Take Five

1.

“Observe both the rhyme and the reason
Of the typical turn of the season
From mornings’ sunrising
To sights more surprising:
Poetic-prosaic cohesion.” 

2. 

“Computing NaPoWriMo status:
One-third of the way through month’s practice
In steps non-orchestric;
Most feet anapestic,
With rhyme-scheming, far from exactness.”

The 9 April 2023 and 10 April 2023 limericks both paused from celebrating chemistry-specific themes.  Since they are in the midst of my fifth attempt toward this NaPoWriMo routine and they collectively provide a bit of a break from chemistry translation, “take five” seemed like an appropriate sentiment to share.   

“Observe both the rhyme and the reason
Of the typical turn of the season
From mornings’ sunrising
To sights more surprising:
Poetic-prosaic cohesion.” 

April brings the turn from winter to spring, and I had posted several pictures highlighting this welcome change during April: the vivid red of a cardinal against a deep blue sky, a contemplative squirrel, a rabbit in the sunrise, blossoms budding on a tree.  The earlier sunrises, while not specifically commemorated photographically, are some of my favorite indicators of the spring.  

It is interesting to revisit this now during the opposite transition, as summer turns to autumn, but such a change brings welcome sights of its own, the combination of the “rhyme and the reason” inspired by nature persists.  Below is one photo highlighting a still-welcome-but-more-autumnal moment of “poetic-prosaic cohesion.”  

***

“Computing NaPoWriMo status:
One-third of the way through month’s practice
In steps non-orchestric;
Most feet anapestic,
With rhyme-scheming, far from exactness.”

The second of these two poems recounted a rather mundane fact– that we had reached April 10– in a periphrastic way, relating it back to the National Poetry Writing Month routine: “One-third of the way through month’s practice.”  The inexactness of these poems could be deliberately highlighted in a humorous way: the lack of lyrical precision (“non-orchestric” standing in here as a shorthand); the defiance of even the standard rules of the limerick (most poems in 2023 fell in this category, but not all); the acknowledgement of quite a few faulty rhymes… as certainly seen here.        

***

I’ll return to the chem-specific poems next week, but it can be helpful to take a brief break from the more technical content here, near the midpoint of the semester.