Day 18 has got to be the most challenging prompt ever.  Check it out:

Here’s Carol’s prompt: Write a glosa. This involves an epigram of 4 consecutive lines from a favorite poet that the challenge participant believes they can write successfully to. Then, write a poem consisting of four 10-line stanzas where the final line of each stanza is a line from the epigram, in order. Within each stanza, lines 6, 9 and 10 must rhyme.

So…did you catch that?  Crazy as it is, here I go!

“Good-by” by Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882
“Good-by, proud world, I’m going home,
Thou’rt not my friend, and I’m not thine;
Long through thy weary crowds I roam;
A river-ark on the ocean brine…”

Good-by, proud world, I’m going home
I’ve lived my life too long
The mountains no longer beckon me
My heart no longer sings
Your streets are naught but faded gold
Where I go, ’tis more peaceful there
And the flowers never fade nor wilt
There, troubles cease to exist
There’s plenty of everything to share
And even strangers know how to care.

Thou’rt not my friend, and I’m not thine
Our relationship can’t go on
You’ve nothing good to offer me
And you’ve taken all I have
Though long I fought for life
To bring some sunshine at my door
And have a melody of my own
I couldn’t win agaist your hand
I knew I was doomed forevermore
Pain and loneliness fill my very core.

Long through thy weary crowds I roam
With a raincloud in my mind
Not one friend you’ve given me
Nor spared a lullaby
What would you have me do
in a life such as this?
I’ve no fire in my spirit
Your words are naught but empty sounds
There’s nothing here I would miss
Leaving you will be simple bliss.

A river-ark on the ocean brine
A thornbush on a lily-pond
I pluck myself whence I don’t belong
Lest you waste more energy
To keep this lone heart beating
Adieu, dear world
Do not grieve for me
I leave now for my dreams
To sing of beauties unseen, untold
I live a new life; neither lonely nor cold.

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