Veiled is the moon with midnight memories,

Myriad verses float ‘midst the misty moors,

How I yearn to dwell in illusory territories, 

My lips imagine all the once traveled contours.

 

Myriad verses float ‘midst the misty moors,

Once the night jasmine blooms with unabashed glory,

My lips imagine all the once traveled contours,

As I revisit moments from our ardent love story.

 

Once the night jasmine blooms with unabashed glory,

Softly awakened are my muted longings,

As I revisit moments from our ardent love story,

With impassioned pleas my pining heart sings.

 

Softly awakened are my muted longings,

How I yearn to dwell in illusory territories,

With impassioned pleas my pining heart sings,

Veiled is the moon with midnight memories.

 

***

The above poem was written for the monthly poetry contest held by Penmancy in December.  It secured second place and was first published here.

Poetry Style: Pantoum

A Malayan form of poetry, a pantoum consists of any number of quatrains, in couplets. But this event requires you to pen a minimum of four quatrains (4-line stanza) and a maximum of 6 quatrains.

Here’s the tricky part of this form: lines 2 and 4 of each stanza become lines 1 and 3 of the next stanza. These carry-over lines are called repetons. 

The twist: lines 1 and 3 of the first stanza become lines 2 and 4 of the last stanza, but reversed (3 becomes 2 and 1 becomes 4).

The rhyming scheme becomes: ABAB, BCBC, CDCD, DEDE, EFEF, and so on.