The Versesmith

dVerse - MTB: Imagism in 5 The Cadralor Not a form I am familiar with, the Cadralor is an invented form named for its inventors, Lori Howe and Christopher Cadra.  * 5 numbered stanzas * choose 3-10 lines per stanza (but keep same chosen stanza length throughout) * each stanza stands alone as an imagist poem (just the obliquest of connections) * 5th stanza pulls the 4 unrelated stanzas together into a poem of love, of yearning * rhymes and syllabic meter are NOT wanted I I don’t go to the far back of my yard anymore. I t’s dead; the grass, onions, parsley, gone. I let it die; its prior beauty gone, now crunchy underfoot, II T he wind blew over the fence, such as it was. I left it there, nothing to fence in, or out, except the persistent raccoons that straddle the top boards at dawn . III G eese honk overhead on their way south, the stragglers louder as they strive to catch up to the lopsided Vs of their fellow migrants. IV Autumn leaves drift down, carpet ing...

Quadrille #256 – Ho-hum, it’s time to Poem Ho-hum, it’s time to poem! Pen us a poem of precisely 44 words (not counting the title), literally including some form of the word hum. Summer prepares to cede the stage, as Autumn a waits in the wings. H er pallet drip s with color, russet, gold, or crimson. The buzzing of the bee has ended, along with cicada’s rythmic whirr . The Hummingbird will flit among the morning glories, one last day. ©2026 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  

 Poets and Storytellers United  Friday Writings #244 : If the Glass Slipper Fits For this week's optional prompt I'd like you to write something from the point of view of a fairy tale character. image Oma made me a coat of red wool. With a hood. She said it was for her “little Mäuschen.”  She called it a riding coat, yet I don't have a pony. I sure would like a pony though. Papa says “No, meine Schatzchen, no pony.” I tried to convince him my pastry deliveries would be ever so much quicker on ponyback, but no. It’s not fair. Papa says kinder always say things aren’t fair and to “ Live with it .” As for my coat? Oma doesn’t know me at all. I hate hoods. Wool makes me itch. And I don’t even like red. I hope I outgrow it soon.  ©2026   Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved

dVerse OpenLinkNight #415 "Please consider this quote by Gloria Steinem to inspire you :" When you’re lucky enough to have lived a long life, as I have done, your role is to remind us how far we have come. –Gloria Steinem We were doing well. Now our steps forward are blocked. A change is needed. We came too far to forget, some live to impede freedoms. ©2026   Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  

 Quadrille #255: X marks the spot Write a poem of exactly 44 words in response to the prompt. Your poem must contain the word xenolith . image source Here I a m, stuck. Stuck slap dab in the middle. Middle of this family. Family of proverbial mule- stubborn souls. Souls stuck in stone-set routine. R outine precise and rigid. Rigid, each tedious family dinner harder. H ard er than a mantle xenolith. Both near impossible to break. ©2026 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved  

dVerse - Poetry Form: Discort   The writing challenge is to write a descort. "The descort differentiates itself from other forms by differentiating its lines from other lines within the poem. That is, the main rule of descort poems is that each line needs to be different from every other line in the poem. An undeniable twist from the norm ."   source One summer long ago, my family went to Crater Lake. Nothing to see. I may have well stayed home. I saw only fog. But on a bright-blue-sky sunny day? Prettier than a postcard. Only a day trip away from me now, I never go. ©2026   Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved