Love Chant*

Love Chant*

How do I love thee?
I’ll write you letters till your eyes cannot see.

How do I love thee?
I’ll reach you even in the deepest blue sea.

How do I love thee?
I’ll sing you songs till you can’t hear me.

How do I love thee?
I’ll command the stars to shine to you brightly.

How do I love thee?
I’ll hold your hand, till it’s gray and skinny.

How do I love thee?
I’ll tell the wind to breathe life to you endlessly.

How do I love thee?
I’ll remind you of our love, when your brain forgets about me.

How do I love thee?
I’ll stopped time, when your heartbeat dies slowly.

How do I love thee?
I can say more but nothing will ever be enough, to tell you…
How do I love thee.

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©2016 Rosemawrites@A Reading Writer. All Rights Reserved.

Photo credit: Unsplash

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In response to Napowrimo Day 26. (yes, I’m catching up! :D)

 

Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem that incorporates a call and response. Calls-and-responses are used in many sermons and hymns (and also in sea chanties!), in which the preacher or singer asks a question or makes an exclamation, and the audience responds with a specific, pre-determined response.

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*Chant

The Chant is from Latin cantus, meaning song, but this genre of verse dates back far beyond the days of Homer and Virgil. As most verse, it began as an oral tradition and it probably was heard echoing off the walls of cave dwellers in prehistoric times. The chant is verse in which a word, phrase, line and rhythm is repeated again and again. The repetition is strong and the rhythm hypnotic. But it didn’t get left behind in the caves, more modern verse forms or poetic genres have employed elements of the chant, such as the blues and slave or prison work songs.

The Chant is:

• repetitive, usually a word, phrase, line, a rhythm is repeated over and over.
• musical, it should contain a rhythmic beat.
• written without a beginning, middle or end.
• rhymed at the discretion of the poet.

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Read more of my Napowrimo 2016 poems here!