Funambulist

I plan to continue my poetic adventure in 2023, similar to how I started in 2022, with a slight variation. Starting with the letter A, I will try to explore several poetry styles. This journey in poetry writing started two years ago when I strongly desired to learn more about reading and writing poetry. Black Out Poems became my obsession at the end of 2022. I promise to be a little more diverse this year. I started 2023 by writing “Ars Poetic” verse style. This form of poetry can be translated from Latin as “The Art of Poetry,” I call this poem Funambulist.

How does “Ars Poetic” relate to the poem Funambulist

Horace started this tradition somewhere around 13 B.C.E. This form of poetry is simply writing a poem about writing a poem. It expresses how the poet feels when engaged in the writing process, examining the poet’s relationship to the poem. There are no rules about meter or rhythm. Writing this form of poetry should be a fun experience.

Note: I decided to tackle my “Ars Poetic” poems by writing them in a series of poems without any rules of meter and rhythm. The subject matter concerns what I could write about if I chose to write about the subject matter.

Funambulist

They said I should give it a try
Step out on the wire
And lift my hands to the blue sky
Walk soft and sure with an umbrella in hand
To balance my weight against gravities pull
I needed to have faith in myself
I could do it if I made a careful plan
The law of attraction is an established rule
That can’t be ignored or denied
I ventured out with a steady balance
But I could not ignore the stiffness of the ground
Tumbling in the air, I could not make a sound
I was born a child of the earth
And it will always hold me down
I guess I could write about that

Like notes sung by a little bird
Letter upon letter
Word upon word
Line upon line 
Stanza upon stanza
This poem is for me to create and define
beyond definition

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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