Sunday Mini-Challenge
Imaginary Garden with Real Toads

When I Grow too Old to Dream*

minaret, minotaur,

a dancing horse and a monkey

with music coming from afar

very funky

my dreams are getting more and more bizarre

my books in this field are

few and decidedly lacking

oneirocritic authors are

without backing

from halls of academe both near and far

checked my idea jar

for the name of that cute gypsy

though doctors might be best by far

(not as tipsy)

meanwhile I’ll consult my favorite star

Jupiter and Mars marred

by a lack of understanding

and love doesn’t steer the stars

peace not guiding**

so now I’ll never know what my dreams are

*   Oscar Hammerstein II

** The 5th Dimension

Posted for the

Sunday Mini-Challenge

at the online writers' group Imaginary Garden with Real Toads. Kerry presented us with a poem by artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti (not Dante Alighieri, thank goodness, although he was the younger man's idol) and asked us to write to the form:

6 syllables -- A rhyme
8 syllables -- B rhyme

8 syllables -- A

4 syllables -- B

10 syllables -A — and following stanzas have C, D, etc., instead of the B rhyme, but retain the A rhyme throughout.

The thing I found most difficult today was remembering that the first line was to be only 6 syllables, followed by two lines of 8. I kept using 8 syllables in the first line and having to rewrite it.