#11 – Free To Be An Etheree

It’s time to get decked out in all your poetic finery because today we’re revisiting The Stylish Poet category! (Is that a boo/hiss I hear?)

One of the hardest things for me is crawling out of the comfort zone of rhyme.  Rhyming comes naturally to me because from my teens to my thirties, I wrote over 100 of the nicest songs you’ll never hear. Some poetry prompts lend themselves so easily to a rhyming scheme that I have to force myself to go in a different direction. As a result, I spend a good bit of time searching for poetic forms that rely solely on syllable count.

The Etheree is one of the least complicated non-rhyming forms: ten lines with a corresponding 1 to 10 syllable count. You can reverse it, double it, triple it or even quadruple it. What could be more fun? Well, probably a lot of things, but while you wait for them to come along, feel free to Etheree with glee!

EXPOSED

Lights
flicker
in windows,
their reflections
a foreboding dance.
Solemnly, streets begin
to glow a twilight warning.
Shadows outrun their sheer brilliance,
afraid disguises will be unveiled
by these fragments of illumination.

© Susan Schoeffield