Measuring Absence

How do you measure the weight of absence;

the void at the gate, in ambit, to wait

to become an interval or sequence,

a hitch in the air to anticipate,

to calculate the mass of an absence

….

(What comes next? Can you fill the absence of following verses?)

I have recently joined in with several great poems challenges on other bloggers’ sites, so I thought I’d reach out and invite poets, philosophers, and wordsmiths to join in with one myself.

The idea is for everyone who wants to, to contribute a 3 to 8 line verse and create something amazing together. We’ll create a collective/collaborative poem from our individual voices. So, here are the guidelines:

• one verse per person only please, of between 3 and 8 lines each. This can work as a separate poem (or not) but will also be added to the collectively written one.
• the first line must include the phrase ‘the weight of absence’ somewhere in it
• the last word must be ‘absence’
• You might choose to put the weight of absence at the beginning, in the middle or at end of the first line. You could choose to repeat the whole phrase at the end or just the word ‘absence’. This would work with traditional forms or free-form poems.
• the rhyme scheme can be anything or nothing
• use as many or few syllables as you like per line (within reason, obviously)
• be true to your own voice while listening to other voices
• post your verse in the comment section, I’ll add it to the main text later with a link to your blog or gravatar
• avoid any hate speech

I’ll start (please note lines to be included in each verse are in bold)

Measuring Absence

How do you measure the weight of absence;

the void at the gate, in ambit, to wait

to become an interval or sequence,

a hitch in the air to anticipate,

to calculate the mass of an absence 

….