Welcome to November! We’re almost at the end of another year. Welcome to the Carrot Ranch Double Ennead Monthly Poetry Challenge. Every third Monday of the month, I’m here at the Saloon with another challenge to help get your poetic juices flowing. Each month, we will explore a different theme or image to inspire our poetry. Take your time, there’s no hurry! You have an entire month to write your poem.
HINT: You can find this post again by typing: double ennead challenge in the search box to the right of the Carrot Ranch banner. That will bring up the most recent challenge post. ❤
Check out the poems from last month HERE
The word Ennead means nine, and a double nine is ninety-nine! Carrot Ranch is famous for 99-word flash fiction. Now, the ranch has its own syllabic poetry form written in 99 syllables!
The Double Ennead comprises five lines with a syllable count of 6/5/11/6/5, (33 SYLLABLES per stanza) 3 STANZAS EACH = 99 SYLLABLES, NO MORE, NO LESS! Punctuation and rhyme schemes are optional and up to the poet. Remember, please write your poem in 99 syllables.
#Ekphrastic Inspiration
Art has a way of inspiring ekphrastic poetry. The idea is to see behind the obvious, possibly using your third eye to pull out more layers of meaning from a particular piece of art. Van Gogh is a favorite of mine because of the softness—a dreamlike imagery portrayed in his work. So, let’s use the image below to inspire this month’s double ennead poem.
Read: Perspectives in Writing Ekphrastic Poetry
Always check your syllables with a syllable counter when composing and writing syllabic poetry. The pronunciation of words is very important to conveying a meaning in your poems. Please use sodacoffee.com/syllables/ as a syllable counter.
Our Inspiration:
Painting, Oil on Canvas
Nuenen, The Netherlands: November, 1885
Kröller-Müller Museum
Otterlo, The Netherlands, Europe
https://www.vangoghgallery.com/catalog/Painting/9/Autumn-Landscape-with-Four-Trees.html
Use the image above to compose your double ennead poem. Remember your poem should have 99 syllables.
My example follows:
"Farewell to Another Year" frigid morn, Autumn kissed— quiescent fields glow, tempered with an aura of seasonal flow the wheel of the year turns another month lost under the sun's frail rays, hardwood shadows fade, while frost browned grasses sing anthems to the wind naked tree limbs tremble, upright to the end death's undulations voiced leaves fall... orange rain, bird requiems pay deference to the dead another harvest done, spring dreams fill my head © Colleen M. Chesebro
Poetry is based on perceptions. We will all interpret the image differently. Follow your inner voice for inspiration.
- Write a double ennead poem based on the painting above.
- Post it on your blog.
- Include a link back to this challenge in your post. (copy the https:// address of this post into your post).
- Read and comment on your fellow poet’s work. Feedback from other poets is how we grow our poetry writing craft.
- Like and leave a comment below if you choose to do so.
- I’ll visit, comment, and share your poetry on social media!
Now have fun and write some poetry!
I think this 99 syllable challenge is very stimulating, Colleen. But it is summer here and I hate winter. I think I shall write a poem to the sunflower paintings.
Yes! That’s a wonderful idea. Please do. ❤️🌻
Hello. Well, the poem I wrote for this challenge not only changed the order of the syllable lines but went over the count by six. I think that’s my preferred version but this being Carrot Ranch and all, I got it down to 99 syllables in lines of 6, 5, or 11, though again, you’ll see that liberties were taken. Thank you for the challenge.
“Autumn Landscape”
This one feels winter most
humble in fall winds
stands in craggy patience
boldly bare, exposed
no hubris leaves cling to rattle summer ghosts
No shelter for the one
stumbling ‘cross drab fields
‘fore winter’s snow and cold
so much still undone
Where’s the greening corn? What happened to the sun?
One might burn the other for a gift of heat
knowing nothing lasts
denying is conceit
One might end up lying
at the other’s feet
I loved this line: “no hubris leaves cling to rattle summer ghosts…” because it represented the mood of this painting so well. I saw the figure in the field and all I could wonder was if they were glad another year of harvest was over. The scene reminded me of Michigan—green grass, mostly bare trees, and the hazy Autumn sky. Thanks so much for playing along, D. <3
Thanks for being behind the bar!
Always a pleasure. ❤️
I loved your poem, Ms D. You captured the spirit of this painting.
[…] Double Ennead challenge from Saddle Up Saloon host Coleen Chesebro this month is also an ekphrastic challenge, based on Van […]
So I crammed a story into 99 syllables. Does that count, Colleen? This is a fun challenge for the poet-less, too.
Postcard found, V. van Gogh
Never understood
How the card had migrated beneath the fridge
But there it was one day
Its edge poking out
Insurance magnet held it
In place among art
The kids made with neon gel pens and glitter paint
Vincent and the kiddos
Adorned my kitchen
Was life flat in V’s day?
Did life burn too bright?
Caffeinated worries fill a quiet house
Postcards and fridge art fade
When the kids grow up
This is excellent, Charli. Poetry is sharing an experience and your poem is a poignant reminder of life after kids. Bringing old Vincent into it makes it even better! I’d love a print of Starry Night! ❤️
Might be entering a poet phase, with training wheels. But I’m surrounded by so many talented Poets to find inspiration! Glad a story worked.
And this is why haibun and tanka prose poetry is so valuable to writers. You can share stories punctuated by bits of syllabic verse (haiku or tanka) to enhance the meaning of the story. The double ennead is perfect for story poetry. There’s a lot of meaning in those 99 syllables you wrote. <3
“Poet-less”?
Time to ‘fess
up that you
are a poet too.
A poignant piece, Poetess.
Write on.
(And Kid says, initially
Your name is barked
up on the Poet Tree)
Hmmm. What does this poetically told story look like as a flash? Who gets it? Max’s dad? Her mom? Grandmother?
Oh, Charli, this is beautiful but tinged with sadness too.
Hi Charli, I popped back in to tell you that ballad’s are story poems or poems that tell stories and they have been about for centuries.
Coleen, if I don’t get to it early, I won’t get to it…
The Yellowing Morn
Ah, the yellowing morn,
A skeletal tree,
crooked to the sun, twisted against the sky,
a contorted heartbreak,
As the summer ends.
And there, in the distance,
a hungry vulture
waiting in the wings, surveying the landscape,
preparing for attack,
but defensive prone.
Withered, the yellowed morn,
the shards of parched sun,
against the primeval wood, the land corrupted,
earth, dissipated, lost,
bone-dried cries of death.
http://www.engleson.ca
This is excellent imagery, Bill. You definitely captured the essence of this painting. Thanks for hopping on. ❤️
[…] Carrot Ranch SUS Double Ennead #10 //Double Ennead comprises five lines with a syllable count of 6/5/11/6/5, (33 SYLLABLES per stanza) 3 STANZAS EACH = 99 SYLLABLES, NO MORE, NO LESS! Punctuation and rhyme schemes are optional and up to the poet. Remember, please write your poem in 99 syllables. //Ekphrastic poetry;Image Credit: Vincent van Gogh Carrot Ranch November 18, 2021, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write about tools. Whose tools are they and how do they fit into the story? What kind of tools? Go where the prompt leads! Respond by November 30, 2021. Imprompt: QNv 20 Take the abstract word ”IMPORTANT” and illustrate, define, personify—do something to make it real. You do not have to use the word itself. You can. You can use it over and over. That isn’t important. The energy, Dr Frankenstein, should make the word LIVE. […]
OK this is a triple prompted piece:
Import Important
(99 word Double Ennead Ekphrastic Acrostic
of the split words of Import Important)
I empoy the rake to
manage the fall leaves
piling them high at the curb for picking up
or some are for my trees
raked round their bases
tender protection for
inclement weather
might damage the roots that are near the surface
perhaps when snow piles high
over the back yard…
rest well with slow sap, my
trees that shed their leaves
and know that I look for budding health come spring
now though brace for winter;
time for dreamings’ nigh
© JP/dh
This is beautiful, Jules! The year cycles on to embrace the dying time of year. <3
Oh… I had to add a verse to make it comply with the Carrot ranch prompt… but it is good this way too. 😀
[…] the ranch, for the double ennead challenge #10, our host Colleen chose Vincent van Gogh’s Autumn Landscape with Four Trees as our ekphrastic […]
Another very inspiring prompt Colleen – thanks so much – and I love Van Gogh – madly and passionately.
So here is my offering for the challenge:
https://hollyhocksanddaffodils.wordpress.com/2021/11/29/terre-verte/
Thank you. <3
I really love your double ennead Colleen – it’s really captivating and a true celebration and mourning of Autumn, not only the physical aspects, but speaking metaphorically as well. Truly lovely – I was swept up in the embrace of your words. 🙂
I particularly was arrested by this: under the sun’s frail rays,
hardwood shadows fade,
while frost browned grasses sing anthems to the wind –
crisply scintillating!
Thanks, Pat. It the sound of wind through the grasses that prompted the entire piece. Thanks so much. <3
yes, the wind …. sings so many songs and tunes, always something to sip and listen for …. if not being rocked off one’s feet!
[…] You can join in Colleen’s challenge here: https://carrotranch.com/2021/11/15/saddle-up-saloon-colleens-double-ennead-challenge-no-10 […]
Hello Colleen, I got around to writing my poem finally and here it is: https://robbiesinspiration.wordpress.com/2021/11/30/robbies-inspiration-colleens-double-ennead-challenge-no-10-the-romance-of-the-sunflowers/
Most beautiful bog!!most inspirational,my dear!! I will try the poem on autumn if i can.plz wait for me.thanks for inspiring✌.Robiesinspiration told me about your blog.she is too much brilliat poet.💕💕
Thank you. Charli Mills is the head honcho of this blog. I’m a guest writer here but we have fun writing flash fiction and poetry. <3
[…] This is a Double Ennead as described by Colleen for her Carrot Ranch challenges here: https://carrotranch.com/2021/11/15/saddle-up-saloon-colleens-double-ennead-challenge-no-10/ […]