P is for Puente

Image credit; Tylor Heery @ Unsplash
For the visually challenged reader, the image shows a rotary dial pink telephone, and next to it are cards showing the answering machine messages on different cards. “Leave us a message” , “After the tone” and “Thank you”

The time when we used to look at maps when we travel

as a passenger telling the driver where to go

we make appointments when we want to meet friends

arranged to meet somewhere at certain time

and on the phone we dialled the number

someone else answered and we leave a message

on a slip of paper and they might get lost

and an answer was not expected straight away

– that was then and now is here –

A navigation system that speaks to tell us where to go

as a passenger we can relax and enjoy the view

a smart phone which does everything, arranges meeting

cancels meeting in short notice and information galore

an answering machine to record any message

no slip of paper getting lost

messages demanded some answers

fast action, too fast sometimes*

(c) ladyleemanila 2022

The Puente, a poem for created by James Rasmusson, and is somewhat similar to the Diamante. Like the Diamante, you start with one aspect of a topic or issue and then, line by line, work toward another aspect. In the center is a line that bridges the two aspects together.

The Puente is also tenuously similar to the Zeugma (affectionously called a Ziggy) which, on the Shadow Poetry web site is defined as: “A figure of speech in which a single word is used in the same grammatical and semantic relationship with two or more other words, usually a verb or adjective.”

The form has three stanzas with the first and third having an equal number of lines and the middle stanza having only one line which acts as a bridge (puente) between the first and third stanza. The first and third stanzas convey a related but different element or feeling, as though they were two adjacent territories. The number of lines in the first and third stanza is the writer’s choice as is the choice of whether to write it in free verse or rhyme.

The center line is delineated by a tilde (~) and has ‘double duty’. It functions as the ending for the last line of the first stanza AND as the beginning for the first line of the third stanza. It shares ownership with these two lines and consequently bridges the first and third stanzas.

For: https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2022/04/11/what-do-you-see-129-april-11-2022/, http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2022/04/atozchallenge-p-is-for-powerpoint.html, https://www.napowrimo.net/day-nineteen-7/