A septolet is a 7-line poem consisting of exactly 14 words split into two connected parts or stanzas that share a single image or thought. Inspired by Dawn Minott’s post here.
Every fall, our family visits Oak Grove, a nearby park on the Sioux River. It covers five hundred plus acres of combined state and county conservation land with hiking trails, picnic areas, cabins and campsites. We park on top of the ridge and find a trail through the scrub oak trees to slowly make our way down to the river bottom.
The river flooded this past summer, changing the landscape. Sand and debris washed into the woodland, excavator tracks show where dirt has been redistributed and re-leveled. Ancient outcroppings of rose-tinted Sioux quartzite remain solidly undisturbed along the upper trail.
Reaching up, young cottonwoods glow golden in late afternoon. Scarlet sumac stunningly line the prairie grassland. The predominant oaks simply turn brown and drop large lobed leaves on the trail below their gnarly trunks. A few spruce and juniper stand green and ever verdant.
across this frozen prairie, winter blows
strong blizzard gale bullwhips up fallen snow
we shiver, polar-cold, wind’s frightful roar
and add thick logs to embers burning low
such fierceness could freeze creature to the core
if wait exposed; come, safe inside closed door
we offer mugs to drink in warming flow
and reminisce of summer sun-swept shores
Rubaiyat: The ruba’i is a classical Persian quatrain or double couplet of 4 lines and having rhyme scheme either AABA or AAAA. A collection of more than one quatrain is called a rubaiyat.
Edward Fitzgerald popularized the form in English.He chose iambic pentameter, generally 10-syllable lines with alternating accents, for the meter and used the AABA rhyme scheme. Having the unrhymed third line allows the poet to use that sound from the first quatrain as the main rhyming sound in the next quatrain, connecting the stanzas.
My thanks to Frank at dVerse Poets for this information on the rubaiyat form!
“Home is everything you can walk to.” ― Jerry Spinelli, Stargirl
To hike a mountain wearing backpack is divine; climb to cool heights with marmots, and drink in far vistas. To stroll barefoot along the sandy beach is mesmerizing; play catch-me-if-you-can with foamy waves, and chase seagulls. To meander with walking stick on fern trail through piny forest is refreshing; listen for bears, and follow a stony stream. To exercise with dog on rural mile is simple enjoyment; be led over gently rolling hill, push into prairie wind, and gaze at the wide expanse of sky.
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