Weather

And here’s our optional prompt for the day. Like music, poetry offers us a way to play with and experience sound. This can be through meter, rhyme, varying line lengths, assonance, alliteration, and other techniques that call attention not just to the meaning of words, but the way they echo and resonate against each other. For a look at some of these sound devices in action, read Robert Hillyer’s poem, Fog. It uses both rhyme and uneven line lengths to create a slow, off-kilter rhythm that heightens the poem’s overall ominousness. Today we’d like to challenge you to try writing a poem of your own that uses rhyme, but without adhering to specific line lengths. For extra credit, reference a very specific sound, like the buoy in Hillyer’s poem.

Sun kissed pavement
radiating, shimmering

Does not fit with recent bereavement
Off-kilter weather

She didn't know whether
She should still attend the memorial

Soft breeze caresses grass
As cars whirr by

A loud honking of horn
A pedestrian rushes across

Completing small journey
From middle of the road
To shimmering, shimmering pavement
Quicker than anticipated

She sobs on the park bench
Streaks of clouds smiling down at her
From miles above

She awaits patiently,
A descending fog
A misty, wet rain
A weather to hide her from the others