Three Poems
Janice D. Soderling

Quiet Things

Like the fall of one bright feather
from the eagle’s taloned clutch.
Down it drifts in pretty weather,
troubling no ear overmuch.

Or like the rushing stream gone dry.
Or like the netted butterfly.
Or like the slither of small snakes.
Or like a heart that slowly breaks.

- - -

Seasonal Sonnet

Winter is like love. Something floats down white
and pure to renovate a landscape dull
as porridge. Wham! Angelic spectacle,
a string quartet, a blazing meteorite.
Bedazzled every sense: sight, hearing, touch,
taste, smell, the works. Then comes a tedious lull.
You scrape the icy windshield, start to mull
(shoveling the drive): When is much overmuch?
You get cold feet, wet feet. Mid-winter thaw.
You shamble down the puddled streets in dread
(lover in tow) of meeting mom-in-law.
Like ice dislodged from roofs, she’d split your head.
Then love dissolves. A blessing from above.
Comes spring, and spring, we all know, is like love.

- - -

Lines Written Just Before Driving into the Ditch

You warn me not to put on airs,
for where’s
the proof? Play safe or be undone.
The fun
soon ends. True love gives tit for tat.

In that,
you err. Love is a gold brickbat
hurled through a window late at night.
Love’s not a seat belt buckled tight,
for where’s the fun in that!

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Janice’s notes: “Here are three poems that are, perhaps. anti-Valentine. ‘Quiet Things’ is a rispetto: iambic tetrameter, abab ccdd. It was first published at Sappho’s Torque.

“‘Seasonal Sonnet’ is just that; it appeared first in Quill and Parchment.

“The third, ‘Lines Written Just Before Driving into a Ditch’, is a Spanish stanzaic form, an ovillejo. There are variations, but standard is that it consists of ten lines, the first stanza asks a
question; the second stanza reflects and amplifies the first. Lines 1, 3, and 5 are eight syllables. Lines 2, 4, and 6 are two or three syllables. Lines 7, 8, 9 are eight syllables. The final line is made up of lines 2, 4, and 6. It was first published at Tilt-A-Whirl.

“Gratitude to all these editors.”

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Janice D. Soderling’s poems, flash, short stories and translations have appeared in many journals and anthologies over many years, most recently at Eclectica Magazine, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Mezzo Cammin, Lothlorien Poetry, Tipton Poetry Review, Form in Formless Times and previous issues of Well Met. A number of her poems are published in Spanish translation by Alesia Ribalta Guzman and in Albanian translation by Fadil Bajraj.

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Three Poems Janice D. Soderling

Three Poems
Janice D. Soderling