Lime Time
Word-Bird
Hello! My name is Word-Bird and I love to write in rhyme.
I hope you like my letter-cape. I wear it all the time!
I have a word for you. It’s something green! No, it’s not slime.
It is a fruit… it’s round and green… it’s slightly sour… it’s LIME!
The lime fruits grow in sunny countries, high on shrubs or trees.
In springtime there is blossom. You can smell it on the breeze!
The scent is sweet and pleasing to the black-and-yellow bees.
They come to gather pollen and they store it in their knees!
The limes are picked in summer, and they’re all packed up in crates.
They travel over oceans to us, with their many mates,
the oranges and lemons and the apricots and dates.
They’re here! It’s lime-time! Let’s make cheesecake for our party plates!
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Fliss: Hello, Word-Bird, and well met to you!
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W.-B.: Greetings, FT! I am happy to be here.
F: Well, we’re happy to have you on board. And thank you for ‘Lime Time’! May I begin by asking, does this poem serve a particular purpose? It has an introductory tone, I feel.
W.-B.: Yes indeedy! Well, I wrote it by way of introducing myself on my Facebook Page Word-Bird’s World. I wished to be very clear that I love rhyme, and to write in rhyme is a lot of fun to do!
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F: Well, Word-Bird, to my mind the poem certainly achieves those aims. In addition to the strong statement at the start, you’ve used rhyme very nicely throughout. Those fourfold perfect end-rhymes give the poem a great energy. A thrill!
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W.-B.: Woo-hoo! I am so glad that is how it comes across to you, FT. I enjoyed doing a little research too, and learning about limes.
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F: It’s a colourful picture you paint, W.-B. I particularly like the limes’ travels over oceans, with all their friends by their sides. Now, let’s talk about the meter! This is a fourteener, I think?
W.-B.: That is correct! There are seven feet per line, and I believe I have not strayed from an iambic rhythm. So the formal name is iambic heptameter. When I read the poem out loud, I always pause at the end of each line, which gives it an octometer feel.
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F: How interesting, W.-B. I’m rather that way inclined with fourteeners myself, for some reason! That said, there are poems that certainly benefit from the hep effect, a little lumbering I suppose.
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W.-B.: Very much so! In general terms, I think that writing poetry, whether one prefers a metrical or non-metrical approach, will always involve little quirks on the part of the poet; and that is of much interest to me.
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F: An interesting thought to end this month’s issue! I’d like to thank all our contributors, and all our readers. All being well, we’ll be back on 1st June.
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Word-Bird has been Colombine Companion to FT since 2011, after FT sustained a life-changing injury in hospital. This affected her right knee and somewhat impacted her brain too. Over the years, W.-B. has become increasingly well known in poetry circles and is happy to be on pleasant terms with a number of excellent poets.
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