‘Hair! Hair!’ said the head and held a dove to signal peace!

There is no myth that I have encountered anywhere or any time about doves flying in to rescue balding heads but yes, hair has certainly always been a major obsession with most of humanity. The title of this article is a pun and the dove held high is a symbol of hair care that civilization now has complete access to!

Hair is one part of the body that has consistently been the source of inspiration for poets and writers… well, not that punsters and satirists were kept at bay. Hair has entered, and there has been nothing unobtrusive about it, into almost every creative venture that humanity ever devised. From painting to graffiti, from photography to films, from the humble cross-stitch to the complex works of some sculptor, from essays to novels… and most important, it has simply dominated lyrics, songs, and poetry in all their forms!

No wonder then that in ‘City of Angels’, Nicolas Cage says: “I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss from her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it.”

There is an ethereal charm, an undying attraction in ‘hair’ that pulls in the best combos of words to concoct some of the most living sentences. One such is by Khalil Gibran: “And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” These are words from everyday use that you, me, and everyone else is aware of… and yet, only a few are able to bring them in a combination that becomes immortal. These lines of James Taylor are no less:

“Will you love me in December as you do in May,
Will you love me in the good old fashioned way?
When my hair has all turned gray,
Will you kiss me then and say,
That you love me in December as you do in May?”

Hair is the fulcrum. Hair is the source. Hair is the aim. Hair is the point that everyone wishes to make. Hair is the pathway to win hearts. Hair is here to win you friends. Hair is there to make you happy. Hair from the past is full of memories. Hair now is what obsession is all about. Hair in the future… is what makes you hold the ‘dove’ above your head!

Why should I write about ‘hair’?

I am a man. I don’t have hair that flows like a song meandering in the woods! There is no one who is ever going to ask me to pose for promoting a hair-stylist. But there is one thing only I can do… I can see the lovely hair all around. And I mean really see them – as a poet or an artist sees. And this is exactly what I intend doing… write about hair in a few chosen forms of poetry… so you’ll be reading about hair in a limerick as well as in a cinquain, so to say. There will be fear somewhere and a healthy dose of unadulterated joy elsewhere. There will be a lesson here and some pretensions there. A mix that I’m sure will win me hearts! Poetry is generally about love… and so is care of hair. Obviously, if you love your hair, it will love you back – and what better way to convey this feeling than by wooing it into shape by reciting poetry that your hair will love! These poems are written with a special aim to capture the shades, pitches, dipthongs, and nuances of hair and hair care.

So here we go…

ABC poem

(This poem has 5 lines hell bent on creating a mood, picture, or feeling. The first word of each line is in alphabetical order from the first word with lines 1 through 4 made up of words, phrases or clauses – and line 5 is one sentence, beginning with any letter. I have added a rhyme scheme and followed the 8-syllables per line sequence for the sake of rhythm.)

Hair on the modern mind! 

Her urban outlook helped her find
Inspiration all around her
Jostling with them, she discovered
Kindled know-how that made her spur

Towards coiffured hair she didn’t mind! 

Ballad

A poem, a story similar to a folk tale or legend, a repeated refrain… is all that a ballad needs!)

Rapunzel and her Eton Crop 

Searching for her prince she came
And her stylist played a game! 

From the pages of her tale
Out came Rapunzel one fine day
She was, she thought, again in love
With some reader from today! 

Searching for her prince she came
And her stylist played a game! 

As she walked the streets today
Searching for her reader fair
Some boisterous boys tugged at her hair
And took her to their shady lair. 

Searching for her prince she came
And her stylist played a game! 

Locked floors above she looked below
And sighted her reader look for her
She waved, he waved and took the lift
To reach her floor to hold her hand. 

Searching for her prince she came
And her stylist played a game! 

A stylist of hair this reader was
And he gave her an Eton Crop
With her long hair he went away
Leaving her with a short mop! 

Searching for her prince she came
And her stylist played a game! 

So now Rapunzel roams the streets
No here, no there, no hair, it seems
Cannot go back, be locked again
For now she has no prince to gain! 

Searching for her prince she came
And her stylist played a game! 

Cinquain

(A cinquain has five lines. Line 1 has one word which is also the title, line 2 has two words to describe the title, line 3 has three words that tell the action, and line 4 has four words that express the feeling. Line 5 is one word that recalls the title.)

Tresses
Flowing, thick
Getting all attention
Time fuses with memory
Locks. 

Couplet

(A couplet, as we all know, has rhyming stanzas each made up of two lines. A couplet generally completes a thought. Shakespearean sonnets usually end in a couplet.)

The story of hair power! 

Did her gait make her a boss?
No. She ruled with her hair en brosse! 

Did her voice help her mingle?
No. T’was her hair as a shingle! 

Did her eyes win her a poll?
No. The answer is in her French roll! 

Why did men become her knave?
Not her dresses. T’was her marcel wave! 

These are mysteries no longer dear
For, it is hair for victory! Clear? 

Epigram

(Ben Jonson and John Donne cultivated the epigram in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This form emerges as a very short, satirical and witty poem generally written as a brief couplet or quatrain.)

A barber and management jargon 

I have the ‘cutting edge’, he claimed
His salon, hair-lariously, he had named! 

Epitaph

(A commemorative inscription on a tomb/mortuary monument praising a deceased person is an epitaph.)

An epitaph to past glories 

From back-combed
To waves and curls
My hair now rests
Cut short, upright! 

Free verse (also vers libre)

(Rhymes don’t matter. Metrical pattern isn’t essential. Just lines that must remain faithful to the emotion called poetry! This is free verse.)

Escape by a hair’s breadth

Her frizette
Lazily moved with the wind
Waving at me, it seemed
And I could sense
A distinct movement within
Making me take the first step
With great expectations
When I discovered that
It was the wind
And not instinct
That was distinctly
Directing the hair on me.
I stopped to watch
Her husband rush
To take her in his arms. 

(Well, I first wanted to title this poem: losing her by a whisker… but decided against it!)

Haiku

(Japanese form of poetry. Has three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables. Haiku reflects on some aspect of nature.)

Quibbling over nothing 

The Arctic sea dies
The Everest too crumbles
Our hair-splitting goes on.

Idyll, or Idyl

(An Idyll is either a short poem about ‘a peaceful, idealized country scene’, or a long poem telling the story of heroes from the past.)

An idyll for hair 

Armed with her books she went ahead
Planned a trip to the countryside
She saw the frills and ruffs on napes
And leaves with their woolly hair!
Small stems with crinite all over
Others with lanky, shaggy cover
She gently rumpled nature’s hair
And wondered what they did for care.
Hair everywhere though some did like
A bit of fashion with bristling spike!
No bandeau and no Alice-band
And yet they always looked so grand! 

Limerick

(Sometimes bawdy, but generally humorous poem with five anapaestic lines. Lines 1, 2, and 5 of a Limerick have 7 to 10 syllables and rhyme with one another. The remaining lines 3 and 4 have 5 to 7 syllables and also rhyme with each other.)

Crimps and chimps 

There was a young woman with crimps
Who thought she could do with just chimps
And because the men
Found her bad omen
They let her crimps be chewed by chimps! 

Bangs and dangs 

There was a young woman with bangs
Who thought peckers were called dangs
Well, men did not mind
As they knew they’d find
Her just as good even with their dangs! 

Lyric

(Thoughts and feelings make up a lyric. It could be a sonnet or an ode or even a poem that we generally call a song.)

A woman’s innermost wish 

Spiky sweeps of hair
Fringes and bangs
Are all for the female gangs!
Shingles and crops
Or pleats and rolls
Can be any female’s goals!
Bobs and crimps
Or bouffes and buns
Give me the power that stuns!
I love my hair
I love to care
I want the men to stand and stare! 

Name Poem

(Also called the acrostic, a name poem tells about the word. We use the letters of a word we want to highlight for the first letter of each line.)

Love your hair

Let the world go on and on
On the rules for hair
Vanity, for sure, will con
Eerily, the best kept hair! 

Youthfulness of the mind
Opens up new ways
Usually such people find
Robust temper pays! 

Habits help you everywhere
Angling goodness on its way
Infuse concern, some hair care
Redefine your pretty sway! 

Quatrain

(This is simply a stanza or poem of four lines where lines 2 and 4 must rhyme.

Lines 1 and 3 may or may not rhyme. Additionally, rhyming lines should have a similar number of syllables.)

Don’t let your hair see ‘one plus one’ 

One plus one was everywhere
As I went inside a mall
FREE was written here and there
On every floor, every wall! 

I noticed then a strand of hair
Forlorn and lonely on a shelf
I fall alone and not in pair
It seemed to say, lying on the shelf. 

Good for me and good for all
That paired are not these hairy falls
Hurriedly I quit the mall
Why let my hair go read the walls? 

Senryu

(This is a short Japanese poem similar to a haiku in structure but includes humans instead of nature, though often in a humorous or satiric way.)

Need is mutual 

Forests need people?
Or people need forests? Hair
Needs care or they fall. 

Terza rima

(Poem with 10 or 11 syllable lines in three line tercets. Dante invented this form and it has been used by many English poets including Chaucer, Milton, Shelley, and Auden.)

Persistence pays 

Writing hair-raising tales with lines so long
Is surely not for the faint-hearted
For, it is easy to falter in song 

When the lines are so long. They simply go
On and on and on until syllables
Wither and fall one by one but the show 

Must go on. More syllables are then found
Until the poem with its thoughts is done.
Unfinished are like bald pates run aground. 

What next?

You must be wondering what I am getting at… is it only poets who have the right to go on and woo hair and keep them in sprightly humour? The point of this article is to give you enough thinking nodes so far as loving your hair is concerned. Everyone doesn’t have similar sensibilities and, therefore, not all may understand the underlying message if it is in the bawdy format of a limerick, for instance. The romantic at heart may obviously like to read out the lyric to their hair to keep insurgent hairy behaviour away, so to say. This small compendium of hair-related poetry in fifteen different forms is my way of saying that if you love your hair it is surely going to love you back!

This article is written as a “Love your Hair and it loves you back” contest entry on indiblogger. Click here if you want to know more about what the new Dove Nourishing Oil Care Range means…

 

Arvind Passey
10 November 2011