Incremental Poetry ~ 16 Lines

Eyewitness

My laps for exercise were done,
So I let the water hold me,
Felt the rise and fall as breathing
Filled and emptied out my airways.

Conscience tried in vain to scold me,
For I would not idle linger,
But a moment only savor
All to me the world bequeathing.

I could see a distant singer
Sitting high in the glossy leaves;
Then above me flew a swallow,
Circling back, did me a favor.

Higher still, soaring eagle cleaves
The wind—for a wink, blocks the sun—
All while climbing unseen stairways.
Where heart leads, the feet will follow.

Copyright © 2018 Abigail Gronway – All Rights Reserved

Welcome to my series, Incremental Poetry, where each week the featured poem will be one line longer than the one I share the week before. I have no idea how long I’ll keep this up, so we’ll just have to wait and see. Thank you for stopping by.

Scansion:
Domino Rhyme
any number of quatrains, all having external rhyme
syllabic, with 8 syllables per line
Lines 2 & 3 rhyme with Lines 1 & 4 of the following stanza.
Lines 2 & 3 of the final stanza rhyme with lines 1 & 4 of the first stanza, bringing the rhyme full circle.
The object is to give the feel of an unrhymed poem by keeping the rhymes distant from one another.
Rhyme scheme: abcd befc eghf gijh … iadj.