Why do I write?

Why do I write, is the question
I guess I just do it for fun
To test myself how I can run
Lots of action, lots of action

Expressing my thoughts and musing
Conveying, asking and babbling
And checking out what I can bring
It’s a great world, it’s a great world*

(c) ladyleemanila 2016

* The monotetra is a new poetic form developed by Michael Walker. Each stanza contains four lines in monorhyme. Each line is in tetrameter (four metrical feet) for a total of eight syllables. What makes the monotetra so powerful as a poetic form, is that the last line contains two metrical feet, repeated. It can have as few as one or two stanzas, or as many as desired.

Stanza Structure:

Line 1: 8 syllables; A1
Line 2: 8 syllables; A2
Line 3: 8 syllables; A3
Line 4: 4 syllables, repeated; A4, A4

For: What use do you put your writing to?

My Blogging Career?

Please share a brief history of your blogging career –
From what lead you to start?
Has your motivation changed since starting?
What has the experience been like?
Have you learnt anything?
Has your writing style changed?
What advice would you give to a new blogger?
And please don’t forget to mention some of the highlights along the way – such as the people you’ve met, things you’ve learnt …
and please get creative about your presentation, do it in your favourite genre?

The time was right when I need new challenge
I was then doing some online classes
One option was to blog and I then plunge

Learned a lot from them, what to do en masse?
Just wanted to give it a go, I thought
My blogging has limitations, alas

Met lots of new bloggers and what they taught
New styles, new topics, more laughs and more fun
All these things and sometimes I’m overwrought

Photos, fiction, limericks, poems – done
Haiku, flash fiction, weird photos and more
Anything under the sun and the pun

Things I have written, hope I’m not a bore
Sorry if I’ve offended anyone
If I’ve stepped over, just give me a roar

Has been two years and I’ve got a good run
Carry on as it’s still half full my glass
I’m still enjoying it, I know I’ve won

And so to the blogging world, I’m still here
Got a lot of things to learn through the years
The time was right when I need new challenge
One option was to blog and I then plunge*

(c) ladyleemanila 2016

* The Lauranelle, created by Laura Lamarca, is a hybrid (variation) of both the Villanelle and the Terzanelle forms. The poem is 22 lines in length opposed to the 19-line length of the aforementioned classical forms. Lines MUST be 10 syllables in length and also MUST be in iambic pentameter.

Rhyme scheme is as follows: aba bcb cdc ded efe fbf ggA(1)A(2)

Lines 1 and 2 MUST be repeated at Lines 21 and 22.

Poems can either be formatted in stanzas or as a whole piece without line-spacing.

For: Your Blogging Career? by calmkate

Periyar Tiger Reserve

Hello everyone! Two days after the Hindu wedding, we went on a road trip. There were 18 of us in a big van and travelled 165 km, roughly 4 hours from Cochin to Thekkady. It was an interesting trip, with The Corporation Market, Kakkadassery Bridge, St Xavier’s Church and Bavas Archana Hospital on the way. Several petrol pumps were also located en route. It was a good experience, very long travel in the hairpin bend roads. Full of greenery on both sides of the roads.

We went to Periyar Tiger Reserve., which was a very well maintained area managed by the forest department in Kerela. The area was clean and we had a peaceful walk through its dense forest of towering trees and artistic roots. The Periyar lake is within the reserve and there were regular boat rides on the lake. We took the boat ride (1.5 hours of boating) and saw some amazing birds, like hornbills and kingfishers in full flight. Other birds include raptors, water birds, galliform birds, pigeons, wood peckers and passerines. There were also some sambar deers, foxes, monkeys, elephants and bisons, but from a great distance to such a point the animals appear as tiny dots. Overall, it was a good road trip and a boat ride.

For: Road Trips? by Calmkate. Also for: Jo’s Monday walk : Canalside in Skipton