Home Tour

Going Up

Let us climb these well worn stairs,
Light above and peace throughout.
Heart tells mind, “Don’t worry here.
Love will show us all about.”

Linked to dVerse Open Link Night hosted by Björn.
Photo: “Going Up” by the author. Linked to jasenphoto’s Tuesday Photo Challenge where the prompt is “steps”.
I am also linking this to Jill Lyman’s July Challenge. Consider this an eight line poem of which I’ve written only the first four lines.

I’m exploring medieval lyrics.  I think the above might be called “trova romantica” with form and style related to the troubadours.  I’m trying to use the Portuguese Redondilha maior meter, a seven syllable line with the last syllable accented, but I might be missing something.

Announcement

The Spring issue (Vol 97, No 2) of The Lyric Magazine, “the oldest magazine in North America devoted to traditional poetry”, arrived in the mail.  It contains my poem, “Chutes and Ladders”.  I am grateful to the editor, Jean Mellichamp Milliken, for selecting it.

Author: Frank Hubeny

I enjoy walking, poetry and short prose as well as taking pictures with my phone.

88 thoughts on “Home Tour”

    1. Thank you! The form is basically English common meter but that’s a broad description. I don’t have a good feel yet for these “trova” and I suspect common meter is not quite right.

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      1. I was looking at your written lines for the emphasis on the last syllable and struggling to put it together in my head. I need to play with it a bit and read out loud to catch the feel. Love a challenge! Thanks for opening that door.

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      2. We may be pronouncing the words differently. I’ve added an audio to show how I pronounce them. The meter is mostly iambic except for the first syllables of each line, as I would speak them. The first, third, fifth and seventh syllables are accented in my reading, but only the last syllable has to be accented. Others may be or not, if I understand this meter correctly.

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    1. Thank you! I am glad you like the form. I am still trying to figure out what a “trova” is, but I don’t think it is longer than four lines.

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    1. Thanks, Jane! Someone from Brazil mentioned the form to me. There are a lot of songs called “trova romantica” on YouTube and some poems have only four lines like this. It seems related to the medieval troubadours, but I don’t know much about them either.

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  12. Upstairs, one hopes, is the marriage bed, where lust & overheated passion, as the decades peel away, are replaced by slow hands & loving hearts.

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    1. In our case the marriage bed is downstairs but upstairs is where the children had their rooms and I have my office but the slow hands and loving hearts is accurate. Thanks, Glenn!

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  15. i was delighted to be introduced to this format as short verses are always a lovely way of saying so much with so little, yours is truly one that has steps leading to peace and serenity, where love is the key. Brilliant pairing of of the prompts and form.

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  18. I hadn’t heard of the form but I like how you manage to say so much in a short space. The photo is gorgeous; light and airy and full of love. Even the leaves seem to be heart-shaped. Congratulations on your publication!

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    1. Thank, Laura! There is also an old “alliterative” meter that I have found interesting in the past. It is what Beowulf would have been written in.

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