Answer to Fairday's Riddle: Stay and Play!

Excellent guessing, Riddlers! A tricky riddle, but fun to write. Tune in next week, we're in the mood to play. 😃See you all around the book block. ~ F

Imagination flicker spark

Scenes act out to ignite the dark

Mind in matter will heed a lark

Tea party style at pool bottom

Matchbox rides if you’ve got 'em

Awakened eyes shall make a mark 

Endless depth to that which is real

Head, heart, hands like to think and feel

Charging chattel to jump, dance, squeal

See flowers grow, and touch tree bark

Hide and seek under pillow fort

Bouncing balls do dribble in court

Entangled bits seize the strange quark

This is that and that could go there

Being light, as free with no care

Turning the time inside your lair 

Seasons do shift, green lush to stark

***

Below are the A lines brought together with a personal flare. :)

Mind in matter will heed a lark 

~Awakened eyes shall make a mark  

See flowers grow, and touch tree bark 

~ Entangled bits seize the strange quark

Seasons do shift, green lush to stark

What am I referring to? Answer: Play!

A zejel poem is an old Spanish poetic form. Below is is a layout template to use if you feel like playing with words. It's a challenge to write a zejel poem! Each line has to be 8 syllables. You can write about any topic and change it up a bit, like in the "Play" poem. I alternated making two of the stanzas two lines with a A line at the end, instead of three.

-First stanza is a tercet (3-line stanza) with an AAA rhyme scheme

-All other stanzas are quatrains (4-line stanzas) with a XXXA rhyme scheme, so the second stanza would be BBBA, third CCCA, fourth DDDA, and so on to the end of the poem

-Lines are usually 8 syllables long

A- rhyme- beginning

A- rhyme- middle

A- rhyme- end

B- rhyme- add to story/ beginning

B- rhyme- add to story/ beginning

B- rhyme- add to story/ beginning

A- rhymes with the A lines- match context with beginning A line

C- rhyme- add to story/ middle

C- rhyme- add to story/ middle

C- rhyme- add to story/ middle

A- rhymes with the A lines- match context with middle A line

D- rhyme- add to story/ end
D- rhyme- add to story/ end

D- rhyme- add to story/ end

A- rhymes with the A lines- match context with end A line

And so on... (bring the A lines together when your poem is finished to see how they read.)

Here are a couple more zejel poems I wrote to exercise my imagination with word play. 😀

NIGHT GARDEN

Oh! Queen of Night, stepping in now

Dragonfly diamond sparkle bough

Whimsy tips brushing soft pink brow

Hum wing buzz in shadow moonlight

Breath of air on rose sunset flight

Water babbling betwixt in sight

Pungent colors pique mortal wow 

Zig-zag fury on ancient vine 

Buzzing blissful in circle line 

Changing ways a mere passing sign  

Rise to fall upon croaking row

Bashful frizz passing eyes alight   

Fear the tender tercet reads right 

Heart is frothing to take a bite

Arise! Awake! Whispered secret vow

MIRROR IN THE MIDDLE

Skim a flat stone and ripple space 

Flip light switch upon flesh face

Here is now, in the middle place

They work for all-—each in their turn

One for the other they will learn

Right this way, free spirits shall yearn

Reflections spot your inner trace

I will know myself— how eye roll 

None for the other takes a toll 

Left in the dust, lost laggers loll 

Circle by time at your own pace 

Slice a straight line through our dark heart

Everything breathes in one whole part 

Each must shoot its own poison dart

It takes two to run a mad race

Fairday's Riddles: Volume I 

Make time to riddle and rhyme!
62 original riddles and illustrations