Friendship

You had disappeared for a year or two,

I still remember how you had soothed me

And the times when we laughed and played the blues,

We would argue, sometimes we would agree.

You were always my cloud's silver lining,

You were always there to brighten my day,

You had a smile that sent my world shining,

I wish you had visited today.

Please come back, we are all waiting for you,

Why, why must we always be miles apart?

When you are with me, the sky is so blue,

But now, it is broken like a sad heart.

If you were there when I needed your aid,

Then my friend, why are you rare like a jade?

Friendship

A single soul that grants my every chance

A single soul who only watches me

To be the life that catches my falling hands

I hope to give the same amount of glee

You alone hold the golden key

That unlocks this shattered heart

And releases a damn of a miracle sea

So that makes you top the chart

The friend in friendship stands alone          

The symbol of a unique like bond
Never to break like a shield zone
To only make miracles like a wand
The one where my secrets flee
And with you it makes a symphony 

Friendship

A medicine that heals with just a drop;
The one and only force of gentle love.
If life's a sentence, this is the full-stop.
Eternal peace without a mourning dove.
When life betrays your childhood hope and dreams,
When fear invades your brain and rips apart
The love you built: it segregates the seams.
Your friends can press the button marked .
The joy in life cannot be made alone,
For only two or more can see the light.
As one, the friends can kill the evil hate
To show that love should be a human right.
The ones in power never seem to care
About the love of friends: so pure, so bare.

Friendship

A train that runs impromptu; back and forth.

It holds surprises; sometimes worth a shout.

I stay behind and watch it wander north,

Or east, or south, or west; without a doubt,

I wait for its return. I wait and wait

Until the train brings home another friend.

From days to years, a friendship built so great

Was torn by blares of trains that marked the end.

Again, I wave goodbye to what was once

A flash of happiness within my reach.

The next from Canada, or Spain, or France,

Or simply separated by a beach;

My train will journey even on the sea,

To find a friend who’ll stay just steps from me.

Task 4

So many of you have either cracked this now, or, if you haven't then you have ALMOST done so.

I am REALLY very impressed. Best of all, some of you are managing to do so without sacrificing the power of your poetry itself. And those of you who are struggling simply need to keep practising in addition to what you're doing on the blog, and come and see me if you need any extra help.

This is the real challenge: a synthesis of CONTENT (choice of language and what it is about) and FORM (rhyme, rhythm etc.). In fact, you can look at it mathematically:

powerful CONTENT + disciplined FORM = effective POETRY

Now for this week's task - and it's a DIFFICULT one.

These are the rules of the English (or Shakespearean) SONNET:

• It must be written in IAMBIC PENTAMETER (i.e. x5 dee-DUMs)
• It will be 14 lines long, and consist of x3 quatrains and x1 final couplet
• It will have a strict rhyme scheme (abab cdcd efef gg)

You should, by now, be familiar with the rules of IAMBIC PENTAMETER.

As for writing in three quatrains, well you have all written ONE quatrain (4-line poem), so it is just a question of writing three different ones of these, which link together in subject matter to form ONE poem - a poem which is concluded by a couplet (i.e. two, rhyming lines).

And as for the RHYME scheme, I am sure you will be fine with this.

The challenge is putting all these things TOGETHER! (Click HERE if you want to find out some more tips on the building blocks of sonnets.)

And what should your sonnet be about?

Friendship. This is your topic and your title. Now it is up to you...

Your deadline is midnight on Saturday 13th April.

As an exemplar, I have dug out one I wrote a few years back, in case it is of any help...

Friendship

Inchoate yet invincible, a bond
Beyond and past the purview of my prose;
I have no words, they’ve all been said, no wand
To wave, no spell to keep it safe; it grows
Despite my pestilential clutch; too much
For me to tend, my friend, it perseveres
By virtue of your anodynic touch,
Immune to all that festers in my fears.
While reciprocity eludes me yet,
I will requite the comfort you bestow;
Find something to repay this ample debt.
How can I pay you back? I do not know –
I cannot comprehend – but I intend
To merit and deserve to be your friend.

Ringmaster

Many People say I am often shy
But hear my roar and retreat inside
Best describe me the owl that's patient
My passionate soul ill never hide

MAny PEOple say I am OFten SHY
BUT hear MY roar AND reTREAT inSIDE
BEST  desCRIBE me THE owl THAT paTIENT
MY paSSIONate SOUL ill NEver HIDE