.
Gossiping Hinges
Some think we hinges only squeak
__because we seek
__an oily drop
__to make us stop,
but hinges gossip day and night,
__our message, quite
__distinctive. We,
__with raucous glee,
say ‘hi’ to hinges down the street
__we’d like to meet,
__or squawk a song
__for sing-a-long.
When hinges squall in unison,
__our voices run
__from shy to bold.
__If truth be told,
when doors and shutters bang the house
__from wind’s carouse,
__we hinges will,
__with rusty zeal,
be heard in every part of town,
__uphill and down,
__our sounds like those
__of rasping crows.
.
.
Conversation
A conversation has begun
_where woods comprise a scene.
The leaves are talking to the wind
_in syllables of green.
The gossip flows from twig to twig
_and by the garden wall
I hear the burly oak relate
_the wildest tale of all.
Why should I listen to the field
_for what the grass might say,
when leafy tongues already tell
_the story of the day?
.
.
My Lost Love
—a villanelle
On lonely nights my love returns to me
out of the misty realms of yesterday.
I hold him once again in memory.
We dance among the stars. A melody
drifts downward from the spheres where angels play.
On lonely nights my love returns to me.
Our passionate embraces set us free
to whisper of the years that could not stay.
I hold him once again in memory.
We shed no tears for what can never be,
but laugh until the dawn is pearly gray.
On lonely nights my love returns to me.
We trek the bright hills of eternity
to find what scenes of joy they might convey.
I hold him once again in memory.
Only in dreams’ disclosure do I see
the one who stole my heart and ran away.
On lonely nights my love returns to me.
I hold him once again in memory.
.
.
LaVern Spencer McCarthy has appeared in Writers and Readers Magazine, Meadowlark Reader, Agape Review, Fenechty Publications Anthologies Of Short Stories, From The Shadows, An Anthology Of Short Stories, Visions International, Fresh Words International Magazine and others. She is a life member of the Poetry Society of Texas and National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Inc. She resides in Blair, Oklahoma.
I especially liked the villanelle; you made effective use of this form.
Personified hinges! It’s a first for me. Great fun!
Jabbering trees. A bit more conventional, but still good fun. Wordsworth would have loved it.
The villanelle, ‘My Lost Love’, is very haunting. Excellent work.
Thanks for the reads, Lavern.
These are all very captivating! I agree with Paul that personification of hinges is a very fun and creative idea. It definitely made me smile. And I very much like your playful tetrameter-dimeter-dimeter metrical form.
In “Conversation”, “syllables of green” is a great phrase.
And the villanelle is very well done, and a moving poem.
Good poems, thanks for the fun read. I especially enjoyed My Lost Love.
Almost perfect rhymes. Nothing strained or forced. No cheating with your meters. Each poem makes sense. You have something to say and you know how to say it. The second poem is Emily Dickinsonesque.
Three delightful poems on conversation without a human being as interlocutor. “Gossiping Hinges” has a sprightly structure of short lines, most of which introduce a new sound and/or idea, thus gradually developing interest. There’s a surprising (but accurate) denouement when the hinges triumphantly identify their sound with the unpleasant cawing of “rasping crows.”
“Conversation” also features a surprise at the end–an unanswerable question. The speaker and the reason for asking it are unclear, which adds to the artistic inscrutability of what is said.
The villanelle is one of the most beautiful I know–a dream with no one but the speaker present, but containing the activity of dance, melody, embraces, tears, and laughter, all lost as is the departed love.
The structure of Gossiping Hinges is the most unique one I’ve seen. Very creative! “Conversation” possesses a serenity that’s inexplicable yet fully palpable at the same time. “My Lost Love” is a heartfelt and easy-to-read piece. Love its sincerity.