(213) My Babushka, My Russian Doll!

Poem by: Archduke

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Journal 48
A Collection of New Alliterative Verse
by ArchDuke Kenneth Khanh Du

“My reflection upon the current climate which send heat waves simmering throughout time.”

New Alliterative Verse has five set parameters defined by me:
1. A couplet line poem with 20 lines or less
2. Each line contained no more than eight syllables
3. Each line has alliteration of either consonant or vowel
4. The alliteration must be tied to the next line (hence couplet)
5. Rhymed or unrhymed

Alliterative Verse as a form was adopted by me from the skalds of Norway. Skalds were the Viking's poet-musicians and their poetic form began somewhere in the 9th Century. The original form(s) with many however remain unstructured and often confusing /or ambiguous.

(213) My Babushka, My Russian Doll!

There are seven heavens of dolls.

First mold in 1892.

These matryoshkas represent

Handmade folk art, the motherland.

The largest protector engulfs

Her little ones inside wood tough

Creation of beauty! Nesting

Children of her former self rings

In the celebration of life!

These souvenirs keep man and wife

Balance in one complete unit.

Empty and hollow can’t persist!

They must be filled with care and love.

Kokeshi serve children of doves.

All blushed cheek dolls are not the same!

Some dolls rosy red from tease games.

Some dolls red face in pure anger.

Some dolls clown for dear joy stranger!

These stacked dolls paint in psychic smiles.

They wood model our inner child.

1/24/21 by ArchDuke Kenneth Khanh Du

Submitted: January 25, 2021

Romance new-alliterative-verse the-father-of-modern-poetry archduke-kenneth-khanh-du

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Criss Sole

I used to have one of those :) Brought a smile to me as i read this. Very lovely.

Mon, January 25th, 2021 10:56am

RomanBoukreev

I still have some of these. We accustomed to call these dolls "matryoshka", but I don't know what Kokeshi is. It sounds like an Asian or Japan word for me.

Mon, January 25th, 2021 7:46pm

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Hi RomanBoukreev: You are absolutely right! Kokeshi is a Japanese word and represents wooden dolls produced in the shape of a child. They are tall and slender rather than round, from which Anatoly Mamontov based the first original matryoshkas on in 1892. As matryoshkas represent mother, Kokeshi depicts child forms. Though the first nesting boxes were made in China in 1,000 A.D. [Based on Macalester College's Russian Studies Dept research, Saint Paul, MN; blog from nestingdolls.co ; and Wikipedia]