Glosa Versa by Larry Chamberlin, 24 September 2012
Cabeza:
But I set fire to the rain,
watched it pour as I touched your face.
Well it burned as I cried
cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name!
- Chorus, "Set Fire to the Rain," by Adele (2012)
Stifling myself was no easy task; you said that's not what you ask, yet while living behind this mask I watched you drink from anger's cask. Pressed in your silk and lace your love drowned me in pain I tiptoed through your torturous race yet had to maintain a resolute pace saw your unsweet love still wane but I set fire to the rain. You said your love would never fade For me all sacrifices made that's a debt I've never paid still at my door it's laid. You rolled your eyes and sighed No remorse, even a trace just gamesmanship true and tried real concern has simply died that tear is false you have no case watched it pour as I touched your face. Here we stayed as in the past and though I stood aghast you found me firm and fast spite love that did not last. Thunder peeled your name lightning bolts I defied even so the storm came soaked my screams just the same St Elmo's fire is a deathly ride well it burned as I cried. Now you have a separate fate and may soon find another mate but you are one I'll never hate find it's just a love too late. Seek your shelter from the rain you've cast me out, made me lame held me up as one insane it's no victory to be so vain my thunderbolt is not to blame cause I heard it screaming out your name, your name. NOTE The Glosa form has two parts: the cabeza (four lines from a well-known poem) and the gloss (four ten-line stanzas, the last line of each being the consecutive lines from the cabeza). The gloss explains, interprets or expands on the cabeza. Lines six and nine of each stanza must rhyme with the borrowed tenth line. The poet decides line length, meter and other rhymes. [See http://www.poetry-nut.com/glosa_poetry.htm] Here the rhyme scheme is: a, a, a, a, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1 (the glossing line). d, d, d, d, 3, 2, 3, 3, 2, 2 f, f, f, f, 4, 3, 4, 4, 3, 3 h, h, h, h, 1, 4, 1, 1, 4, 4. Note on Copyright & Glosa Verse: The cabeza falls under the Fair Use Doctrine, while the poem as a whole is a Derivative Work of the original, thereby exempt under two exceptions to copyright law. © 24 September 2012 Larry Chamberlin, Chamberlin Law & Mediation
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