Dance Free (Waltmarie)

Since it’s poetry month, I thought I would try out some new forms and I bumped into a great blog post from A Different Perspective listing out 13 poetic form prompts. A big thanks to them for the inspiration

Prompt 12

Write a Waltmarie poem or

Write a poem about healing

A Different Perspective by muisopsis

Here are the guidelines for a Waltmarie:

– Made up of ten lines
– Even lines are two syllables
– Odd lines are longer (no syllable count requirement)
– Even lines make up a mini-poem if read separately
– No other requirements (e.g. rhyme, theme)

The Waltmarie sounds like a dance and with the two poems intermingling it’s aptly named. So come along and dance with me!

Warning: This poem turned out to be a very somber dance and references self-harm. Please pass if your uncomfortable with this topic.


Dance Free

From my neck my head hangs loosely
My mind
Eased by the pull of gravity
My heart
Forgiven by the strength of rope
My hurt
Soothed by the rhythmic swinging
My soul
Released above the toppled chair to
Dance free


I didn’t realize I was going to get so heavy with this. While I have struggled with depression and suicidal ideation/self-harm throughout my life, I’m in a good place now. This poem is pulling from times past when I believed my healing could only come from death. Gratefully I’ve learned that I can heal through acceptance. Creativity — writing and art, have been instrumental in helping me with acceptance. Thus I feel it’s quite appropriate (and beautiful) that the mini poem within reads:

Dance Free

My mind,
My heart,
My hurt,
My soul,
Dance free.


Be well,

Monty


7 Comments

  1. murisopsis says:

    Monty this is perhaps the best Waltmarie I’ve ever read! Yes it is dark on the odd lines but it is hopeful on the even lines.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Monty Vern says:

      Wow!!! That’s an amazing complement and I appreciate you sharing it. This form is amazing and I was excited about how it came out.

      Like

  2. gigglingfattie says:

    That took a very dark turn and I was not expecting it.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Monty Vern says:

      Sorry for that. I did include a warning but maybe not emphasized/obvious enough.

      Like

      1. gigglingfattie says:

        lol you did give a warning. I am just overly sensitive today

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Monty Vern says:

        Ok. I can understand that. I do appreciate your visiting and commenting. I look forward to it.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Monty Vern says:

        The poem within the poem is quite hopeful though. This is why I really like this one.

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a Comment

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s