User Poetry

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by RWood

I bought some used books back in college until one of them turned out to be highlighted and marked by an idiot. I felt no linkage.

well, not all readers can be wise old sages... alas...

[Taylor514ce]

Do you remember
when we said goodbye outside
behind your house?
Afterwards, we spent two hours
trying to find these earrings.

[vivaldirules]

I somehow had missed this little gem of a thread. I hope you keep it up. I enjoy poetry, especially when there are no rules (does that surprise you?). I write none myself, aside from some occasional fun stuff a la Dr. Seuss.

[Taylor514ce]

The previous does have rules... it's a Japanese form called "Tanka", and outside of all the little technicalities of the form, one central component is the concept of a "turn". The poem should turn, twist, shift, somehow. The turn typically occurs in the fourth line. In this case, the "turn" is from past tense to present tense, which is meant to add an unwritten, implied emotional jolt. (Why did they say goodbye? How'd the earrings get lost? Are they saying goodbye again? Why does "he" have the earrings now?)

[NatCh]

down from the branches
does it timidly venture
snatching the peanut

Squirrel haiku, you know.

[Taylor514ce]

A new genre! Squirrelku. Hmmm...

grey squirrels' winter dreys     punctuate    my morning drive

[zelda_pinwheel]

ah, i thought i was the only one who remembered this thread. nice to see it dusted off.

i quite like your new poem Taylor. elegant but cheeky.

VR, you know Doctor Seuss is always welcome anywhere...

as for squirrelku, i cannot begin to express my enthusiasm. particularly as "squirrel" is my favorite english word. if you want to know why, write it down on a piece of paper, find a french person (preferably who speaks little to no english), and ask them to pronounce it. this is my favorite game.

[Taylor514ce]

It's actually an old poem, written in 1995. I remember the year because it won an international award in Tanka. Yes, I'm unashamedly bragging. I found it again recently going through some books looking for something else.

The squirrelku, on the other hand, was spur of the moment. Grey squirrels build big nests, and in the winter when the trees have no leaves, they stand out like periods and commas on the "sentence" of a tree line.

So who's up next with a squirrelku? Hey, we just mozzled a new noun!

[wetterau]

Hi, here are three from my latest book, On The Road To Dharamsala. Thanks for reading. John

Bach


Each morning,
in a small courtyard
across the alley,
a teenager walks
slowly back and forth
reading a schoolbook
or manual,
repeating phrases
in rhythm with
the peaceful movement
of her legs through shade;
she turns as a line
of Bach turns,
defining old ground
newly, dark hair
bumping gently
on her cotton shirt.


Chandigarh,
India


Kamal


Kamal drunk, declaiming
by his brick two-room house,
one up, one under for the cows,
high over the valley.
He drinks his army pension,
works the rest of the month
with his wife and teenaged sons.
“They beat me,” he tells us.
“I haven't eaten in 48 hours;
I have a very bad wife.”
He is stronger than any of them.
His wife is loving. Strange.
He raves into the night
for hours using practiced
dramatic gestures,
pausing to sing, pacing
back and forth.
I asked Mickey what
the Hindi words meant.
“It's all bullshit,” he said.
Yes, Kamal
is acting badly again—
reproachful,
indignant, angry
to the point of violence,
long hands pleading
in the moonlight.





Kamal Repents at Dawn


Cross-legged on his roof,
rubbing his face briskly,
extending long arms,
circling his wrists,
Kamal surveys the valley.
A devotional chorus issues
from a loudspeaker below.
At the solo, he
begins to sing; his voice
reaches and spreads
throughout the settlement.
Slowly, musically,
suffering is forgiven;
blame becomes blessing;
Kamal repents.


McLeod Ganj

[vivaldirules]

Originally Posted by Taylor514ce

So who's up next with a squirrelku? Hey, we just mozzled a new noun!

You mozzler. Do you mean, who's up next in the squirrelku queue?

[Taylor514ce]

I actually found this link: http://www.scarysquirrel.org/phlinge.../mitchell.html

The whole site should appeal to squirrel enthusiasts.

[fifteenjugglers]

A slice of juvenilia:

Of Silver

Nations blessed by ages long for love of gold at last have fell.
The seeds of self-deceit are sown with ploughs of golden metal cast,
And fields of blood and woe are mown with swords forged in a golden blast.
Of all who seek to find the grail, there is not one who'll live to tell,
From mountains pure of basest lead no precious speck of ore to sell.
Yet silver, sonorous and strong, peals long a bell of blameless past,
And would that bonds of friendship were with strands of silver strong held fast,
For silver as a mirror shin'd will secrets of betrayal tell.
So give me not your yellow discs that usury and lies will varnish;
Hang not about my neck a chain that yokes me to a dray of fools,
For gold is nought but evil magic, caster of deceitful spell.
In silver's truth I will be clad and wear with pride it's telltale tarnish.
A metal hard and pure I need, not soft, nor fickle, for my tools.
And all I ask as my reward: to hear the angels' silver bells.



(It's in sonnet form, but with double length lines )

15j



Sorry for the lack squirrel imagery .
I do particularly like the earring Tanka

[NatCh]

Interesting rhyme scheme.

We'll overlook the lack of squirrelity ... this time.

[fifteenjugglers]

Italian sonnet form:

a-b-b-a a-b-b-a forms the octet with c-d-e c-d-e forming the sestet.
The octet describes a problem, and the sestet its resolution...

You can't overlook this though



15j

[zelda_pinwheel]

i suspect i know who's responsable for that...