Tag: poetic forms

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Too Much Thinking, Or Just Enough …

carolyncordon

I am a writer, poet, blogger, editor, and I like to think about things, all kinds of things. My most current bit of thinking has been prompted by the seeming avalanche of fake news, false beliefs and so one, constantly to us, presented in the media. There’s hardly any way to escape the lies and mistruths.

Of course, if you do what I’ve done for most of today, and just switch off the media, and with only a limited and careful time on Social Media, you are able to let your own brain feed you with things to consider, without agendas of others.

My own agenda is that I wish to be a very good and considered thinker, in the Stoic mode, working to think my way to wisdom, and being the best and wisest person I can be. It isn’t easy, but then, whoever said doing good things is easy? Sometimes it is, of course, if you ignore the bad dross that is even easier (in the short term).

So today, I saw something on Social Media, that led to some thoughts, and to a little bit more (but different) Social Media … A bit more thinking, considering, and a little researching and voila, a new poem has come into the world. This poem is an interesting poetic style, and I will write a little more about it, after I put the new, my new, poem up. Here it is:

Offering Grace to Fools – an Abecedarian

Amazement in the face of

Bewildering ignorance?

Can you turn it over, and

Discern failure of suitable

Evidence, a holding to

Falsehood, and find inside

Good (a morsel), that with

Help, and wise direction,

It may become, with that

Judicious assistance, a

Kind of wisdom still. To

Learn, to listen, to cast

Mind to truth of a wise few,

Not the rowdy unwise many.

Opening up their mind to

Perception, wisdom, and so

Quitting the easy spoon-fed

‘Reality’ of TV, read widely

Study widely too, understand

Too, that living life widely,

Unashamedly questioning

Various alternative opinions

Will bring new thoughts –

Xpunge stale past untruths

You’re better off without them,

Zero in on truths staying firm!

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As you can probably see, with this poetic form, the Abecedarian, is a poem of 26 lines, each line beginning with a particular letter, as they are presented in the alphabet. I cheated with the X, as I also often do with another poetic form dealing with particular letters in a particular way, the Acrostic poem.

Cheating, or not, I still quite like this particular poem. I’d love to know if anyone else finds the thoughts there interesting too. It is a part of Stoic thought, that one should try to do the best for the world at large, and assist those who are victims of ignorance, and assisting them to learn better ways is a good and Stoic thing to do.

And if the actions do not injure me, or others, or the world, and there is not a thing I can do to change them, then I will step away, and not trouble my mind with needless worry and stress. I will do my best, when and how I can. Best for the many, not just for me.

So those were my thoughts today. I wrote this poem, as my house was getting its first professional cleaning, first since we moved here anyway. I know this woman who is now my cleaner did a good job, even though the evidence isn’t immediately obvious. I know what she cleaned, and I also know how dirty it was …

Cleaning is not my strongest ability, but I am glad for what I know have, and will endeavour to maintain the some level of cleanliness, in the kitchen, anyway. Having a clean area, and with an inspired idea to assist with one particular ongoing issue, I hope the kitchen will not need such work from the cleaner next time. There are other areas in need of work …

And so that is my poetic work for today, and my ongoing house-work for the future.

poetry

Add Another Book to the List!

carolyncordon

I now have another book to add to my list of books written, this most recent book is the smallest, but by no means the least. This means I now have eight books published! “Angles on Ankles” is a book of poetry, a chapbook, of around twenty poems, all focused on my most recent life challenge.

This challenge was the breaking of my right ankle, on AFL Grand Final day, a painful challenge for sure, but one which gave me plenty of resting times, which I used to write poems about the whole new experience.

There are poems that rhyme, others that don’t, there are Senryu poems, and there longer and more prosey kinds of poems, all about my right leg! And on the front cover, what’s in that photograph? Well it’s a photo of my broken right ankle, encased in a moon boot!

Before this challenge occurred, I’d barely ever even thought about moon boot, now I’m writing poetry about them. I love the way our life experiences can add brand new subjects to write about! I had the chance to try out some of the poems in this new collection, and I was happy with how it all went.

It was my first time for going out to attend a writing related event, rather than a medical appointment, since I broke my ankle, and it felt great! It was a poetry reading, a monthly one I almost always attend. I wasn’t able to go last month, but a dear friend offered to take me there, and bring me home again.

Thanks Colleen, you were awesome! Colleen and I have been friends for about twenty years, and I was thrilled to be attending a poetry reading, with her as the guest poet! Colleen came to my place to take me there, put away my walking frame, and getting it out for me as needed, and I was so glad to have here there.

The poetry she read was great too, her poetry collection is a terrific book of poetry, about the small but so important things in life. Her work is so true, and finely written, it’s like she is sharing her many wisdoms learned through her life. If you like poetry, I strongly recommend you get a copy of her book!

Back to my own collection, I included a page of Senryu in this collection – I tried them out at a poetry reading today, and they were very well accepted. Senryu is a Japanese form of poetry, very similar to Haiku, but is is about people rather that about Nature, as Haiku is.

I found Senryu was just the best poetic form to comment on a few aspects of my broken ankle …

poetry

A Chapbook Underway

carolyncordon

If you don’t know what a chapbook is, I’ll tell you – a chapbook is a small volume of poetry, usually somewhere around 15 to 40 pages, and in a size smaller than a common paperback size. They are a handy size to fit in a pocket, and usually sell for $5 or so, or are given away at times.

I’ve been thinking about putting together my first chapbook ever since I became aware of them, but until now, have never had a theme I could decide on, that seemed suitable. Until now. Now, I have a theme, I have a title, and at the moment I have 10 poems I am happy with, and hope to have at least one or two more poems before the end of the day.

I have written about this proposed chapbook on another of my blogs, the most relevant blog for this proposed book. Here is the link for that blog post. I plan to have this small book ready to send off for possible publication by the end of the month.

I know I can have a good book launch, in Gawler, where my writing group meets every week (usually), and where two of the group members (I’m one of them), hold a monthly poetry reading. All of this fun happens at the P/A Hotel on the main road in Gawler, and we have had many happy times with poetry there.

The idea of having a theme for a poetry collection always seems like a good idea to me, as it helps to hold poems together in some way, even if, as in my proposed collection, there are different poetic forms. Some of these poems are rhyming, others not. There is one page of Senryu (a Japanese poetic form, similar to Haiku). Some of the poems are serious, others not so serious.

The theme is very personal to me, as it relates to my most pressing thing for me right at the moment, the theme is my broken right ankle, which happened at the end of September. It happened on a date I will always be able to remember, it was the day of the AFL Grand Final, and it happened after the game was finished.

I suspect I should write a poem about that … Hmm, Yes, definitely, it will be a kind of wryly amusing poem, I suspect … I’m enjoying doing my wryly amusing thing, if feels right for me, and this kind of thing goes down well when reading poems to others, a bit funny, but not too much, something to connect with people without overwhelming them.

So who would have thought a broken ankle could lead to a new poetry book? Actually it isn’t that surprising. I’m a poet, I’m having to spend lots of time just sitting around at home as I heal, and my ankle and immobility are taking up a lot of my attention.

They say ‘write what you know’ and I sure know “Broken ankle”, now! I’d appreciate any thoughts about this project! It won’t be a morbid little book, I have a bit about having a Stoic attitude in there, and I’m aiming at wry rather than wretched …

 

poetry

A New Poetry Form – The Streetbeatina

carolyncordon

A new poetic discovery!
I found a new form of poetry the other day, and this is something that always makes me happy! I like words, and doing interesting things with them in poetic ways. So I read about it, and I jumped at the chance to give it a go myself. below is the explanation of the form, followed by my own attempts I’ve written so far. I suspect I will write more of this type of poem.

I feel my second attempt is a superior poem over my first try, but don’t feel either of them are as good as the ones written by the poet who came up with this interesting poetry form.

This website post came to my attention recently, and I was intrigued about its possibilities. The Streetbeatina consists of eight lines, each line having eight syllables. What makes the form both rather challenging and unique is that the first syllable of the first line is repeated as the second syllable in the second line, the third syllable of the third line and so on. Although it is not necessary, if the poet wishes, the repeated syllable can be emphasized by printing it either in italics, bold, or a different color. The repetition of the sound of the syllable at precise intervals provides the poem with a natural beat , and musicality.

If you wish to know more about this, from the man who created it, go here, where I found about it.

My own poetic Streetbeatina poems

Leftovers or Gourmet?

by Carolyn Cordon

Stew for dinner, yesterday’s meal

Can you eat it again remade?

Flavours drew from meat now gone, but

A hungry crew, lines up for more –

Meat tasteless as shoe leather, though

Spiced and revived, made new – chef’s friends

Garlic, chili, flavours true, real,

choices expand, cooking talents grew!

Short and ? Who knows …

by Carolyn Cordon

Yay, it’s time, good things are coming,

hooray, it’s now! Goodbye bad times,

go! I say. We’ve suffered enough

done all we may, each muscle aches

our brains fried, frayed, splattered, scattered …

What’ll come next, I say, wary ….

More bad shit, then I’m not staying!

That’s not a life, beaten, betrayed …

It’s Your Turn Now

If you like writing poetry, and you like challenges, why not have a go at this poetic style, who knows what you may be able to write!

And please, write a comment and tell me what you think about this form of poetry!

poetry

Month of Poetry Over

carolyncordon

The month of February was a wonderful month of poetry for me. I committed to writing a new  poem every day of the month of February. I didn’t actually write a new poem, as it turned out, but I did make up for it, by writing a new poem for the couple of days I missed. So the end result was that I did indeed write 28 poems, inspired by prompts given by a small group of poets.

These poets, organised a similar event in 2018, and I think they are planning the same thing for 2020. These lovely people were doing the same challenge, or as near as they were able to. It isn’t easy, to live a busy life, and do writing challenges like this at the same time, particularly if there are hungry children in the household, and it’s your task to keep them fed.

I’m not in that position, the only hungry creature I have to feed is our dog, and feeding Missy only involves giving her the correct amount of dog food, simple. Feeding children involves far more than that, that’s for sure. I suspect there is a poem in that, perhaps I’ve just given myself a poetry prompt?

Let me see …

Yes, not a clever poem here, but a new one, and written in a particular style, one I made up myself, quite a few years ago. I named this poetic style after myself, and called it the Cordonostic style of poetry. It’s one based on syllable counts, in this manner – first stanza, first line 3 syllable, second line 5 syllables, third line 7 syllables

Second stanza first line 7 syllables, second line 5 syllables, third line 3 syllables, third stanza first line 3 syllables, second line 5 syllables, third line 7 syllables, and so on for as long as you like. The poem I have written is not the most poetic example, but it will give you an idea on how it all goes.

 

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imag0579

Why I have time for poetry

 

 

Feed the dog

dog food, scoop it up,

into her bowl, put bowl down –

 

eat it up Missy, good girl!

She chomps it all up

just like that!

 

Now, outside,

toilet break, back in –

never-ending tasks, daily.

 

She really is a good girl,

our dear Missy dog,

ageing now

 

getting grey,

older, and slower

but she’s still our lovely dog –

 

elegant, funny, hunter

a friend for us all –

canine pal.

 

Feeding kids,

and adults though, takes

more time. Something different

 

needed for evening meal

each day of the week.

Mother’s job

 

as a rule

even nowadays,

even if you’re a poet …