Sehri tales

When I first started the #sehritales project, it was something of a self-challenge, to see if I could wake up at sehri time every night during Ramadan and compose something on the fly. At first, the biggest challenge was the structure of the poems. I'm much more comfortable with prose microfiction, and don't have a drop of poetry in my soul, so that was fun. And then, once I got into the groove, the next challenge was finding topics. I had given myself a couple of rules: no post longer than 250 words (I hate reading status “essays” and didn't want to subject my friends to the same); no politics, preaching, or activism. This was supposed to be a purely literary exercise. The last week of Ramadan, with the terrorist attack at home and the ones immediately preceding and following it abroad, the challenge was to find the motivation to continue writing. These five poems capture my mood during the final days of the holy month. Acrostic/limerickAn acrostic poem is a type of poetry where the first, last or other letters in a line spell out a particular word or phrase. The most common and simple form of an acrostic poem is where the first letters of each line spell out the word or phrase. That's just what I started writing on the day after the attack. Only after finishing it did I realise that the structure also matches that of the limerick, a kind of five line poem with a strict AABBA rhyme scheme.Dark, dreary dreams drive sleep awayHeavy is the heart I've carried all dayAfraid to pause, reflect and recallKnowing I can't make sense of it allAll I can do is remember, hope and prayStonehengesFor those who missed the last issue, a Stonehenge is a three-line prose poem developed at Champlain College, Virginia, in the early 2000's. It consists of a single line of action “propped up” by the two preceding lines of description.Threads of gossip, rumours and misinformationWoven through the fabric of fevered imaginationThe fearmongerer raises his black flag in triumph*** A white, blank spaceA blinking cursorSleep drags my eyelids down, and all fades to black HaikuThere are many types of haikus. I prefer the 5-7-5 syllabic patternMy beloved onesI will hold you close tonightWho knows what's coming?