Renovation in the Time of Covid

This week would have been the week my poetry group met so we could share some poetry. Unfortunately, Ontario is still on lock down so we couldn’t meet in person. There was a zoom meeting, which I wasn’t able to participate in because I can’t get the camera in my lap top to work. Guess I did too good a job disabling it when I set this computer up.

Anyway, I’m kind of bummed I couldn’t because the “poemwork” for the month was a challenge to write a Xenolith. What’s a Xenolith you ask? It’s a poetry form I created several years ago. It has 15 lines – 7 of them have 12 syllables per line, 8 of them have 8 syllables per line. You can separate the 7 lines from the 8 lines and have two, separate, shorter poems, but put them together and you have a poem within a poem, or a Xenolith.

You can find a longer explanation about it  HERE or you can do a Google search for Xenolith poetry form. How cool is that that it’s feature on other poetry sites? To be honest, I think my original Xenolith was a little smoother, but after much tweaking, this one isn’t bad.

And yes, those rocks below are Xenoliths - a rock within another rock (which is where I got the idea for the poetry form from).

Renovation in the Time of Covid

Our kitchen is a mess and needs to be redone
A subtle thing, how it began
Plans were made, deposit down, this should be real fun
A global challenge was not planned
Empty cupboards, empty shelves, fill bins by the ton
Panic shopping, growing unease
With shortages, stay at home please
Some days we think the contractor will never come
The schools all close, your business too
Wear a mask and stand in a queue
Boxes fill our living room – it’s no longer fun
Vaccines arrive, still numbers rise
Out of stock and back orders leave us rather stunned
This lock down will save many lives
It looks as though our kitchen never will be done


12 syllable mono rhyme – the renovation

Our kitchen is a mess and needs to be redone
Plans were made, deposit down, this should be real fun
Empty cupboards, empty shelves, fill bins by the ton
Some days we think the contractor will never come
Boxes fill our living room – it’s no longer fun
Out of stock and back orders leave us rather stunned
It looks as though our kitchen never will be done

8 syllable rhyming couplets – the Covid

A subtle thing, how it began
A global challenge was not planned
Panic shopping, growing unease
With shortages, stay at home please
The schools all close, your business too
Wear a mask and stand in a queue
Vaccines arrive, still numbers rise
This lock down will save many lives.