Portals
Portals loom in every life:
Directions that define our walk.
Some are primed to open wide
And others mercifully locked.
Wise are we who learn to leave
Alone the door that will not give,
Appreciating, too, that each
Is fitted with a knob and hinge.
But woe to we who pull and plead
And force the way when we should not,
Or else begrudgingly proceed
In disillusionment and want.
It is our need to test and try,
To grope and grow—it is our lot,
Thus, some are primed to open wide
And some are mercifully locked.
Cozy Estate
He wore his tam like someone’s uncle Bob
And loved his beans on toast with butter glob.
He kept a couple sheep in his front yard
And in his wee back garden he worked hard.
Indeed on clear days he spent many hours
Attending to his plethora of flowers
At tea time he would gladly munch away
On small sweet treats while sipping his Earl Grey.
And evenings saw the telly turning on.
Retired now he never missed his job.
His cottage nestled near The village square
So anything he needed he’d find there.
In Spring time he would shear his pretty sheep
And give the fluff to neighbors wives for free.
They’d dye then spin then knit it all by hand, and
He wore the finest sweaters in the land.
Janice Thompson, also known as JaniceT, is an award-winning poet who has been writing rhyming, metered verse for more than sixty years. Her website can be found at janice-t.com. Her books of poetry include A Compilation of Echoes: Neo-Victorian Poetry; When None Command, Poems from Planet Janice, and Young Girl in Trouble. She resides in coastal Washington state.
“Portals” is like a cornucopia of slant rhymes. I like the allusion of locked doors, some of which “mercifully” remain locked. “Cozy Estate” is written with an interesting Irish flair with words such as “tam,” “wee,” and “Earl Grey,” along with the sheep and wool they provide on the estate. They make an interesting read in terms of what comes next.
Classic wisdom in “Portals,” Janice. You roughly cover the potential, acknowledging the exceptional doors in a general way by speaking less of them than of our modes of entrance. Your unexpected “refrain” in the last stanza provides gentle emphasis.
Your “Cozy Estate” also features a fitting technique of final emphasis with the extra-metrical “and” concluding the next-to-last line. Good to see such artistic attention to the ends of poems.
I deeply appreciate you knowledgeable and well composed feedback, Margaret. Thank you so much!