Mope’s Blanket
Season’s dark stencils sprawl on chill white slates
Mope blanket smothers, ice webs of blue
Binary jail except when red wings call
Chips in their singing resonate hue
This form is pretty tricky. Thanks for the challenge, Merril, and thanks, Jane, for tips.
Merril is today’s host for dVerse’ Meeting the Bar. Merril says:
Today’s challenge is to write a toddaid. It’s a Welsh poetic form that I’ve seen as quatrains and couplets. As close as I can determine from asking Welsh poets on Twitter/X, it’s pronounced TOTH-eyed, with the th like that in “although,” a soft th, and o as in “got.”
Tao Talk 
very nice Li :-) well done!
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Thanks, Carol Anne :)
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I really love the sound and imagery of the first line, Lisa. Thank you for writing to the prompt!
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Thank you and thanks for the challenging prompt!
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You’re very welcome!
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Very nice indeed. Well done Lisa!
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Di, thank you!
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There’s nothing like a cardinal against the bleak winter day. You’ve made this flow well. (K)
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K, thanks. It’s a challenging form. Would like to practice it more.
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I can feel the chill and the winter blues.
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Me too, Grace :( Thank you.
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When I see a cardinal with a snow background it takes me back to childhood. I don’t see how you do those…and sound good.
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Thanks, Max. I used to think of cardinals as a Christmas bird, so now it feels like Christmas all year long as they are always here :)
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I agree…I get a flashback of seeing them while school was out and us playing on the frozen creek and sliding down a mountain….yea we were stupid beyond words.
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I like it, the theme seems to be the birds in winter… somehow we cling to the the hope of feathers in winter.
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:)
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Beautifully written Li.
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Thank you. I’m ok with it, but I’d like to polish it some more at some point.
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You’re most welcome
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I enjoyed reading this beautifully crafted piece!
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Thank you, Vandana. Glad you enjoyed it.
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Name is Vandana Sharma (had to login via fb), my name in fb is written in “Hindi” Language.
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OK, thanks for the info.
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As befuddled as I was by the challenge, I could not figure out what a ‘mope’ was only that I knew I do mope from time to time. This bit clarified it for me: the tameness and slow-moving behavior of the Pine Grosbeak prompted locals in Newfoundland to affectionately call it a “mope.” Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Lisa!!
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Helen, the moped blanket is the depression of having no sunshine or warm weather. Things started getting cold and gloomy 3 months ago and there’s a good 2-3 months left of it. Thank you for reading and trying to sort out my exercise in moping :)
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“Season’s dark stencils”, “binary jail”: I love how every image plays off the other or form parallels! Beautifully rendered toddaid, Lisa.
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Dora, thank you very much <3
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You are very welcome, Lisa. ❤
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Love the opening line and it flowed so smoothly, Li. ❤️
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Punam so happy you enjoyed it <3
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