Amongst the lime-sun barley spikes,
A conch-curled shell of azure hides:
A field of summer, field of spring,
A field that Demeter would sing
Where lovers run through trails of stems
And trace their broken tracks through life,
To where the underworld begins,
To where the sun and night are streams.
It’s there amongst the twisted grass,
There they hang from grains and grasp
At rains which come as echo seas:
The hidden ones who cast their shells
For now their light of life will glow,
And deep within their mysteries flow.
Poem inspired by the rather wonderful photograph, taken by Silentwonderland,
and found here: http://silentwonderland.wordpress.com/2013/05/13/secret-hiding-place/
Gavin R Jones 
Lovely writing.
Nature in its various forms…..
I love it when a poet employs a mythological personage to enhance an image. It brings a whole underworld of possibilities to something so simple as a grain field.
Oh yeah. Nice flow to this, caught my attention right off and held it, Had to read it three times in fact! That good!
Am I right in thinking you favor the sonnet? I’ve heard of people doing challenges where they wrote a particular form every day for a year. Are you doing something along those lines, or is the three quatrains, one couplet just a favorite? 🙂
Hi – Thanks for this Julie. Form is an fascinating area of study. For my own writing, however, I have a pretty pragmatic view. I settled on the form I use (fourteen lines, iambic tetrameter, mainly – though not exclusively – un-rhymed) a couple of years back. It just seemed to work for me. I think a constraint in any creative process actually can help free other areas in that process. Now I have the form, I don’t have to think about re-inventing that particular wheel. Also, the “game playing” element – how to make “x” subject fit that form becomes a spur itself.
How do you approach these things? Everyone is different, and it is great to hear from other writers on the mechanics of writing.
Gavin
I am in awe of those who have written widely and consistently enough, such as yourself, to have found their ‘niche’ form. I enjoy trying various forms, but admittedly (as fiction is my focus) do not write poetry nearly enough to have found a form that I best connect with.
I do agree that settling on a certain form beforehand helps focus down the writing, of course– even if it does impose certain restrictions, I think those restrictions can be as freeing if not more freeing than the mold that they impose. Good topic! This would make an excellent discussion post.
Beautiful.
Anna :o]
This is just wonderful. I truly enjoyed. 🙂