Showing posts with label sestina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sestina. Show all posts

Monday, April 12, 2021

Onus of Reply

 PAD Challenge day 12: 

For today's prompt, write a poem using at least three of the following six words:
convict, great, play, race, season, and voice.
Extra credit for using all six words.
Extra extra credit for writing a sestina.

Sometimes dreams wane...
sometimes they are fulfilled!
Japan celebrates with Hideki Matsuyama 
as he, the winner of the Masters 2021




I am a bit of a born day-dreamer but am beginning to realize
in my mid-fifties, how the play of dreams is no longer center-stage!
Too much reality to focus on!

Attempting a sestina😐
I realized after struggling through writing this 
the extra challenge was using the six key words as the last word in each line! 
oops. See if I get a chance to try again later!


Somewhere along the way the play of dreams begins to wane
The great weight of love’s tears seasons the years with sun and rain
The voice of choice convicts or forgives; we live its Reply
The success of life’s race we run is determined thereby
Where, not how we begin but how we finish is the test
This is the day the Lord has made and He deserves our Best

Life is too precious to give it anything but our best
Reality plays havoc with dreams, thus sometimes they wane
Who knows what life bestows to compose the lows of its test
Some seem to get more sunshine; some seem to live in the rain
Where so much more than meets the eye is presented thereby
The voice of choice always at the mercy of our reply

We ought to give most careful thought to effects of reply
Because much more than meets the eye works out for our best
Where strength of character, not physique, is fashioned thereby
Our voice is heard without a word in life’s multi-choice Test
Where oft we face the race, drenched by life’s elemental rain
And in its storm the play of dreams sometimes begins to wane

But, even as the play of darling dreams begins to wane
The world is waiting to receive the brunt of our reply
Because we are all runners of a sort, life’s sun and rain
Matters of fact that season trust and dust of days thereby
For no one runs the race of life without facing a test
And sometimes those who finish last are they who finish best

This is the day the Lord has made and He deserves our best
Who knows what waits to take the place of darling dreams that wane
What phoenix waits to rise like a prize from ashes of test
What flower waits to wow us after a shower of rain
Where our measure of happiness is oft finessed thereby
Where love’s treasures that we possess depend upon reply

It all comes down to this; the sacred onus of reply
We bear responsibility for both its worst and best
The legacy we leave behind is thus designed thereby
Not by the circumstance but by the reply to the test
Where together we can weather either the sun or rain
And perhaps fill the gaps with joy when dreams begin to wane

So then, because reply is what a life is shaped thereby
Even when dreams begin to wane let’s face both sun and rain
With nothing but our best to conquer the brunt of the test

© Janet Martin