Home > Poems > Happy Happy Joy Joy – a nonet

Happy Happy Joy Joy – a nonet

I have come to realise (and it’s also been pointed out to me) that my occasional poems and fiction (actually, not so occasional recently) have a fairly dark theme. The fiction always seems to need a dark twist, while my poems concentrate on the death of our environment, the death of our environment, the death of our environment and sometimes even the death of our environment!

Therefore I have decided to write a happier poem, in the form of a nonet (that’s the thing with nine lines, starting with nine syllables and working down to one).

This requires a big shift in my thinking. I need to think butterflies. I need to think rainbows, bunny rabbits and kitty-cats.

I’ll include a picture of a squirrel I took in a wood near my house to get me into the correct mood.

Squirrel

A fluffy squirrel.

Okay then, here goes.

Broken Lives

Demons of foul Death parade the land
Executing shivering souls
Suffering the innocent
Terror of broken lives
Ravaged and ended
Open wounds burn
Yells for help
Echo
Death

Hmm, that was a little darker than expected. I was expecting more unicorns and rainbows and fewer gruesome deaths. Stupid useless squirrel picture.

In my defence, I couldn’t think of a nine letter word to write down the left-hand side (which is a new rule I just made up) that said “happiness”. Hang on…

H-A-P-P-I-N-E-S-S

Okay, that would have done. Next time, fluffy bunny rabbits!

Categories: Poems Tags: ,
  1. June 2, 2013 at 4:52 pm

    As they say when trying something different (like channeling unicorns and rainbows) and showing off the successful results: Nailed it!

    Too bad the squirrel wasn’t of much use. Probably because you didn’t pay him enough in nuts 🙂

    I love the nonnet and love how you got to spell “destroyed” with the first letters at the same time. Double duty, I say, and you made every one of those letters work for you (unlike the cute squirrel). Loved the imagery of your poem and keep them coming!

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    • June 2, 2013 at 5:12 pm

      Thanks!
      I used a squirrel because I heard he’d work for peanuts. Ha ha 🙂
      I basically left the poem open in notepad all day and filled bits in as words with the correct syllables/letters came to me.

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  2. June 3, 2013 at 7:41 am

    I suppose you could give yourself credit for trying the happiness route but trying isn’t doing.
    You do have a wicked way of writing that I find humorous. Thank you.

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    • June 3, 2013 at 8:06 am

      Thanks and you’re welcome!
      I have actually put together a “happiness” nonet, just ironing out the details! I’m finding it a little trickier than writing “dark”.

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  3. June 4, 2013 at 8:53 pm

    Monet, really? Upon googling Monet I could have been confused but I decided to pick a definition and go with it. Waiting!

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  4. June 4, 2013 at 8:55 pm

    Oops, nonet, I googled the wrong word.

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    • June 5, 2013 at 6:19 am

      Thought you might have – I was going to reply last night but it was bedtime!
      There are various nonets around on the web but I can’t find out their origin. I suspect someone liked “sonnets” and thought they’d do a 9 line version with a twist. I doubt they’ve been around very long like traditional poetry forms but they’re fun to do 🙂

      Like

  1. June 8, 2013 at 8:39 am

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