New Zealand blogger and writer, Ineke, from I scrap 2 and blogger, Amanda, from Something to Ponder About in Australia are jointly hosting the A and I Poetry Challenge in English and Afrikaans, in the WordPress community.
October prompt: Write a poem to, or about, your future self. How might you see yourself, or your life, in ten years time?

Since I am already fairly advanced in years, I sometimes ponder what my life will be like in another decade or two. One thing that I am very sure of is that I would like to retain my sense of humour and my love of life. Without these qualities, life would be very boring indeed.
For my poetic discussion with my future self, I decided to try my hand at an Etheree. This poetry form was developed by a lady poet named Etheree Taylor Armstrong from Arkansas, USA.
The Etheree consists of 10 lines with syllables graduating from one to ten: the first line is one word only, the second line two words, and so on, until you get to the last line which has 10 syllables. The lines are Unrhymed and have no Meter.
One can get very creative with an Etheree, for instance reversing the syllable order, starting with ten words in the first line and ending with a monosyllable. I wrote more than one verse, starting with the 1/10 syllable count in Afrikaans and reversing the Etheree in the second verse to the 10/1 syllable count in the second verse for my English translation.
By using centre alignment for my lines, I attained a neat diamond form, but this poem, of course, does not qualify as a diamante poem (diamante is a seven-line diamond-shaped poem that follows a specific pattern wherein each line a different part of speech is used).
If I chose to do so, I could have started with the reversed Etheree which would have resulted in an hourglass form.
Fun, isn’t it? I hope you enjoy the poem.
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Poetry Challenge – October Prompt
Poetry Challenge – October Prompt
lekkervurig
Jy het ons vorentoe tweetalig vasgevat. Dis briljant.💐💐💐💐
HesterLeyNel
Dankie maatjie 😄
lekkervurig
🤗
Kameel
Dis sowaar briljant….soos my man altyd sê “Nie eers ek sou dit kon doen nie.”
HesterLeyNel
Hahaha, inderdaad ‘n kompliment, dankie 🤣
Abrie Joubert
Ek kan my inderdaad nie indink dat die Hester van Helsdingen wat ek ken ooit oud sal act nie.
HesterLeyNel
Nee, ek sal maar disgracefully oud word 😃 dankie vir die inloer Abrie.
travel460
Nee genade Hester, nou het ek nie meer woorde nie. Dis so goed gedoen!!!
HesterLeyNel
Dankie Unatjie 😊
sonell
Sjoe dit is Fantasties geskryf!
HesterLeyNel
Dankie Sonell 😊
Amanda
Oh I do like it, Hester. There is a feeling of overall vibrancy, zest for life and hopefulness emanating from the poem. The diamond shape adds to the visual appeal and is particularly suited to our bilingual poetry challenge.
Thanks so much for contributing.
HesterLeyNel
Thank you Amanda, I am glad you like it 😊
scrapydo2.wordpress.com
Jou ou doring. As dit nie vir jou was noe sou my belangstelling lankal opgedroog het om te probeer dig. Dis nou briljant. It flows so easily from Afrikaans into English. I’m also going to try this the coming weekend(Long weekend here). Dankie vir jou bydrae ek waardeer dit baie.
HesterLeyNel
Dankie Ineke, ek was ‘n bietjie benoud toe ek met hierdie uitdaging van jou en Amanda begin het, want gedigte was vir my ‘n vreemde media om in te skryf. Ek het nooit geweet ek gaan dit so baie geniet nie.
scrapydo2.wordpress.com
Dit wys jou ook dat sodra mens meer weet van n onderwerp dit makliker is om iets te probeer. Dis ook makliker om nie te probeer as om dit n kans te gee.
HesterLeyNel
Dis waar.
scrapydo2.wordpress.com
Ek dink dat om n nuwe uitdaging aan te pak maak die lewe die moeite werd. Hoe sal jy weet of jou iets kan doen of geniet as jy nie n proeseltjie proe nie.
HesterLeyNel
Dis waar Ineke. Ons het so pas daaroor gepraat n.a.v. Christa se blog (volg jy haar? – lees gerus hier) https://christainthailand.wordpress.com/2018/10/17/hier-is-drake-bly-weg/
scrapydo2.wordpress.com
Ek het gou gaan lees. Baie interessant. Mens is tog maar altyd uit om avonture te ondervind. Sommer by Christa ingeboek ook. Dankie vir die aanbeveling.
HesterLeyNel
My plesier. Sy skryf regtig baie interessante artikels.
scrapydo2.wordpress.com
Lyk so! Selfs haar kommentare is ook interessant.
robbiesinspiration
This is so clever, Hester. Well done.
HesterLeyNel
Thank you Robbie. One can learn wonderful things on google 😄
seegogga
Uistekend Hester! Ek glo jy sal beslis altyd huppel en spring
HesterLeyNel
Dankie, ek hoop so, want anders gaan die lewe darem baie vervelig word.