Category: poetic forms

inspiration, poetic forms, poetry, writing exercise, writing prompts

A Sonnet Response

carolyncordon

I like writing prompts, a lot. So when I saw this challenge, ‘EIF Poetry Challenge’ I gave it a good look. Sonnets are lovely. With a sonnet, you know what you’ve taken on. There will be only 14 lines, with a set number of ‘beats’ in set places, and there will be a rhyming scheme of a particular kind (one of two, actually, but not terribly different from each other.

So, the call for a sonnet, how could I resist? The person calling for sonnets is someone I know, as much as one ‘knows’ people online. She had got on board with something I’m working on, and so adding all of this together, of course I’d get a sonnet into the action.

When I got myself ready for this EIF Poetry Challenge, I’d intended looking into a sonnet I might already have, but the keyboard called to me, and changed my mind. It was time to write a new sonnet. And so, in accordance with instructions, here is my sonnet.

Ideas!

I hadn’t necessarily meant to write a poem about Covid-19, but that’s the main thing these days, isn’t it? And that’s the way it went, but with a possibly different slant on it, and bringing another ‘big thing’ into the action. A thing that may or may not be connected.

This is my new sonnet:

No Decent Reason …
What on Earth is the reason, for this disease?
A rhetorical question, but is there a ready answer?
Is it response for doing whatever we please?
Have we become Nature’s deadliest cancer?

We’re killing things with barely any restraint –
With no regard for damage that we’ve caused,
Murdering creatures – no avenue for complaint
Wanting things right now. If only we’d paused …

Covid-19 a symptom of devastations,
Inflicted on habitats, trees cut down.
Some put all the blame on developing nations,
But the destroyer here is the big end of town …

How do you explain to a little kid,
The selfish reasons for what us oldies did …

covid 19, poetic forms, poetry

Some Short Poetry Forms

carolyncordon

One short form of poetry we all know is the Limerick. Who amongst us haven’t had a giggle at a rather risque limerick at some stage in our lives? Being a bit naughty, or worse, isn’t a necessity for the poetry form, it isn’t one of the poetic ‘rules’ for a limerick. What makes a poem a limerick is the rhyme, and the number of stresses, or ‘beats’ in each line, and the number of lines.

In a Limerick, the first, second, and fifth lines all rhyme and have three ‘beats’ in each line, and the third and fourth lines both rhyme and have two ‘beats’. If that sounds a bit confusing, here is a limerick I penned recently, on the theme of Covid-19, which seems to have taken up most of my attention, and much of this blogsite.

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This awful Covid virus

Sent here by Nature to try us –

It may cause some shrugs,

But I want my hugs!

It’s a blessing for those with shyness.

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The Japanese poetry forms, Haiku and the similar Senryu don’t rely on rhymes, they are more focused on line lengths. These forms are the same, except for subject matter. In the traditional Japanese format, they are both of 5, 7, and 5 syllables in the three lines that make up the poem. In more contemporary and wes, they may be shorter than that, but they are never a lengthy poem, and they focus on a moment, and the reading of the poem is done within a single breath, is one way I’ve seen it described.

The Haiku tends to be Nature focused, while the Senryu more focused on people, and it is more likely to show humour. There are many rules about these Japanese forms, too many for this blog post, but this site has a good explanation on what Haiku is, to help you to write your own. As I said above, Senryu has the same rules regarding form but not subject matter.

Nature in my front yard

Haiku can be difficult to get just right, and so can Senryu, this is one of my more successful Senryu, I feel:

My mind wanders –

watching birds & people 

also wandering …

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So they were two of my favourite short forms of poetry, if you like them, why not leave a message and let me know!

poetic forms, writing exercise

Scaled Back, Life & Poems

carolyncordon

Yes, I currently have a very much scaled back life at the moment. I recently broke my right ankle, and am in recovery mode, having been told by the surgeon who operated on my ankle, to stick to zero weight bearing. This means I currently am spending most of my time resting my ankle, with it up high, to reduce swelling, and increase healing (I hope).

I could have been using this scaled back time to work on a larger writing project, but my brain and inclination are not heading in that direction, I’m feeling much more interested in poetry right now, so that’s where my writing is going. That and blog posts, such as this one. Oh, and some thoughts about Stoicism and how it can apply to life situations.

That is being kept to myself at the moment, with notes on my laptop that are definitely not for publication as they are, and not for quite some time later, anyway. They may appear in part in a much longer non-fiction tome, sometime.

Anyway, scaled back poetry interests me – I love Haiku and Senryu, the Tanka as well, and I have recently found (online), a scaled back version of writing sonnets. I love sonnets, a mere fourteen lines, in particular rhyming schemes, and beautiful thoughts can be expressed. This new (to me) form though has only one syllable per line, though if maintains the sonnets 14 line needs, as well as the rhyming scheme.

I wrote more about this on a previous blog post, here, If you wish to look more closely into this sonnet form, called the Monosyllabic Sonnet, visit the blog post. I write about sonnets in general and this form in particular, with an example.

I wrote a new piece of text today, based on something in this room, something that happens often in this room, the one I have been spending so much time in, as I work on recovering from my accidental fall and consequent broken bones. I have presented the words I wrote, again in a one word and syllable per line, and I think it looks and reads quite well. I could be delusional, who knows, and at the moment, amusing myself is my main desire …

So here it is, an new thing that may or may not be a poem, which I will call “My Obs”. The term “obs” loomed large in my life when I was in three different hospitals recently, with my obs being taken by nurses often during both the day, and through the night too. Their role is to make sure I’m OK, taking my pulse, heart rate, temperature, and oxygen levels (or I think that’s what they were doing).

Anyway, as a writer and poet, my observations are my ever ready sources of writing material, so I’d be a fool not to use them! and here is today’s “My Obs” poem, my first ever, THE first ever:

To my dog, Missy

Dear

friend,

your 

sleep

sounds

don’t 

seem

too

bad

but 

please,

if 

you 

must 

snore,

shh

keep

it

down

low,

please?

Good

girl.

 

 

^-^

\
o