I wanted to find some interesting styles of poetry for 2022. Metered poetry has always been a challenge for me. I discovered I subconsciously avoided the challenge of dabbling in this particular writing pattern. This year I decided to spread my wings and fly into the face of the storm. I stumbled across the Aquarian by accident and thought it might be interesting to play with this metered style during the last part of January and the entire month of February. This one I will call Soil Sample. It is a long Aquarian inspired by true events.
I am discovering this style of poetry is harder than it first appeared. You only have to develop fourteen syllables for each stanza, but sometimes you want to write more. Plus, I find the constant counting of the syllables distracting. I also have to fight the urge to create rhythms. These short poems have gotten darker, and I am not sure why. Maybe it’s caused by the dark winter or all the conflicting messages we get these days. One thing for sure, sadness captured my attention during this dark winter.
About the Aquarian and Soil Sample
Maris Mazz created this metered style of poetry.
Each stanza has lines of 2/4/6/2 syllables. They can have any number of stanzas creating multiples of 4 lines. They aren’t supposed to rhythm at all.
Soil Sample The first Sign of trouble Was in letter in our Mailbox Telling We might have just A little tainted soil Because Of the Abandoned Factories left over From the Long gone Once glorious Town factory system Churning Now gone Along with the Steel Mill and printers of Playboy Then came The whispers of Developing our hood If the Land could Be bought cheap or The homeowners forced to Vacate See that Was the problem With our hood we all owned Our dirt Then came The dream from my Son where I fought pirated Standing In the Front yard with a Broom and a switchblade knife Because Villains Were trying to Take our land and our house Warning Us to Be careful from His apartment in in New York City Clueless To our land grab Waiting for them to make The next Move in This ugly game Of Monopoly for The rich To get Richer and us To become homeless Next came The sealed Registered white Letter informing us They would Tear down The abandoned Building across the street For free Like it Was our problem To fix and help maintain “Sorry for Future Unpleasantness While we tear the building Down to The ground And by the way We will try not to block The road.” Then came The knock on my Door asking permission To test My soil Because we hadn’t Responded to the last Letter I told Him to come back When the Rooster got home Because He is Can be scary Looking when his feathers Are ruffled The guy Knocked on the door Rooster told him to go Away The guy Ask why he was So against having the Soil tested Because You want me to Have it done so bad and I don’t Like all Of the pressure Plus my gut feeling says There are Things you Are hiding from Us about this testing He slammed The door In the soil sample Guy’s face and laughed out loud Because Letters Stopped and we were Never bothered again And talk Of any Future projects Ceased in secret meetings Down at City hall Demolition Was stopped, the factory Still stands. Moral Of the story It’s a good idea When the Powers Come around to Ask questions and stand Your ground
Who is Molly Shea?
Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh. To read more of her short stories and adventures, click here.
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Good for you standing your ground! Building and development is going crazy in the Charlotte area. It is sad to see all that land being cleared and ticky tacky houses being built.
The odd thing is no one cared about this neighborhood until the developers got involved. They gave up on our block when we all refused the soil testing. Now there are rumors they plan to take the park a block away to build the low income apartment housing.
Perhaps to get even with you all!
Mo. I think it is more like they are building these sort of projects all over town to attract people from Chicago. There us big money in area five housing. It’s garenteed federal money.
Yes, you are right about that!
If they want your property they need to be willing to pay its value. Well done for standing your ground! Love the poetic expression of this, Molly 💕🙂
Thank you.
I would have found it so hard to live through the drama depicted in the poem. I’m glad you live unbothered now by soil testers or blocked roads.
It may get interesting again next summer.