Day 9 was truly a challenge for a poet that prefers open form or free verse. Today I was introduced to the nine-liner, with its tight rhyme schemes and syllabic metre. Andrew Marvel liked this form. Considering that I am not much of a fan for his century’s poetry, this accounts for my blank out. I opted for what is known as the Ballazi stanza. Nine lines: syllabic count 6-6-7-6-6-7-6-6-7. The rhyme scheme is aaDbbDccD. This is what came forth eventually.
For those too young to have ever seen the movie The Scarlet Pimpernel – the catch phrase was ‘You see him here. You see him there. You see him everywhere.’ Hence, the inspiration for the title.
Pimpernel
We all want the answer
to the cure for cancer.
Especially now as cells
attack their host’s vessel,
even if it proves fatal
to the host. What the hell!
A cancer cell’s playlist:
survival of the cyst
against a dose of speedwell.
It makes us all chancers
seeking to cure cancer –
chemo, Lourdes’ holy well,
cannabis illegal –
anything to cut and cull,
stem the rising dark and quell
the adder’s venom kiss,
defeat that cell’s pure bliss
hollowing health from the shell
We offer balm and myrrh.
Medicine from Badger
seeking this wretched Pimpernel,
digging, digs roots and all.
Make a medicine doll,
find the words and say the spell:
Be here, please. Just exist.
Love declines a last farewell.
Sojourning Smith 