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JM Negi is the Poet of the Week for the W3 Weekly Poetry Prompt #92. He challenges us to write a Puente poem. Please see his guidelines below.

JM’s prompt guidelines
Poetic form (required): Puente;
Tone (required): Either the 1st or the 3rd stanza should have a happy tone, and the other should have a sad tone;
For the 2nd stanza (suggested): Use a quote, idiom, phrase, etc.
Theme (required): Love

Puente?
The puente form has three stanzas with the first and third having an equal number of lines and the middle stanza having only one line which acts as a bridge (puente) between the first and third stanza.

The first and third stanzas convey a related but different element or feeling, as though they were two adjacent territories. The number of lines in the first and third stanzas is the writer’s choice as is the choice of whether to write it in free verse or rhyme.

The centre line is delineated by a tilde (~) and has ‘double duty’. It functions as the ending for the last line of the first stanza AND as the beginning for the first line of the third stanza. It shares ownership with these two lines and consequently bridges the first and third stanzas.

Closing Time

We chase across the dunes,
Along white sands
The sea is blue in summer’s sun,
We laugh and play,
And have some fun,
she’s my only one,
who spins me around,
and holds my hands.
We paddle in the surf and gentle swell,
Splashing each other, in the sea,
And when I fell, 
My mother saved me.
There is no other like her,
I haven’t another,
she’s my only one,
My mother,
My forever friend,
My wishing well.
I didn’t want the day to end.
We picked a shell up on the sand,
the clam slammed shut,
We went back to the beach hut,
changed and locked the door.

~It was closing time~

The pale green walls 
and stark bright lights
White, clinical, and clean,
There were no words that I could say, 
or mean.
I even tried to pray,
But,
No one listened, 
God wasn’t there,
(Or if he was, he did not care.)
Days and nights were all the same,
Watching, waiting.
A waiting game.
Mum asked to see outside.
I wheeled her down five flights to take her to the door,
The draft was chill in the entrance, the evening light was poor.
I bought a potted plant from the hospital florist.
Some petals fell,
They fell to the floor.
The plant was past its best,
Mum’s feeble hands clasped the bouquet to her breast,
to smell the blooms,
They were yellow chrysanthemums.
~

Lesley Scoble, February 2023

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I’ve written an appendage for my Puente poem. Because the form demands just two stanzas of equal length with the one-liner bridge in between, I couldn’t include it in my Puente. Here it is in its own right as a solitary verse.

At our local the Carpenters Arms
They rang the closing bell,
Time, ladies and gentlemen, please!
With each pull of the rope,
An urgent chime told us it was closing time.
Time! the barman cries,
My mother dies at five to eleven.
If there’s a heaven,
that’s where she went.
~

NOTES
The Carpenters Arms
In Britain, there is a closing time when the pub rings a bell to tell everyone it’s time to go. Five minutes before this, there is a bell to announce the last orders. There was always a scramble to get to the bar, order the drinks and down it in the allowed drinking up time, by ten past eleven. In reality, my mother passed away at Last Orders five minutes before Closing Time.

The Carpenters Arms is a pub in Hammersmith, West London, where my family and friends frequented for fun camaraderie and merriment. Cheers!

Quote for the bridge
I chose to quote Leonard Cohen, poet, songwriter, composer, genius, for the bridge (aka puente). I quote the song Closing Time. Please enjoy listening and watching it on YouTube.

Puente 
James Rasmusson created the Puente poetry form, and Puente is the Spanish word for bridge. Olé

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Leonard Cohen’s Closing Time

CREDITS
My thanks to JM Negi, the brilliant Poet of the Week for the Puente Poetry challenge. (I’ve only written one Puente poem before, Bird on the Wire (another Leonard Cohen quote!) You may read it here)

My thanks as always to the stoic David, The Skeptics Kaddish , for the inspirational and motivating W3 Weekly Poetry Prompt #92.

Picture credit
Oil painting: the image shows a section of the painting titled Chrysanthemums by the talented English artist, James Bland, that we hang on our wall at home.

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Lesley lives in the City of London Square Mile. An artist, actor and sculptor (her first ceramic sculpture won the V&A inspired by… Award). Scenic artist & book illustrator, playwright (her musical play, Rapscallion performed in inner city schools and theatre school); TV dancer; Animator and illustrator for TV production. Set up Pinecone Studios Ltd and IIMSI Ltd drama and filmmaking workshops in London – producing award-winning films made by children.