The weekend served as a short break from the poetry assignments of Writing 201. I haven’t been contorting my imagination in new and interesting ways, and it turns out, I missed it. The week opens with a wonderful new prompt of Heroes. These could be, fictional, real, or even a semi non fictional exaggeration of our individual awesomeness. As much as I would have loved to create an action filled epic of me, as some dragon slaying hero, I had to dedicate my Ballad (Poetic Form of the day) to a couple of real heroes, My parents. The poetic device(s) for today, I cant even pronounce correctly are, Anaphora and Epistrophe. These refer to the repetition of words or phrases at the beginning and ending of multiple lines of verse, respectively. Im unsure as to how well my piece meets the criteria for a ballad, or the poetic devices for that matter, but I’m hoping it says what I hoped it to say. Enjoy!
A promise was made under shadows of youth,
“You’ll blossom, Your time will arrive.”
A promise that swam in the heart of the youth,
always knowing their time will arrive.
A mother so anxious, while father composed,
they were carving a future for men.
So young in there skin, with childish repose,
unaware where the future would end.
His boys would be men, they would carry his name
so he taught them the price of a dream.
He taught them to plough and plant what they need
“without effort you’ll stifle a dream”
He guided there steps over teetering paths,
always knowing the fall will arrive.
He tumbled before on his teetering path,
so he knows they will fall but survive.
The daughter-less queen, had a heart without end,
it was tender and tended to kin.
to her kings in there youth she taught love without end,
the daughter-less queen cautioned sin.
To a king there’s a queen, and the queen that she was,
she projected the traits to adore.
So when youth was undone and they courted at will,
it was genuine love at the door.
A promise was made under shadows of youth
“you’ll blossom, your time will arrive.”
A promise that swims in the depth of my heart,
always knowing that my time will arrive.
(c) Saili Katebe
The Blissful Nomad 
Beautiful!
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🙂 thank you
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This is a great poem! You’ve captured how much your parents mean to you beautifully.
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Thank you 🙂 I was really hoping to do the emotion justice.
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Wonderful tribute.
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Thank you very much. I’m glad you appreciate it.
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Your parents sound like wonderful people. 🙂 My favorite lines:
He tumbled before on his teetering path,
so he knows they will fall but survive.
Also, I’m reading a bunch of these and appreciate that you stuck with the rhythm. I’m struggling to really “hear” a lot of the other ballads I’m reading.
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Well this is kind of beautiful. I feel the same way about my parents, they’re the quiet heroes that taught me (and keep teaching me) so much. Really loved the way you spun the epic tone of ballads into a modern setting. Worked perfectly
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Thank you very much. It’s not always obvious that they are our heroes but
It’s with time that I truly appreciated them. I’m glad it ticked the box or a ballad
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A heartfelt tribute. You’ve kept to the emotion without vein controlled by the words. Congratulations on the achievement and for such lovely parents.
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Thank you very much. I learned to appreciate the sacrifices they made for me an my brothers and learned that those moments they were being “kill joys” they were hoping to teach us to be better men. I know I wouldn’t be writing this blog, or writing as I do today if it wasn’t for sacrifices they’ve made to provide me and my brothers with opportunities. I appreciate you reading and enjoying this piece.
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Beautiful! The flow of writing is quite nice. Wonderful tribute.
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