Natural War Poem by Amera Andersen

A single strand of fire crashed from the slate sky
and standing in the gaunt garden was a rose.
She parted her lips with a flinch at the crack.
Life is uncertain.

Her arsenal of thorns grossly outnumbered
against the power released from the grey clouds.
Vulnerable in her vermillion gown
as she stands alone.

She desperately cleaves to the solid earth,
as the wind increases in torrent splendor.
She cringes at another crack of fire
in her violent dance.

Holding fast in the knowledge of victory
as the blue skies roll in to capture the foe.
Safe in the knowledge that she is not alone,
she stands a proud rose.




Author's Notes:

Loose Sapphic Form

The main building blocks of the sapphic are trochees and dactyls. The trochee is a metrical foot with one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one (DAH-di) , while the dactyl contains a stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones(DAH-di-di) . The first three lines of the sapphic contain two trochees, a dactyl, and then two more trochees. The shorter fourth, and final, line of the stanza is called an 'Adonic' and is composed of one dactyl followed by a trochee.