• About Catherine Castle
  • Blog
  • Book Shelf
  • Contact Catherine
  • Copyright Permissions
  • Gardens
  • Guest Blog Information-A Writer’s Garden
  • Guest Blog Information-Musings from a Writer’s Brain
  • Guest Blog Information-Tasty Tuesdays
  • Guest Blog Information-Wednesday Writers
  • WIP

Catherine Castle

~ Romance for the Ages

Catherine Castle

Tag Archives: Poetry by Catherine Castle

Musings from a Writer’s Brain–Poetry Month with Catherine Castle

01 Monday Apr 2019

Posted by Catherine Castle in Musings from a Writer's Brain, Poetry by Catherine Castle, The Nun and the Narc

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

2019 April PAD, Catherine Castle, love poems, Musings from a Writer's Brain, Poem a day challenge, poems, Poetry by Catherine Castle, Writer's Digest PAD

This month is Poetry Month, so I thought I’d share a poem or two with you.

I was a poet a long time before I was a fiction writer. Granted, I wrote some pretty awful stuff as a teenager. Consider these stanzas from one of my teenage love poems.

 

Sandy Shores

© 1969 Catherine Castle

Sandy Shores, where I once walked with him,

Where I had love offered by him.

Sandy shores, where I had my first kiss.

Now his kiss and his love I miss.

 

Sandy Shores, where the moonlight shone softly,

Where his heart and mine were locked tightly.

Sandy Shores, where I met my first love,

And the moonlight shone down from above.

I didn’t even keep to a set rhyme pattern. Notice the first two lines of the poem end with the same word, something that would be okay in blank verse. As would the erratic meter. But, hey! I was young and expressing my feelings through poetry.

As time progressed, I like to think that my poetry writing skill did too. By 1991 I was experimenting with real blank verse, writing more love poems. As you can see, I was a romantic from the beginning of my writing.

 

Love Songs

© 1991 Catherine Castle

 

With fingers touching ivory you play love songs,

caressing notes tenderly, crescendoing.

Held tight in passion’s melody you give

yourself to music’s fire and for a brief while

know harmonic chords, duets with ivory and

Your soul. And when the music stops I cry,

“Encore!” and once again you play love songs.

I counted the poems I’ve written over the years and came up with about 178 from one of my notebooks. It’s hard to know exactly how many I’ve written because they are scattered across three notebooks and a dozen computer files. I have pulled enough poems from my files to create five handmade chapbooks: A Christmas chapbook, a chapbook containing poems about my daughter, an acrostic poem chapbook, a Nature poem chapbook and of course, a love poem chapbook.

My poems cover a variety of poetic forms from rhyming, concrete poems, blank verse, haiku, lunes, sonnets (one of my favorites to write), and acrostic (where the first letter of each sentence, read down creates a word) The subjects I write about include travel poems, where I spew prose about the cons, pros and things I see and feel on our vacations; family; life changing events; gift poems; love; hate; sorrow; death; religion. You name an emotion and I’ve probably written something about it. I’ve also written poems than have ended up being set to music that I’ve composed.

Some of my favorite poems have been written as a response to Writer’s Digest’s PAD (Poem-a –Day) Challenge. A new challenge starts today! The poetry challenge also runs in November.

 

Here’s one of my PAD poems from the first year I did PAD. This challenge was to write a poem that started with the line The other ________.

The Other Shoe

© 2013 Catherine Castle

 

The other shoe.

I’m waiting for it to fall

from some nether region of

heaven where fire rains down on

heads burdened with cares and toils.

 

It always drops—the other shoe—

when things are too good to be true.

 

If I’d could get the mate, I’d

have a matching pair. Dressy

shoes, Lord, with a three-inch heel.

’Cause I’m sure to need a lift

when the other shoe drops down.

 

I don’t know about you, but I think poetry is a great way to tighten your fiction prose, challenge your writing skills and your brain. Learning a new poetry form is good for making new brain synapses. I don’t have any statistical proof of that. I just know it challenges me.

What about you? Do you write poetry? If so, join the 2019 April PAD. Even if you don’t do a poem a day, I think you’ll find it fun and interesting.

If you need a break from writing poems pick up Catherine’s multi-award-winning inspirational romantic suspense The Nun and the Narc. Available at Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

The Nun and the Narc

Where novice Sister Margaret Mary goes, trouble follows. When she barges into a drug deal the local Mexican drug lord captures her. To escape she must depend on undercover DEA agent Jed Bond. Jed’s attitude toward her is exasperating, but when she finds herself inexplicable attracted to him he becomes more dangerous than the men who have captured them, because he is making her doubt her decision to take her final vows. Escape back to the nunnery is imperative, but life at the convent, if she can still take her final vows, will never be the same.

Nuns shouldn’t look, talk, act, or kiss like Sister Margaret Mary O’Connor—at least that’s what Jed Bond thinks. She hampers his escape plans with her compulsiveness and compassion and in the process makes Jed question his own beliefs. After years of walling up his emotions in an attempt to become the best agent possible, Sister Margaret is crumbling Jed’s defenses and opening his heart. To lure her away from the church would be unforgivable—to lose her unbearable.

The poems in this post are copyrighted by Catherine Castle. Sharing is encouraged. Plagiarism is not. Please be respectful of the author’s right and give her credit when reposting this blog or poetry.

 

About the Author:

Multi-award winning author Catherine Castle loves writing fiction and poetry, reading, traveling, singing, theatre, quilting and gardening. She’s a passionate gardener whose garden won a “Best Hillside Garden” award from the local gardening club. She writes sweet and inspirational romances. You can find her award-winning Soul Mate books The Nun and the Narc and A Groom for Mama, on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

Follow her on Twitter @AuthorCCastle, FB or her blog.

Advertisement

Poem A Day Challenge-A Vegetable Poem

21 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by Catherine Castle in Poetry by Catherine Castle

≈ Comments Off on Poem A Day Challenge-A Vegetable Poem

Tags

A vegetable poem, Okra-a poem, Poetry by Catherine Castle, WRiter's Digest 2015 Poem A Day challenge

File:Okra Bloom.jpg

Photo from Wikimedia commons

 

Today I’m showcasing day five of the Poem A Day challenge–write a vegetable poem.

 

 

 

Here’s my veggie poem.

Okra©

by

Catherine Castle

Who knew spiny okra

had hibiscus-like flow’rs?

Not me. When I saw it

I called my girlfriend and

exclaimed over the bloom.

“Silly girl,” she said. “Don’t

you know vegetables have

blossoms? That’s where the fruit

comes from.” I didn’t. I

had never seen okra …

outside a frying pan.

 

What about you? Do you have a veggie poem or a surprise story about vegetables? I’d love to hear them.

It’s Full of Stars Waiting at Heaven’s Trail

15 Tuesday Jul 2014

Posted by Catherine Castle in Blog, Catherine Castle author, Poetry by Catherine Castle

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Heaven's Trail, It's Full of Stars, My God, Poetry by Catherine Castle, Thomas Zimmer

My brain has been fried since finishing two major deadlines on projects I’m doing with the hubby. As I often do when the brain is dead, and I’m procrastinating before starting the next big writing project, I turn to poetry.

To give my brain a break I peeked into Pinterest to see what it was all about, and I found this amazing picture that I fell in love with.

Because of copyright issues I can’t display the photo here, but trust me, you have to click on this link to see the photo.

Some internet sites call this photo “Heavens Trail” , which is believed to be a place in Ireland where every two years in between June 10-18, the stars line up with this path.

The photographer of this amazing shot, Thomas Zimmer, calls his photo “My God, it’s full of stars.” To find out more about this amazing photo check out the links below.

http://www.gold-boat.com/heavens-boat/#.Ut2jkLEo7IU

http://500px.com/ThomasZ/stories/53311/the-making-of-my-god-it-s-full-of-stars

Wanting to say something about this amazing photograph, I decided to pick another one of Robert Brewer’s Poem and Day prompts and create a poem. So, here is an Ekphrastic poem – a poem based on a piece of art or photography, based on Thomas Zimmer’s amazing photograph. To learn more about the photo you can check out the links below.

 

It’s Full of Stars Waiting at Heaven’s Trail

© 2014 Catherine Castle

 

Like diamonds on celestial cloth

stars are strewn ‘cross outer space,

the cosmos’ glittering pathway

to heaven’s elusive pearl gates.

Standing at the edge of earth’s end

I wait with baited breath to see

how I fit in the starry scene

the Creator reveals to me.

One speck in the great universe.

One light amidst billions above.

One soul in created eons

standing near heaven’s alcove.

If I step into the beyond

what will I unearth at stars’ end?

What glories await my coming

in the heavenly firmament?

 

SEASONS — My First Published Poem

13 Tuesday Aug 2013

Posted by Catherine Castle in Blog, Catherine Castle author, Poetry by Catherine Castle, writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Catherine Castle author, First published poems, Poetry, Poetry by Catherine Castle, Seasons--the poem

A few weeks ago, I guest blogged at A Splash of Romance in Your Life, and talked about how I got started writing. In that guest blog I mentioned my first published piece was a poem included in a poetry anthology called A Different Drummer. I thought it might be nice to share that poem with my readers.  So, here is the poem … Seasons

100_3165

Fall in Catherine’s Hillside Garden
Photo by Catherine Castle

                         Seasons ©

In Winter when the north wind blows
madly round the house,
Jack Frost paints the window panes
and I lie bundled on the couch.
With teapot close at hand,
I wistfully dream of other days,
of surf and sun and sand.
 
In Springtime when the warming sun
removes the winter chill,
the snowflakes turn to gentle rain
and resurrect the daffodils.
As Winter fades away,
I rudely rush the Springtime past
and welcome Summer’s days.
 
And finally after endless wait
blest Summertime arrives,
with sweltering days, humid nights,
temperatures of ninety-five.
With iced tea and a fan
I suffer through the summer heat,
desiring Autumn’s hand.
 
                             by Catherine Castle
 

 What was your first published piece?

 

Catherine Castle Facebook

Catherine Castle Facebook

Follow me on Twitter

My Tweets

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 1,708 other subscribers

Recent Posts

  • Wednesday Writers–Shadow in the Dark by Antony Barone Kolenc January 5, 2022
  • Musings from a Writer’s Brain—Reality or Make-believe? by Amy R Anguish December 27, 2021
  • Wednesday Writers—When Love Trusts by Judythe Morgan December 22, 2021
  • Wednesday Writers–Defending David by Barbara M. Britton December 15, 2021
  • Wednesday Writers–An interview with Lady Fallon from Susan Hanniford Crowley’s YA Fantasy Lady Fallon’s Dragons December 1, 2021

Archives

Categories

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com

Writer's organizations

  • ACFW Ohio Chapter
  • American Christian Fiction Writers

Blog Stats

  • 62,204 hits
  • RSS - Posts
  • RSS - Comments

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Catherine Castle
    • Join 627 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Catherine Castle
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...