anno dissolvi

Throw the Christmas tree out the door,
pack the old year away with the tinsel,
or, better yet, throw it in the bin.
This was not one to store away,
the scrap heap its only fitting conclusion.

So we begin again, and hope for more.
For ourselves, at least, to be less sinful,
and try to go on as we begin,
to love more, laugh more, cherish each day:
thus we frame our resolutions,

and pray this year will be one to store,
not another destined for the landfill –
another one taken on the chin.
“Happy new year” is what we pray,
to one another in tipsy effusion.

So we raise a glass to kith and kin,
to those we lost, and those that stayed,
and pack away our disillusion.

dVerse is back! Yay! 

I managed to miss the first prompt yesterday because I was at the beach washing away the old year in the surf – nothing like a good scrape along the sand to scrub off the barnacles of last year. I was feeling quite pleased with how good I am at body surfing yesterday, before one of my sons told me it’s because I’m shaped like a walrus.   

So, this was written for the second prompt of the year “Exploring the realm of French literature“. 

As Sanaa explains: “Popular with 12th and 13th century French poets, rimas dissolutas is a poem that rhymes and doesn’t rhyme.

For instance, each stanza contains no end rhymes, but each line in each stanza rhymes with the corresponding line in the next stanza–sometimes employing an envoi at the end.

Here’s how the end rhymes would work in a Rimas Dissolutas with three five-line stanzas:

(1-a, 2-b, 3-c, 4-d, 5-e) (6-a, 7-b, 8-c, 9-d, 10-e) (11-a, 12-b, 13-c, 14-d, 15-e)

(If the poem has an envoi, it might be 2-3 lines long using the c, d, and/or e rhymes.)”

Thanks Sanaa, and Happy New Year to you!