China white's only sometime grief
tears are not just sorrow
 eyes drip anger
 lucent temper
tears are not just sorrow

Blanched the yawning of tomorrow
unfilled looms the future
 fists shut tightly
 fears come nightly
unfilled looms the future

Leaden faced the frigid writer
strikethroughs so unsightly
 and overleaf
 each thought a thief
strikethroughs so unsightly

Blancoed pages, empty, ghostly
elusive leitmotif
 poets' shadows
 past as windows 
elusive leitmotif

35 thoughts on “Stumbling block”

1. Oh you managed to weave in that empty page as well… China white I understood as the name of a drug

   1. also white is reserved for death in China

2. A blank page can be a stumbling block or an invitation to create – and you’ve creates a wonderful roundabout, Laura! I love the way the tears drip through your poem.

   1. thank you Kim – I know tears of frustration although this Roundabout style did not bring them on – surprisingly!

      1. 🙂

3. What a wonderful roundabout, Laura! Writer’s block can bring tears. You have used my favourite word “leitmotif” so beautifully.

   1. many thanks – it is rather a delicious word and makes the rhyme for grief!

4. I have not been here for an age
   The press of life detained me
   I fussed and worked
   Pressed and shirked
   The press of life detained me

   It feels like life drains away
   when muses will not linger
   writers block
   living mocks
   when muses will not linger

   anyway, not a roundabout, the rhymes already messed up, but I have been out with mild post-vaxed covid this week, and forced to stay home from crazy crazy work demands, and have written three new Quadrilles, and have felt more alive while sick this week than in a year, so when that blank page stares back, it can feel like a little death,
   Nice to see your poem.
   Hope you are well! 🙂

   1. welcome with all your rhymes still intact I see and the blank pages filling up now

      1. 🙂

   2. Lona, so happy to see you, and am always furthered in reading your perspectives on poems. Hoping to see you more at the poets pub!!!!!

      1. Thank you dear! 🙂 Good to see you and all of y’all again.

   3. Roundabout or not, the muses seemed to visit in your comment. It’s good to see your words.

      1. Good to be here and to see yo Ken! 🙂

5. Bravo. Nice one Laura.

   Much❤love

   1. ❤

6. Elusive indeed. I have trouble with forms when I am not familiar with them, and yet I still love to try them.

   1. I resist forms generally (the theme of this poem reiterates the struggles!) so hosting these prompts forces me to face them – they may not produce our best poems, but they do refine our writing of them!

      1. You have moved me to rewrite mine to specs. Thank you for pushing me to do something that was difficult to do!

         1. and i still messed up. never mind. 😦

            1. I nearly did too- only just spotted my mistakes before I’d completed

7. Laura, I like the ambiguity of China white, as it would work as death/grieving or as heroin, and probably many other things as well. My favorite line in it is “unfilled looms the future.” Wonderful command of the form. Will be using it as a template in how to finagle those repeating lines.

   1. yes lots of ambiguity and ambivalence hence the stumbling block 😉 – not an easy form but if this helps that’s good. Bjorn also suggested turning the letters into colours to make it easier to see what has to match up.
      • aBccB bCddC cDaaD dAbbA

      1. I read that tip after mine was written. Good to use for next time, thanks 🙂

      2. I agree with Lisa — also those are great tips for future roundabouts.

8. A writer has many shadows…(K)

   1. wise words

9. Well done Laura. This prompt was quite a challenge!

   1. thankyou Dwight – it has been a dizzying experience for many of us!

10. I like the pursuit of the elusive leitmotif with this form: both the cyclical nature of a guiding theme, and the search for a guiding theme.

    1. thanks for this Maria – it certainly can feel like a roundabout ride looking for the theme

11. This definitely is a challenging form, Writer’s block is a fine way to address it, and done so well, here.

    1. many thanks ken – could not think of anything better to write about than the effects of this challenge

12. Oh that stared-at blank page. Wonderful rhyming in this, Laura. Very challenging prompt!

    1. yes I raised the bar for myself on this one – and did not let the blank page put me off either!

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