Iambic Ladies
14 sonnets about 14 ladies whose names happen to be iambic, an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.
Accompanied by AI generated pictures of each lady.
01-Colette
Colette arrives and tells me what she wants
Like heavy rain upon a metal roof
Her eyes are dark and still like raven’s haunts
Her look is one of arrogance, aloof
Colette believes she’s better than the song
Of simple sirens calling men to drown
She knows the place where all my words belong
And so she wears a haunting fitted gown
Her beauty is as dark as ebony
The forests of Ceylon invite her form
A place where foolish men should never be
A place where darkened clouds become a storm
Colette does what Colette will do with me
Like hold my heart and never set it free.
02-Corrine
Corrine becomes a mist when nights are short
Like summer solstice, dancing where she goes
Her piercing eyes are like a sharp retort
I often wonder what her spirit knows
But I would never ask her to explain
The reasons for the words and looks she’ll choose
When floating like a mist of summer rain
Without the comforts other women use
What comforts her is still a mystery
Perhaps she doesn’t need the soft or warm
She holds her thoughts with quiet dignity
But speaks her mind like thunder in a storm
Regardless of it all, she lets me in
To learn the subtle secrets of Corrine
03-Elaine
Elaine is simply classic, simply bright
Like beauty that must be upon display
I’d paint her, if I could, with shades of white
But that dichotomy might fade away
I’ve never seen her fade, she simply waits
For you to notice every line and curve
She knows the form each line and curve creates
She knows her form is more than you deserve
She isn’t coy; it isn’t her intent
Alluring is just how she will appear
At unexpected times, like when she went
To places that I thought might trigger fear
Elaine is not afraid to be Elaine
She dwells beyond all thoughts of loss or gain.
04-Marie
Marie is a reflection in a pool
Although I know her touch is more than real
When I’m too warm, her touch is nice and cool
Like when I’m sick, her touch is quick to heal
Her healing touch can fix a broken heart
A lady and a doctor of amor
Much more than just an artist with her art
She seems to hold the key to every door
No door is locked for long when she will go
To find the things she needs or simply wants
Including things unseen that she would know
On streets that her reflected beauty haunts
At times I sense the wraith of sweet Marie
And know she knows that what will be will be.
05-Cosette
Cosette can walk through fields where flowers grow
Without becoming lost in reverie
She’s always in the now, but she can go
To any place or time she wants to be
Like water in a river, she moves on
Like water in a lake, she may be deep
Like sunlight in the shades of dusk or dawn
The rainbow of her soul, you’ll want to keep
But she belongs to no one, like the sun
Her light and warmth are gifts she freely shares
The way the air is breathed by everyone
The way a field of flowers shows it cares
Each flower, like Cosette, will grace their field
And like Cosette their beauty is revealed.
06-Helene
Helene is not as simple as you think
And yet she’s not complexity at all
Perhaps she’s just confusion that will sink
Perhaps she’s innocence before the fall
Her will is like a subtle slant verse rhyme
It calls you in to memorize her form
But once you're there you find you’re out of time
And she becomes a deviated norm
Perhaps I met her when she had intent
And now she simply drifts from place to place
I don’t recall how many nights I spent
Just crying while wrapped up in her embrace
I told Helene how much she would be missed
I still remember all the times we kissed.
07-Bernice
Bernice believes it’s easy to be good
And yet she knows she isn’t in her mind
She leaves it on the table in her shack
I’ve seen the good she often left behind
She also says it’s easy to be bad
I’d disagree; I know how much it hurt
When we became the times we wished we had
And everything we said was mean or curt
But even in the worst of times we sang
A song of love, a song of fervent hope
She said she loved the music that I brang
She said it cleared her mind and helped her cope
When sweet Bernice finds goodness, all is well
It seems to be the good she wants to tell.
08-Danielle
Danielle enjoys the nights that fit her mood
And yet she isn’t moody in the least
She needn’t be invited to intrude
Intrusion is the dance before the feast
And oh that girl can dance the night away
It’s like she is the singer and the song
She takes you there and makes you want to stay
She seems to know just where her feet belong
The world is just a dancefloor in her eyes
And you can take her anywhere to dance
She’ll spin around and take you by surprise
But inly if she thinks she has a chance
A chance to bring you happiness as well
That’s just the way it goes with sweet Danielle.
09-Lucille
Lucille was once the answer to a prayer
She doesn’t think she was, but that’s okay
What isn’t broken doesn’t need repair
She isn’t broken; that’s all I will say
Her thoughts are often reveries of joy
And joy to her is more than just an art
Its life that all the living must employ
To prove that one is whole and has a heart
Her heart is where she treasures joy and love
I let her help me learn the joy she taught
She showed me how my joy could be above
Then said that I should leave it free, un-caught
An answer to a joyful prayer, Lucille
Too late I found the joy she would reveal.
10-Inez
Inez allows perceptions to evolve
Whatever you perceive is fine by her
I think that she’s a puzzle I can’t solve
She makes me wonder what perceptions were
Before I found her dancing in the street
Before she told me lies that were the truth
The lies she shares with me are quite discrete
They make me recollect the lies of youth
But when she turns, her volta finds its verse
The way chiasmus finishes, complete
Before my couplets go from bad to worse
She brings me dark perceptions when we meet
I often find Inez in lonely time
And find that her perceptions are sublime.
11-Joleen
Joleen is there to help me find the way
On paths that lead through places I must go
She seems to speak the words I cannot say
Although they’re words I like to think I know
I hear the sound of beauty in her voice
I see the form of beauty in her stride
I always know with her I have a choice
I know with her that beauty cannot hide
And yet, to know her now is not the same
As when I knew her presence in the past
She seems to know that life is not a gane
I wonder if she knows that life can last
It seems to last forever and a day
And thoughts of Joleen always seem to stay.
12-Lizette
Lizette prefers Elizabeth at times
But this is not the time for formal names
I love it when she speaks to me in rhymes
I love it when she plays her little games
Like begging me to keep her safe and warm
Or telling me to come back when she’s cold
I’ve seen her take a pure majestic form
She tells me things I wish could be untold
Like when she says her heart is just a cage
That keeps her love locked up from fools like me
Or how to read what seems an empty page
Within her book of joy or misery
Lizette defies most metaphors, and yet
Poetically I long for sweet Lizette.
13-Pauline
Pauline is more than meets the casual eye
She walks above the shadows no one sees
She nods but never stops a passerby
Polite, but not obsessive, if you please
She told me once that poetry was fine
She said that what I write is not half bad
But she prefers a full carafe of wine
“It's better than most poetry I've had”
I love to hear her happy little sighs
While walking where she thinks she can't be heard
I sometimes hear her practicing white lies
To share with all the other little birds
At times she speaks as if she was the Queen
Of course you are, your highness, dear Pauline.
14-Cherise
Cherise is not the same as yesterday
When I remember how she sold remorse
It scared more than I could ever say
Go ask her now. Of course she’ll say “of course”
With no remorse to sell, she turns to go
To find a way to keep what might be lost
She seems to bear a secret all men know
She knows the price sweet sophistry will cost
And so she’ll sell you nothing but a kiss
Then walk away and laugh until she cries
I never thought that she would come to this
The change you see is in her lovely eyes
Cherise has eyes that beckon sadness near
I wonder if she’ll have them still next year.