Crows Calling at Night

Widow cries salty tears on her pillow
as rain falls in the ghost town.
She hears the cawing of the crows,
caw-caw, the reminder of his doom.
The lonely room echoes with melancholic sounds--
weeping, raining and crows calling at night.
Sorrowfully--she thinks of his handsome face
but neither sleep nor any respite comes.

The form loosely resembles Chinese LUSHI style:

• eight lines long of couplets – The first couplet should set-up the poem; the middle two couplets develop the theme, the final couple is conclusion
• each line must have the same number of words, either 5,6, or 7.
• a mono-rhyme is on every even numbered line
• Caesura (a pause) should separate clauses.

Inspired by Crows Calling at Night by Li bai:

Yellow clouds beside the walls; crows roosting near.
Flying back, they caw, caw; calling in the boughs.
In the loom she weaves brocade, the Qin river girl.
Made of emerald yarn like mist, the window hides her words.
She stops the shuttle, sorrowful, and thinks of the distant man.
She stays alone in the lonely room, her tears just like the rain.

Image

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