text
this body once lean and flat
has become hilly and fat
I am tired of stale advice
anything but fresh and nice
notes
Thursday's D'Verse Poets prompt requested couplets.
https://dversepoets.com/2022/09/22/mtb-two-by-two/
The Saturday Mix gave us the word pairings flat and hilly and stale and fresh.
Now, you might be thinking to yourself "how in the world is Ornery going to make that work? There aren't any Japanese poetry forms that use couplets!"
That's what I was thinking myself, but I did a little research, and there kind of is one. It's called the Kouta.
https://poetscollective.org/poetryforms/tag/japanese/
The Kouta 小唄 (little or short song) is a popular Japanese verse form of the Muromachi Period, 14th thru 16th century. The lyrical song was resurrected as a Geisha song in the late 1800s and is still popular today. The form has several variations, though always short in only 4 lines a 5th line is sometimes is added. The theme reflects ordinary life and often uses colloquialisms and onomatopoeia. The most popular are love songs. The elements of Kouta are:
a poem in 4 lines. (an occasional 5th line may appear)
a stand alone poem but often is accompanied by other Koutas with the same theme.
syllabic, variable odd numbered syllable lengths, the most common patterns are written in lines of alternating 7-5-7-5 syllables or 7-7-7-5 syllables.
secular, personal, themes of ordinary life
often includes onomatopoeia.
My brain is too tangled to think of even spelling onomatopoeia let alone trying to write a poem containing such. I also tweaked the rules a bit. Every line has seven syllables.
What's the poem about? In brief, about being a fat person just trying to live life and accept myself as I am in a society rampant with hateful messages about people who look like me, as well as all manner of unsolicited diet advice. I've written many posts about this subject so I will not go into it too deeply here, but diets don't work, in fact, for most people, they do more harm than good.
There's a place where people can put any unwanted diet advice they may have for me. It's called Where The Sun Don't Shine.
I created the Haiga with Pixlr.com and a free-use image by Bianca Van Dijk on Pixabay.
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/boho-art-female-body-woman-7450246/
It's amusing in a depressing sort of way to search for images of plus-size women. Many people seem to think that plus size means anything with more girth than a twig.
Jules from MLMM/ I may not be the same weight as I was in HS...
ReplyDeleteBut I remember some relatives that were perhaps larger than they should have been...so I moderate. I've been the same for several years - healthy but we all could do better.
Because of age - (I guess in the long run though I am paying for it) I get a free gym membership. Which I use, but maybe should use more ofteh.
I resist saying things like "larger then they should be" because everyone's size is dependent on multiple factors. I've got more of a tendency to starve myself than to overeat. My thyroid immolated itself when I was in my early teens. About that same time, I became bulimic. I developed PCOS, which leads to weight gain. So, am I "larger than I should be?" Everyone seems to think so. I can't control people's thoughts, but I will no longer allow anyone to disrespect me because I don't look like what they think I "should" look like.
DeleteWonderful! I'm not sure I was ever "flat," being one ounce under ten pounds when born, but I am much more "hilly" than I used to be!
ReplyDeleteI weighed 6 pounds when I was born. I was quite thin as a child and was terrified of becoming fat because everyone treated fat people like crap. I didn't become fat until I was older. I became bulimic at 12. I think there's something wrong with a world where people think that fat is the worst thing a person can be.
Delete