User Poetry

[MoodRing]

WOW

This is a great thread, I've been browsing through the pages but havnt found any recommendations on good poetry/creative writing online corses. Can anyone recommend me some?

[kennyc]

Not sure about classes, but there are a few forums and places.

you might like: http://www.thepoetryforum.co.uk/forum.php
(Geoff and myself participate there)

also http://wildpoetryforum.com/phpBB3/index.php but they seem to be being picky about letting new members in (as Geoff will attest).

also you might check out the Poetry group at Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/233._POETRY_

I could also recommend a few instructional poetry books if you like.

[Phogg]

I would suggest that there is no shortcut for spending a lot of time in a dictionary and a thesaurus.
If you are writing metric verse you will need that to compose lines that do not compromise on the trifecta of meaning, number of sylables, and rhyme.

Spelling is optional.

(Or I'm making excuses.)

[bookdragon]

The Walking Wounded

We are the walking wounded,
mother less children in grown bodies
can not help but limp.
We wander along life's pathways.
Never stumbling, holding on;
to each other, to a memory,
to a mother's love.

We, the walking wounded,
are determined to fight;
are determined to win.
When we are triumphant
no more shall you wound.
No more shall innocent children
watch their mothers die.
NO MORE!
For we, the walking wounded,
shall wrest you from the shadows
and slay you.
So that all children
may rest their heads
upon a mother’s healthy breast.

[kennyc]

Mushrooming


The word is popping out of headlines
like its namesake from the ground.
Whether it’s a rising - ‘technology mushrooming’
or disastrous nuclear winter
it’s popping like penguins everywhere -
everywhere I look

Or maybe it’s just the old reference
to being in the dark
and yes being fed shit,
and why should we
why would we anyway

I consider canned mushrooms
because when I buy them fresh
they always seem to turn to
the dark side before I use them

Which makes me wonder if Luke
raised mushrooms on Tatooine
on his uncle’s farm

I check wookipedia and find --YES!
They did. Mushrooms grew near
the base of the moisture vaporators

Damn Tusken raiders anyway!
They should be mushroom vaporated!



Kenny A. Chaffin – 5/5/2012

[kennyc]

Boy is this thread dead or what?

Here's one I wrote recently, published in the August issue of Red River Review - [Promotional link deleted - MODERAT0R]


House Keeping

It’s a way of cleaning,
the rearranging of furniture
cleaning away the dust-bunnies
that have gathered over the winter

like examined memories
turned from side to side
end to end. Moving them
from place to place
clearing the cobwebs,
refining the past

I move the memory of my brother
from the Huffy bicycle he rode to
the stone that bears his name

I see the glistening water of Lake Texhoma
its dead-carp smell in the bright summer sun
remembered through a buzz of alcohol

I cry for my sister’s two black eyes
the two cars totaled,
the blame all mine

I smell the rich black Oklahoma earth
turned and planted with cotton seed

I feel the sting of cotton bolls
on my back as I lie, a boy
in the harvest trailer
the crisp autumn-leaf smell
of cotton flung from the harvester’s
snout onto my chest burying me

I sweep away the regret of never
really knowing my father, try
not to blame my mother, after
all they were young,
so very very young.


Kenny A. Chaffin - 2/5/2012

[sparklemotion]

Wonderful poem, Kenny.

I'm slowly making my way through this thread. I've enjoyed reading everyone's poems.

[kennyc]

Take your time, lots here, predates me.....well....being as old as dirt....that's not exactly what I mean, but it predates my participation here.

[GeoffC]

Not dead, just in need of a little housekeeping ....

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Boy is this thread dead or what?

Here's one I wrote recently, published in the August issue of Red River Review - [Promotional link deleted - MODERAT0R]


House Keeping

It’s a way of cleaning,
---
I sweep away the regret of never
really knowing my father, try
not to blame my mother, after
all they were young,
so very very young.


Kenny A. Chaffin - 2/5/2012

Strange just a little while ago, I was cleaning, well really tossing. I am resting now. Big election day. Lots of sorting, cleaning. Company coming tonight. Blessed grandchildren!

Anyway ---

Lost Calls

Tonight 14 cell phones were tossed,
only 3 remain
how much money was lost
on all those calls in vain

Did she ever see the ID
did she ever see my name
Perhaps she did see,
but trembled with some foolish shame.

Hell she could have been my number 4
now she only has herself to blame.

[SeaKing]

I take it that no one is going to compare my effort to a Taylor Swift song about lost love?

[kennyc]

(a quick one from today, hot off the presses)


Moonstruck

Four point five billion years ago
Theia struck the Earth

Molten magma swirled to space
twisting and twirling about

Two glowing orbs circled each other
like gunfighters under the sun

Locked in synchronous orbit
they cooled and waited on man

Who gathered Moon rocks and found them to be
exactly the stuff of Earth

So rather than cheese, it must be pie
for the Moon is made of crust


Kenny A. Chaffin - 11/14/2012

[WT Sharpe]

That's a really nice one, Kenny. It's got everything: Poetry, science, and humor!

[kennyc]

Thanks Tom.

and Cosmic-Scale Destructive Violence!

[cromag]

And pie!