Lai Nouveau: Seashore Anew

a black whippet sniffing a seaweed covered breakwater on tidal sands

soothing rise and fall
the sea helps us all
relax
wolfhound’s ancient call
mountains rising tall
perhaps
scale the old sea wall
throw me a new ball

letting us grow tall
helping us seal all
the cracks
blue sky’s magical
readiness enthrals
our tracks
the sea helps us all
soothing rise and fall

© Xenia Tran

close up of a black whippet looking over his shoulder beside a breakwater at low tide
a blue and white whippet chasing a pink ball on the beach

This is our second contribution to dVerse Poets’ Lai and Lai Nouveau Challenge.

A Lai is a French poetry form consisting of a five-syllable couplet followed by a two-syllable line. The number of lines in each stanza is fixed at nine and the couplets must rhyme with each other, as must the two-syllable lines. The number of stanzas is not fixed and each stanza has its own rhyme pattern. The stanza’s rhyme pattern is: a a b a a b a a b.

A Lai Nouveau is considered to be slightly more challenging than the Lai. It has an eight-line stanza and is similar in idea to the Villanelle. In the Lai Nouveau the first two lines are the refrain and are used as the last lines of the subsequent verses with the last verse including the refrain lines in reverse order. The stanza rhyme patterns are: A1 A2 b a a b a a and a a b a a b A2 A1.

You can read our first contribution, River Affric, on our sister blog Tranature.

With love from Eivor, Pearl and Xenia xxx

Photographs by Xenia Tran, edited in lr.

Camera: Panasonic Lumix FZ200, Settings: f/2.8 – 1/1600 s – ISO 160, f/2.8 – 1/500 s – ISO 100 and f/3.2 – 1/2000 s – ISO 100.

dVerse Poets Poetry Form: Lai and Lai Nouveau

Becca’s Nurturing Thursday: Start with Yourself

Your Daily Word Prompt: Anew

Author: whippetwisdom

The stories, poems and photographs on this blog are the original creative work of Xenia Tran. Inspired by life in the Scottish Highlands and in awe of nature she gives voice to the wisdom of her adopted and fostered whippets.

37 thoughts on “Lai Nouveau: Seashore Anew”

  1. Pingback: Lai Nouveau: River Affric – Tranature

    1. Thank you so much for your kind words dear Cathy, it’s a lovely form to work with 🙂💜 Hope you’re having a great day and much love to you and Finn from all of us here 🤗🐾💖🐾 xxx

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  8. Thanks for sharing with Nurturing Thursday this week! Yes, pets do indeed remind us to just relax and enjoy the simple things in life. 🙂

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  10. An Amazing Set of Instructions…
    Gave me a bit of the ‘Old
    Anxiety’ of School.. hehe..
    Which made me
    Feel.. How
    Do Dogs
    Write Poetry… Of
    Course! They Dance!!.. Then They Sing!
    Howling Lovingly! At A Moon For Friends..:)

    Liked by 1 person

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  14. There is almost a plea here, for people to understand why they need the sea. It’s unfortunate that you have to do it, but it is often taken for granted. I agree with Frank, also, that the lines feel like waves going back and forth along the shore.

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    1. Thank you so much for your kind words dear Jade and for picking up on the plea to protect our seas 💜 We successfully campaigned to prevent ship to ship oil transfers here and the clean-up of plastic and encouraging more responsible behaviour is an ongoing journey 🙂💖💦 xxx

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