     
    Take the Shot
    (Tanka / Haiku)

    The subject in view
    Unaware of my intent
    I remain silent
    Placing subject in focus
    Aimed and ready, I shoot

    I check the results
    Quickly chimping the display
    Perfect exposure

    © Earl Parsons

    **TAKE THE SHOT displays the best way to get candid photographs. People will be themselves if they don’t know there’s a camera pointing at them.

  9.  
     
     
    SAFE IN HIS PALM

    Lost in the maelstrom of life,
    a rag doll tossed in the wind,
    I contemplate the meaning
    behind indecisiveness,
    that frozen time
    the mind learns stillness.

    In the silence I hear God’s
    assurance that He loves me.
    True peace comes.

    #

  10.  
     
    Five Seconds

    Sometimes I am mesmerized
    Five seconds later I smile
    Then I feel tears welling up
    But not for long
    Five seconds is all

    Emotional connection
    Then reality slaps me
    Screen saver must close

    © Earl Parsons

  11.  
      
    beneath my palm your chest warm
    your heart drums beating one two three
    ice in August room sun pounding
    three two one – none
    even birds silent

    iced in August room sun pounding
    ash into this frozen room
    my breath stops

  12. Note: I had to make the title longer than necessary so you understood that I was staring into a cup of coffee whilst watching the circus tent being erected in the village.

    ##

    Drinking Coffee as the Big Tent Goes Up

    I’m in vertigo — falling,
    Meditating on bubbles,
    A swallow of embossed night.
    Foam, right across
    An expanse, pretty

    As silk cheer and wakefulness.
    Calliopes and coffee,
    Hold that thought.

    ##

  13.  
     
     
    The Velvet Touch

    Two roses in a glass vase,
    dressed in white, jeweled thorns entwined,
    eye to eye—vision of the
    forgiveness cup.
    The balm of heaven.

    I brush their velvet touch of
    mercy with a sigh—
    If only I. If only . . .

  14.  
     
     
    Morning Moment

    Deejays discuss poor children.
    Hubby’s voice booms out the time.
    Feed man bites as he walks by.
    Lady jokes, laughs.
    Toy says, “Wow, cool, wow!”

    Thoughts will bubble to the top
    when trio goes out the door.
    Wow, cool, wow!

  15. Sara and Walt, Thanks for getting this going again. Sara, love the line, “My mind is a roulette wheel.” Walt, love the line, “Silence becomes an ally.”

  16.  
     
     
    ZONING DISORDER

    A patchwork quilt of boarded
    windows and broken spirits
    floats in shards of bloodied glass.
    A city cries
    from wounds that won’t heal.

    The news reports progress
    but a varnished lie cannot
    conceal pain.

    © Susan Schoeffield

    A year after the Baltimore riots, our city struggles to move forward but beneath the mask we wear, we remain disfigured.

  17. Hi Susan, great poem but I like the line in your comment best. “beneath the mask we wear, we remain disfigured”

  18. Pingback: Grand Reflections | echoes from the silence

  20. Dearest ones: I just have to say that I’m all misty-eyed over here. Seeing your faces, reading your hearts once again, and enjoying this little fellowship of poets has lifted my spirits today. Thank you all!

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  25. Pingback: Morning Gaze | Metaphors and Smiles

  26. I wrote two today. Thank you, both for your examples, Walt and Sara and for the post…I enjoyed this form and opted to do the variant.

    https://wordrustling.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/morning-gaze/
    https://wordrustling.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/home-again/

    :)’s

    Just a little note…I hope no one minds but I prefer to post only on my blog right now…if you visit I will visit you as well.

    I enjoy the back and forth here but I don’t enjoy the long threads and scrolling through comments.

    On that note…I wonder if we’d be interested in introducing Mr. Linky as a new feature for this site. I think it makes the reading/interactions easier and I think it gives people an opportunity to visit one another’s blogs.

    I remember we had this conversation before but I think it’s worth thinking/voting on.

    Thank you! 🙂

    • Also, I apologize if this should have been addressed via email…this just occurred to me as I would not want to create a buzz around this conversation rather than the prompt at-hand.

      So never-mind about responding to my note… 😉 I wanted it to be in the open to think on but the note is more for the hosts to discuss first I suppose…if that makes sense. Sigh…again…sorry, not trying to muck up the works.

    • Hannah, love your pieces on your site (which I haven’t visited in a while.) In Morning Gaze, the style of using the hyphenated basis for adjectives that seem to incorporate the stanzas in a little “word-boketto”.

  27. Yeah, nice going Hannah! 😉

    I was never a big fan of Linky. If I’m going to put effort into putting this site together, I need to see the results at a glance. I realize some folks are reticent to post on another blog, so posting a link to your site/page is acceptable. That was the reason I added the DAISY CHAIN with direct links to all of our contributor’s blogs. We’re adults here and I think there is a courtesy between us, understanding visiting each other’s blog is a good thing to do. But it is not a per-requisite to posting here as it is at other blogs. I’ve had administrators get nasty if I failed to hit every poet’s page. Again, I would think that is a no-brainer. But the decision to visit is to each other’s good conscience.

    Another request was to host this as a closed group. We’ve never been and will remain open. If you are in any way nervous about that fact, I apologize. But this is how Marie and I had envisioned POETIC BLOOMINGS: open to poets of all ages and skill levels. I think that is a part of our charm, the easy nature and close camaraderie here at POETIC BLOOMINGS.

    But I will keep an open mind and if I feel it will be of a better benefit here, I’ll reconsider.

    • Oh my goodness no apology needed, Sweet Hannah! We all have our various preferences, desires, and constraints. ❤

      And Walt, "Another request was to host this as a closed group. We’ve never been and will remain open. If you are in any way nervous about that fact, I apologize. But this is how Marie and I had envisioned POETIC BLOOMINGS: open to poets of all ages and skill levels. I think that is a part of our charm, the easy nature and close camaraderie here at POETIC BLOOMINGS."

      I agree 1000% ! 😀

      • I had had a few questions from poets about the “open” or “closed” nature of the group. The concern is that when poems are posted in a so-called open group they cannot be published anywhere else – whereas if they are posted in a “so-called” closed group they may (to the best of my understanding of these publication rules). The important point is that a closed group (although admittedly it would be lovely to have another name rather than closed which sounds forbidding)…. a ‘closed’ group can simply admit anyone who wants to join and post – so in that respect it is really not closed except in name only. Just wanted to clarify – not lobby – just clarify… that closed does not in any way preclude the open-easy-friendly feeling that is part of this garden. Think of it perhaps as a hedge that protects the poems within – rather than a locked gate that keeps the poets out. Okie dokie – that’s my explanation.

        • Good day to all 😊 Just in case there was any confusion in my post yesterday … It is clear that the lovely easy – breezy no pressure garden here is beautifully planting, watering and enjoying the blossoms together. This is a very special, fragrant and non-pressured place for poet people to stop for a while and inhale the roses in all ways. There are many other places where publication and other outside pressures need to be discussed and considered … Walt and Marie envisioned, now joined by Sara … a poetic/creative blooming which so very msny missed and which desires nor needs remodeling. Happy planting, and poeming and interacting in the most pleasant non-pressured of ways … with all love and positive energy flowing….. 🌸🌺🌷🌼🌹🌻🌿🌾🍀🌸🌷

          • Just saw your follow-up comment…we must have been typing at the same time.

            Yes…remaining open means we remain the easy-breezy non-pressured place you’ve come to know through this first prompt. 🙂

            It’s a great place to bloom! Honestly…if it would’ve been a closed group when i came to it, I’d have been too intimidated to post.

        • I guess my feeling is that if someone is planning to submit or publish, they’ll reserve that particular piece & not post it here. I’ve always felt that this garden is a place to practice & grow out craft/skill…not a place for finished/polished pieces. Same as P.A.

          My preference is to remain “open”.

    • Okay…thank you, for your thoughts on this, too…all understandable.

      In my opinion, the Linky is a time saver…at a glance one can see what’s been posted and by whom and one can easily catch up on reading without too much scrolling…it’s a bit busy on the eyes, for me.

      Thank you, both for hearing me and for your thoughts as well.

      :)’s

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  29.  
     
     
    WEEDS

    Blank mind–no epiphany
    of words to jumpstart my next
    chapter. Blankly I stare at
    weeds invading
    my garden. Strangling

    the beauty, the vibrancy
    of color and fragrance. Weeds
    in my mind.

    WEEDS was a morning spent trying to work on the next chapter of a novel I’m writing. I looked out my window and just stared at the weeds.

  30.  
     
     
    A promise of clarity
    from faded family shots
    and curled, yellowed documents
    keeps me searching
    through generations.

    All the discoveries made
    keeps me searching; hoping for
    nobler kin.

  31. I love seeing the Poetic Bloomings back! I’m excited, too, that I wrote something…anything, after a longggg dry spell. Thank you all!

    • Thank you for being excited and writing “something” (and a fine something it is!) As I’ve been telling everyone, welcome “home”, Judy. Even if you write a little, you’ll write a lot and be celebrated for it here!

  32. This is an outstanding response for a POETIC BLOOMINGS Prompt/Form. Our previous best for comments was 175 in 2014. That kind of response in a single day is unfathomable. (And we’re still four days to the Sunday prompt!) Give yourself a cheer!

  33.  
     
     
    WAVE GOODBYE

    There along the shore, I stand
    waiting for the tide to wash
    all my troubles far away.
    Here I will stay
    until the day ends.

    For this moment, God and I
    trade quips while the waves grip me.
    Swept under.

    © Walter J. Wojtanik

  34.  
     
     
    The Smile

    She’s so very beautiful
    She looks many years younger
    Is that a smile on her face?
    I think it is
    She’s smiling at us

    And we’re smiling through the tears
    As we pass to say good-bye
    One last time

    © Earl Parsons

  35.  
     
     
    HOLDING HOPE

    Christine stares out the window.
    The same view her husband had
    as he waited for death’s call.
    She is searching
    with all her being,

    looking for a better way.
    Here to see another day,
    holding hope.

    © Walter J. Wojtanik

  36. Oops. Got a suggestion for you guys. If you are logged in as an administrator, you show up as “Poetic Bloomings” in your comments, complete with the yellow calla lily. It’s confusing, because we don’t know who is responding (Walt? Sara? Perhaps Paula? Or Pearl?) It would be helpful for you to type your name in. Now, Walt for some reason shows up as Walt. But I noticed above that there are comments I assumed were Walt, but are apparently Sara. 😉

  37. It will be either Sara or me under the PB banner. Sara just got her connection working and I had made that suggestion to her about putting her name on the second line in the comment profile. That’s how my name appears with the lily. Odds are for the most part, if it just says POETIC BLOOMINGS, is would have been Sara.

  38. Sorry for the very very late post, but determined to join in at leaston the Inform prompts.
    A boketto probably inspired by staring at political nonsense as much as staring at the sea…

    waves crash in roaring protests
    as if angry at the shore
    as if the great Atlantic basin
    was restraining
    their collective will

    their foamy pleas rise and recede
    incited by an unseen and
    laughing Moon

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