tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7604943816256588242024-02-07T06:43:05.968-07:00Satin and Swordsramblings of a reluctant writerk m kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201119068196061672noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760494381625658824.post-47985935252428678822011-01-12T23:12:00.003-07:002011-01-12T23:27:17.597-07:00Thank God for poetry!<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal;">
I leaf through an old poetry
textbook, looking for a muse and find, instead, notes I took in a Children’s
Lit class, years ago. <i>“All poetry should make one think and
feel—except nonsense rhyme which gives a release.”</i> Interesting concept. Idly, I continue turning
pages.<br />
<br />
Past the nursery rhymes:</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When I am the President<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Of these United States,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I’ll eat up all the candy<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And swing on all the gates.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
Hmmm. We won’t go
there.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
I page past Sinclair Lewis’
poem entitled CAT:</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This is a cat that sleeps at
night,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That takes delight<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In visions bright,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And not a vagrant that creeps at
night<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On box-cars by the river.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This is a sleepy cat to purr<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And rarely stir<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Its shining fur;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This is a cat whose softest purr<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Means salmon, steaks, and liver.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This is a cat respectable,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Connectable<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">With selectable<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Feline families respectable,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Whose names would make you quivver.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This is a cat of piety,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Not satiety,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But sobriety.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Its very purr is of piety<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And thanks to its Feline Giver.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And this is how it prays:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Ancient of days<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">With whiskers torrendous,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hark to our praise,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lick and defend us.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lo, how we bring to Thee<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sweet breasts of mouses;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hark how we sing to Thee,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Filling all houses <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">With ardent miaouses,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Until it arouses<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All mankind to battery.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thou of the golden paws,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thou of the silver claws,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Thy tail is the comet’s cause,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">King of all cattery!”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
(A rather different rhyme scheme. And I’d forgotten that two
of Mr. Lewis’s dearest loves were poetry and cats.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
Continuing to turn
pages, I find <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">THE HIGHWAYMAN,</i> a poem
of love, betrayal and selfless loyalty that’s high on my list of best-loved
rhymes. It sings of a dashing brigand, the half-wit who in a fit of jealousy betrays him, and the innkeeper’s daughter who gives her life to protect him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And still of a winter’s night,
they say, when the wind is in the trees,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When the moon is a ghostly
galleon tossed upon cloudy seas,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When the road is a ribbon of
moonlight over the purple moor,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A highwayman comes riding—<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Riding—riding—<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A highwayman comes riding, up to
the old inn-door.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Over the cobbles he clatters and
clangs in the dark inn-yard;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And he taps with his whip on the
shutters, but all is locked and barred:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">He whistles a tune to the window,
and who should be waiting there<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But the landlord’s black-eyed
daughter,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bess, the landlord’s daughter,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Plaiting a dark red love-knot
into her long black hair.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
As I read, I
clearly see a galleon moon tossed on cloud-flecked seas of night, a heather-covered
moor, an ancient inn with its locked shutters, the daring highwayman and Bess,
plaiting love-knots in her long, wavy hair. And suddenly I’m transported
back through the years to the schoolroom of my childhood where I first heard not only that poem but many others like it. Wonderful poems. Singing poems. Poems that carried me to distant lands and climes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<o:p> </o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
It is a little country
schoolhouse, worn and old with single-pane windows rattling in a fierce November
storm and only a small coal-oil stove to warm the drafty classroom. Penmanship
posters showing proper placement of each letter of the alphabet line the walls. They are flanked by framed reproductions of famous paintings; Millet’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Gleaners,</i> Bonheur’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Horse Fair</i>, Sully’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Torn Hat, </i>Boughton’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pilgrims Going to Church—</i>the latter particularly
appropriate to our current study of the first Thanksgiving<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
It is late on a Friday
morning. The weekly spelling bee is over. (Tom went down on ‘dolichocephalic’
but Cynthia spelled it right, making her this week’s winner.) The quiet, fierce
concentration dominating the room slowly
dissipates, replaced by growing anticipation. Now is the one time during the
week when we forget the icy drafts, the whistling wind, and the driving snow.
Spelling, reading, social studies, arithmetic all fade into the background as
each student takes a turn standing in front of the stove to recite poetry. </div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“All poetry should make one think and feel—except nonsense rhyme which
gives a release.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
Startled laughter
sweeps the room at little Becky Ann’s nonsense version of an old nursery rhyme:</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hickory, dickery, dock<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Three mice ran up the clock<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The clock struck one<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The other two escaped with minor
injuries.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
Even our teacher, who
prides herself on keeping a straight face, is hard put to resist Becky’s
white-blond curls, wide blue eyes and patent innocence. Everyone knows her
father taught her that ‘verse’.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
Some of the students
choose the shortest poems they can find:</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An open foe may prove a curse,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">But a pretended friend is worse.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
(Benjamin Franklin —
Poor Richard’s Almanac)</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
“Short and sweet and
can’t be beat,” Doug mutters under his breath. He’s chosen a much longer poem; one
appropriate to the season. As he stands to recite, the shrieking storm outside
our little school building heightens the atmosphere and we are transported to a
distant place and a former time. We hear waves crash against a rocky shore. The
scream of an ocean eagle shrills as icy foam flies through bracing salt-brine
air.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The breaking waves dashed high,”</i>
he begins</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“On a stern and rock-bound coast.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And the woods against a stormy
sky,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Their giant branches tossed;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“And the heavy night hung dark,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The hills and waters o’er,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When a band of exiles moored
their bark<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On the wild New England shore.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
Pausing momentarily, he
looks around the room.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Not as the conqueror comes,” </i>he
explains,</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“They, the true-hearted came;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Not with the roll of the stirring
drums,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And the trumpet that sings of
fame;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Not as the flying come,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In silence and in fear;—<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">They shook the depths of the desert
gloom<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">With their hymns of lofty cheer.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Amidst the storm they sang,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And the stars heard, and the sea;”
<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
His voice rises</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“And the sounding aisles of the
dim woods rang<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To the anthem of the free.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The ocean eagle soared<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">From his nest by the white wave’s
foam;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And the rocking pines of the
forest roared—<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This,”</i> he pauses,
dramatically,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> “was their welcome home.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“There were men with hoary hair<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Amidst that pilgrim band;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why had they come to wither
there,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Away from their childhood’s land?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“There was a woman’s fearless
eye,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lit by her deep love’s truth;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">There was manhood’s brow serenely
high,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
He again pauses,
touching his chest.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And the fiery heart of youth.” </i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“What sought they thus afar?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bright jewels of the mine?<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The wealth of seas, the spoils of
war?”</i> </div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
He shakes his head, his
voice firm.</div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“They sought a faith’s pure
shrine!<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Aye,”</i> he pauses, once again,<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> “call it holy ground,<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The soil where first they trod;<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">They have left unstained what
there they found—<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal; text-align: center;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Freedom to worship God.”<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
(Landing of the Pilgrim
Fathers — Felicia Hemans)</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
From those Friday
morning poetry recitations, we learned to laugh, to imagine, and to feel a fierce reverence for the sacrifices of our forefathers. Thank God for such an
education.</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
And thank God for
poetry!</div>k m kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201119068196061672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760494381625658824.post-19322748265908418602010-12-21T21:56:00.000-07:002010-12-21T21:56:09.075-07:00What's with 21st century poets?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">In my last post I mentioned the 'hope' of the judge who awarded me second place in the recent League of Utah Writers rhymed poetry contest - as well as my reaction to his comment.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Why, you ask, would I be uninterested in 'modern' poetry? </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Good question.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">I suppose the initial reason is that I hold poets such as Wordsworth and Shelley in reverent esteem. From the time I entered grade school until the day I graduated from the eighth grade I memorized and recited a poem each Friday as part of my English Language class. Each student in our little one-roomed country school did the same. Because of that requirement, I became familiar with everything from doggerel verse:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">(There was a lady</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Loved a swine.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">"Pig-hog,</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Wilt thou be mine?"</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Can't remember the stanzas that followed but the mental image of a woman declaring undying amour to a snorting swine tickled my fancy then and has ever since.)</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">to the rhythmic refrains of Edgar Allen Poe:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">Hear the sledges with the bells -</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"> </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">Silver bells!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">What a world of merriment their melody foretells!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">How they tinkle, tinkle, tinkle,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">In the icy air of night!</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">While the stars that oversprinkle</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">All the heavens seem to twinkle</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">With a crystalline delight;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">Keeping time, time, time,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">In a sort of Runic rhyme,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">To the tintinnabulation that so musically wells</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">From the bells, bells, bells, bells,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">Bells, bells, bells -</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-size: 12px;">From the jingling and the tinkling of the bells.)</span></span><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"><br /></span></span><div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333;">to the immortal poetry of Longfellow:</span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> ( By the shores of Gitche Gumee,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">By the shining Big-Sea-Water,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Stood the wigwam of Nokomis,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Daughter of the Moon, Nokomis.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Dark behind it rose the forest,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Rose the firs with cones upon them;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Bright before it beat the water,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Beat the clear and sunny water,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> )</span></span></div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
and the beautiful imagery of Robert W. Service:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
(<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">There are strange things done in the midnight sun</span></span></div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 21px;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By the men who moil for gold;</dd>
<dt style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Arctic trails have their secret tales</dt>
<dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">That would make your blood run cold;</dd>
<dt style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,</dt>
<dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But the queerest they ever did see</dd>
<dt style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge</dt>
</span><dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I cremated Sam McGee.)</span></dd><dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></dd><dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I loved poetry then and I still do but I find myself totally unable to understand the rhythms and nuances of modern poetry. Much of it doesn't make a lot of sense and even when it does, I find myself completely uninterested in the themes so often used by my contemporaries.</span></dd><dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></dd><dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Several years ago, when I was a member, I attended a workshop in writing poetry sponsored by a nearby chapter of the Utah Poets' Society. The presenter - a poetry professor from a local college - read her favorite composition glorifying sex in every way she could think of and ending with the sentiment that, if there wasn't sex in heaven she wasn't going there.</span></dd><dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">TMI imho!</span></dd><dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I don't care to know all about someone else's sex life. That's their business. I have my own to take care of, thank you very much. But she wasn't the only 'poet' of my acquaintance who seemed to think modern poetry could focus on nothing else.</span></dd><dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Of course, there were other themes presented at our monthly poetry gatherings. Poems glorifying magpies and ravens (two of my least favorite birds) etc., etc., etc. </span></dd><dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">These poems were attempts at writing in various forms of modern poetry, forms far removed from the sonnets of Shakespeare or Elizabeth Barrett Browning or the incomparable forms used by Longfellow, Poe or Service. </span></dd><dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">When I was challenged to write something other than my much-favored doggerel verse, I borrowed a book from the Society's library so I could learn more about different popular poetic forms. My personal opinion of many of the forms demonstrated therein could be summed up in a single word: pretentious. </span></dd><dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I did, finally, write a totally tongue-in-cheek sonnet. Not a good sonnet, to be sure, but one mentioning poetry forms that any modern poet would recognize. </span></dd><dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br /></span></dd><dd style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; line-height: 15px;"><div class="yiv361669322MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="display: block; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;">
SHOULD I TRY MY HAND?</div>
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<br /></div>
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Should I, a fledgling poet, try my hand</div>
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at writing sonnets, odes or villanelles —</div>
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word pictures left like wayward waves on sand</div>
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to tease and tantalize cerebral cells?</div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;"> </span></div>
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Perhaps a <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1292992916_0" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(54, 99, 136); border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-width: 2px; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">terza rima</span> or a glose</div>
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would be a better style for my rhyme.</div>
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I start out well - but am not even close</div>
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To making <i style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">my</i> feet fit required time.</div>
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<br /></div>
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My fellow poets say I should not use</div>
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such <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1292992916_1" style="line-height: 1.2em; outline-color: initial; outline-style: none; outline-width: initial;">archaic words</span>—or phrases trite and true.</div>
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They seem to think free verse the only muse</div>
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and favor rambling form to clerihew.</div>
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<br /></div>
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I try them all but don’t know which is worse.</div>
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Perhaps I’d better stick to doggerel verse.</div>
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</div>k m kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201119068196061672noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760494381625658824.post-51969919568511482332010-12-14T20:22:00.002-07:002010-12-15T10:28:44.407-07:00Wyoming winter?<br />
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">This morning, as I walked around the park behind my home, I
watched one of the most spectacular sunrises I have ever seen. Liquid fire
streamed over the Wasatch mountains to torch the bottoms of blue-grey cotton
ball clouds with an electric red-orange, changing to apricot, to peach, then
fading back to grey like a rod of iron heated nearly white-hot in a forge, then
slowly cooled. I was in awe, grateful that my morning exercise had coincided
with such splendor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">This afternoon one of my sons and I stood outside in shirt
sleeves. At that point it was still a lovely day—nearly clear blue skies,
moderate breezes, and sunshine—mood music courtesy of the waterfall in my
backyard pond.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Tonight the wind, no longer friendly, has adopted a decided
chill. Cold shoulder clouds are streaming down from the Arctic, bringing what I
consider complete anathema. . .snow. Tomorrow I’ll be shoveling. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Again. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">And the forecast says there’s no visible end in sight. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">What is descending upon us reminds me of a poem I penned, years
ago, on a cold, windy, snow-driven winter’s day. It expresses my feelings about
the season as well as the hope that sees me through.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">WYOMING WINTER<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Wyoming winter stretches on<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Through evening grey and muted dawn—<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">A fierce, forbidding winterscape<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Of ice and snow and wind, to shape<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">A bleak and barren emptiness<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">That shrouds the spirit with finesse.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Each dreary day of somber hue<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Demands depression as its due,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Extracting energy and cheer<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Until the spirit is as drear<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">And lifeless as the blowing snows<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">That sift and drift in endless rows.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">But when all life seems at its ebb,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Forever tangled in that web<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Of desolation, dark and drear,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">A chick-a-dee pipes up, “Spring’s here!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">And, suddenly, the crushing jaw<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Of winter’s endless, gaping maw<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Is closed. And joyous in its stead,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">A glorious springtime rears its head.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">The dawn, so muted yesterday,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Bursts gaily on the world to say<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">In colors, vibrant, ‘cross the sky,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">“Arise and live again! Spring’s nigh!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">A note on that poem…. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">I entered it in the recent League of Utah Writer’s contest for
rhymed poetry. And won second place. Hmmm. Either there were only two of us
entering or the competition wasn’t very versatile with rhymed poetry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">The critique said I had a ‘big lapse toward sentimentality and
overly used phrasing’. The judge was 'troubled' with "desolation, dark and
drear" and the piping chick-a-dee wasn’t 'a strength' unless I was 'paying
some kind of clear homage or tribute to Wordsworth and Percy Shelley'. He wants
to see me use my skills 'more in service to the 21<sup>st</sup> century
rather than the 19<sup>th'</sup>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Right. That ain’t gonna happen. I tend to become very impatient
with most 21st century poetry. Enough said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">However, it <i>was</i> an interesting critique.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Was I paying homage to Wordsworth and Shelley? Not purposefully.
But I couldn’t be more honored than to have someone think of their poetry when
reading mine. They were masters. I, on the other hand, write poetry only when
flooded with intensely strong feeling. It isn't something I can serve up at a
moment's notice - or even on a month's notice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">So I have to laugh over this poem. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">I remember the day well. It was a typical Wyoming winter’s day outside
my Meeteetse home: filled with seemingly endless wind and snow doing exactly
what I described—shaping a bleak and barren emptiness. Such weather does shroud
my spirit. It kills my creativity and my joy, leaving me battling Seasonal
Affectiveness Disorder. And to make that particular day even more enjoyable, I
was fighting something I seldom experience, a numbing migraine headache.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Was I paying tribute to Wordsworth and Shelley? Not really.
Those words expressed, <b><i>completely</i></b>, how I felt about the
winterscape outside my window. They also expressed how I longed to hear the harbinger
of spring—a chick-a-dee singing his cheery “spring’s here” notes; how I longed
to see a glorious, vibrant springtime dawn.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">Which brings me back to this morning. Was today’s dawn
spring-like? Not even close. The underlying gunmetal grey of the clouds
provided a starkly cold contrast to the liquid fire streaking across the sky.
Although I reveled in its beauty, it held no promise of warmth to come. Even
the lovely weather at mid-day was nothing more than an unusual phenomenon to be
enjoyed in its brief season. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">I did enjoy it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">And now it’s gone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Courier; font-size: 11pt;">I think I need a strong dose of chocolate.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</h3>k m kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201119068196061672noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760494381625658824.post-39521903512017353172010-10-04T06:25:00.002-06:002010-10-04T06:46:34.961-06:00Don't be a draught horse???<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jim Wolverton, in a post on writing, quoted Henry Miller's personal list of writing commandments. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1. Work on one thing at a time until finished.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">2. Start no more new books, add no more new material to “Hemingway’s Suitcase.”</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">3. Don’t be nervous. Work calmly, joyously, recklessly on whatever is in hand.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">4. Work accordingly to Program and not accordingly to mood. Stop at the appointed time.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">5. When you can’t create you can work.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6. Cement a little everyday, rather than add new fertilizers.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">7. Keep human! See people, go places, drink if you feel like it.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">8. Don’t be a draught horse! Work with pleasure only.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">9. Disregard the Program when you feel like it—but go back to it next day. Concentrate. Narrow down. Exclude.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">10. Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">11. Write first and always. Painting, music, friends, cinema, all these come afterwards.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">(Miller, by the way, was once described by George Orwell as, "...</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">a completely negative, unconstructive, amoral writer, a mere </span></i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonah" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; text-decoration: none;" title="Jonah"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jonah</span></span></i></a><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, a passive acceptor of evil, a sort of Whitman among the corpses.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">" - a rather apt description, I think.) </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At any rate, while I may agree with one or two of Mr. Miller's personal rules for writing, I took instant exception to #8. The fellow obviously didn't know his horses.</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don’t be a draught horse. Work with pleasure only?</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> It’s
evocative. But I totally disagree with the syllogism.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To begin with, he seems to assume that draught – or draft –
horses are all work and no play or pleasure. Having grown up around the animals,
I’d beg to differ. True, their work is generally tedious and repetitious. Our
horses pulled farm machinery and sleighs in weather that no animal could
enjoy…hot in summer and minus forty-five F. in winter. They did it daily and
faithfully. But to assume there was no fun involved indicates, to me, that Mr.
Miller maaaybe didn’t know his draft horses very well.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve known horses that were clowns. (We had one who
repeatedly performed a routine he discovered we’d laugh at.) </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve known horses
that weren’t above getting their own back at each other or at their owners. (We
had one horse who was smart enough to figure out that chewing on my long hair
would freak me. If it happened today, I’d have a word with the horse. But I was
ten at the time and he got the reaction he was looking for. Knowing animals as
I do now, I think that old boy had a lot of fun at my expense that day. He
probably chuckled about it for hours.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve also known horses that were the
epitome of faithfulness, trustworthiness and loyalty while in the harness but
full of play with each other once they were turned out to pasture.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">That said, however, if one wants to compare what writers do to
what an animal does, isn’t the ‘draught’ horse the perfect comparison? Draft
one, draft two—draft twenty? Much of the work of writing is as tedious as the
day-to-day work of a draft horse. Constructing scenes can be joyful. I
frequently have a lot of fun with them. But ohmygoodness! those sequels are the
pits. Making prose flow, bridging the gap between scenes, is very difficult and
excessively tiring. At least it is for me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my experience, constructing a story that has thought,
continuity and flow is not particularly pleasurable. It’s tedium ad nauseum.
Like the draft horse’s routine work, in order to finish a story, an author must
do the same thing over and over and over: apply the seat to the chair, the
fingers to the keyboard and the brain to the project at hand.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s repetitious, too. While the draft horse may pull
the plow in a new field tomorrow, he’s still pulling the plow in the same
general pattern his owner determined for him today. So, too, the writer may be
working on a new story but it has to have the same basic elements, the same
general plot structure, the same carefully constructed language. And he’s not
working for himself, either. His reader is his owner. Like the draft horse, if
he doesn’t work hard to please the ‘owner’, he may not have too much food on
his table next winter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think there’s a reason why draft horses were/are
frequently called ‘plugs’. According to Webster’s finest, the word has a double
meaning when applied to draft animals: ‘a worn out animal’ </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ‘to
work hard and steadily’. I think both definitions frequently fit writers
just as well. We</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> do </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">become worn out with the seemingly
endless drafting and rewriting of our prose/poetry projects. However, we also
must work hard and steadily if we're to accomplish the task at hand.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I identify with the ‘draught’ horses. I think we have a
lot in common. Do I work hard and steadily? I try to. Do I always enjoy what
I’m doing? Frequently not. It is, after all, work. Do I gain pleasure as I
write? Sometimes. When the prose is flowing easily, when the humor bubbles up,
when an acute phrase pops into my head, then my work is a pleasure. Most of the
time, however, I just plug away knowing that, if I’m careful and consistent,
the pleasure will come at the end of the day when I’m turned out to grass and I
can read what I’ve written and call it good.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>k m kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201119068196061672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760494381625658824.post-2164263252591980022010-08-01T20:57:00.002-06:002010-08-01T20:57:52.910-06:00In memorium...It's been quite a while since I posted anything on this blog. I've
thought about it. I've determined to write. And done nothing. I've
seldom been near the internet and, besides, my well of creativity seemed
bone dry.<br />
<br />
In my last posting I talked about losing my uncle and
step-father. At that time it looked like Mother was doing well enough
that I didn't need to worry about her. Her situation changed, I flew to
California at a moments' notice, and I've spent the past five weeks at
her bedside. She finally passed away early this morning.<br />
During
this time, between raging at God for letting her suffer indefinitely,
struggling to concentrate on Sudoku puzzles for want of something better
to do, and wondering if I was going to lose my mind from being cooped
up in a building in the summertime, I managed to reread nearly every one
of the several dozen Reader's Digest Condensed books I've given Mother
over the years. Had I owned a laptop I could have worked on the
re-writes I was doing before Mother became ill. But I don't. Probably
wasn't in the correct frame of mind to do a good job anyway. So I read.<br />
You know, there's a reason why writers are advised to read, <span style="font-size: large;">read</span>, <span style="font-size: large;">READ.</span> <span style="font-size: small;">The first time I read those books-some of them years ago-</span>I was interested only in the story. After all, I read primarily to enjoy the tale.<br />
This
time, however, I already knew the basic story of each novel so I found
myself noting certain details I'd never noticed before. A unique turn of
phrase here, a subtle lead there captured my attention. How this author
handled a certain situation gave me insight to potential ways of
strengthening my own narratives. How that author's description of a
setting introduced subsequent action or outcomes caught my attention,
too, giving me ideas that would make my wip more exciting, more daring,
more mysterious. I took notes and wrote plans for additions and changes
to be made. This activity filled my days, and frequently much of my
nights, while strengthening me as a writer.<br />
<br />
I'm grateful for this time I've had with my mother before her
passing. I'm grateful her suffering is over. I'm also grateful for the
legacy she passed down to me - that of patience in suffering (and anyone
who has ever struggled through endless rewrites knows how this applies
to writing) and of loving to read. Mother was noted for her voracious
literary appetite. I hope I can be a credit to her memory - a well-read
author who has the patience to suffer through the changes necessary to
bring the current work in progress to a level of perfection equal to
what my mother achieved in herself before the end.<br />
<br />
Thank you, Mother, for your legacy.k m kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201119068196061672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760494381625658824.post-61728631039803372502010-06-09T22:46:00.001-06:002010-06-09T22:51:07.275-06:00Let your light shine<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I just read Roland Yeomans’ thoughtful blog (<a href="http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/">http://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com</a>)
about the need to reach out to others. To quote Roland:<b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">There is empty ground in
most souls we pass. Sometimes that leeched soil is within our own soul. We
cannot save the world. Often it is beyond us to even save ourselves.<br />
That which we can do, we must do, or else we help the darkness grow thicker.
Even one feeble candle can show the way for the next step.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Beautifully said, Roland. It doesn’t take much looking to
find the opportunity to shine a light in a darkened corner.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last night Simon Larter (<a href="http://www.constantrevisions.blogspot.com/">http://www.constantrevisions.blogspot.com</a>)
spent some time – nearly two hours – going over the first 15 pages of my
current WIP with me. He didn’t have to. I didn’t really expect him to. But he
spread his light in my very darkened corner, giving me courage to try again and a direction
to follow.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Simon wasn’t aware that on Memorial Day I lost my favorite
uncle. I was saddened at the loss but relieved that his suffering was over. His
funeral was the following Friday. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hours before the service, my step-father, who has faithfully
served my mother for the last 36 years, passed to his eternal reward, too. —Dad,
if God asks me, I’ll happily recommend you for the biggest harp and the
shiniest crown He has to give.— The next day Mother’s nursing home called to
say she had pneumonia—the same thing that took Dad—and they were putting her on
antibiotics.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fortunately Mother’s pneumonia is under control. But it’s
still been stressful – as anyone who has worried about a loved one will concur.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the midst of all this, I needed to rewrite the opening of
my WIP. I did take a few days off. I had to. But it was time to get back in the
saddle and start the creative process again. Trouble was, I simply didn’t feel
like it. I knew what I needed to say but the words would not come.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then came Simon. I know he has a job and a young family that
he gives priority time to. I know he’s working late hours on his own literary
pursuits. And yet, at a time when I truly needed a candle to light my way, he
held up his lamp with a steady hand.<br />
<br />
Thank you, Simon. You’ll never know how
encouraged I was by the end of our session. I’m still struggling. I probably
will be for a while yet. Losses take time to reconcile. But you pulled me back
on the creative path and gave me the courage and strength to continue on. And I
thank you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thanks to you too, Roland, for reminding me that strength
comes from forgetting oneself in the service of others. I hope that I can do
for someone else what you two have done for me this week. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
God, let me be that
feeble candle, please.</div>k m kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201119068196061672noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760494381625658824.post-48608414027045968962010-06-01T08:10:00.004-06:002010-06-01T08:50:08.292-06:00Never give up. Never, never give up! Our youngest daughter and her foster sister.<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzuGeYXuxwSwyuZFhpbwUHUduU10IV6J_gUuSBSkeSHzawHnuTnLmKhgRmQUoiQQjm63bN9jhB01mMtVI-1k6jrD7xLtNy2pDyNo7Axx9oCpm-HrRwMFAUZ_2-6DNRL10WjryUuLVvC5k/s1600/Lili's+graduation+001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzuGeYXuxwSwyuZFhpbwUHUduU10IV6J_gUuSBSkeSHzawHnuTnLmKhgRmQUoiQQjm63bN9jhB01mMtVI-1k6jrD7xLtNy2pDyNo7Axx9oCpm-HrRwMFAUZ_2-6DNRL10WjryUuLVvC5k/s320/Lili's+graduation+001.jpg" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last week our baby graduated as a CNA from Job Corps. Along
with nearly a hundred other capped and gowned students, she walked the
traditional processional, sat through the traditional speeches, and shook the traditional
hands. The next night we threw a surprise party for her with a dozen of her friends in
attendance. …A dozen energetic, excited <i><b>tween</b></i>agers can make the walls of a
modest-sized home bulge—and feeding the crew breaks the bank at Monte Carlo.
But her accomplishment was, for her, a tremendous step and we wanted her to
know that we recognized it as such.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One would think that completing the requirements and passing the state boards for a CNA certification would not be such a big deal. Our
daughter is a pretty, intelligent, relatively popular teenager who has a host
of friends, both young and old. Unfortunately, she also has a deep-seated fear of the work-a-day
world and zero confidence in her ability to cope away from her secure little
corner of the universe. For her to leave home for four months and live with people she did not
know was a major accomplishment.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hence the party—a celebration of a huge milestone passed.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I think we, as writers, tend to be a lot like my daughter.
Perhaps we’ve had an agent who was unethical—she had such a boss. Maybe a
publishing house has jacked us around—for her it was another boss. Perhaps we’ve
been unable to find anyone capable of seeing the value of our efforts—a year ago last fall she went
from being shift manager and employee of the month because of her work ethic to being fired by
the incoming manager for being quote,‘incapable of doing the job’, unquote, the month after. He wasn't willing to train her in the way he wanted her to perform. He simply let her go.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like my daughter, many of us have faced rejection after rejection…sometimes
even from those who should be the most supportive. On top of that, we fight writer’s block. We
can visualize the story in our minds but it just won’t translate to paper. And
frequently we, ourselves, are our own worst critics.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Whatever the external causes, many of us become fearful,
unsure—crippling ourselves by listening to that internal nitpicker who bedevils
us unmercifully. We start a project only to become discouraged and let it slide.
Our shelves and file drawers are filled with manuscripts that are incomplete,
or abandoned even though we’ve finished them. There’s that story in the back of
our minds that’s been there for years but it lacks a certain, specific detail
that we feel unqualified to find. Like my daughter, it’s easier to hide
ourselves and our talents away in the security of our little worlds, than it is
to get out there and shine. <br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For me, there’s the constant fear of rejection. I have to
push myself to finish what I’ve begun in the field of writing. I have to hold a
goal in front of myself—a very juicy something that I really want to have—as a
reward for succeeding in my writing career. If it weren’t for that goal, that
carrot dangling before my nose, I’d quit. There are a gazillion other things I’d
rather be doing than spending ten to fourteen hours a day trying to pound out
something someone will hopefully want to read. And, believe me, every single one of those desired activities pops into my mind the instant I find myself fumbling for just the
right word, or struggling to craft a seamless bridge between two scenes, or trying
to talk myself into ruthlessly hacking away superfluous stuff. And when the
hatchet comes out, favored adjectives come to mind…and I don’t mean just the
ones I’m hacking, either. At that point it would be so easy to slip back into the safe little
sphere I occupied before I decided my stories had to be written down.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What does this have to do with my daughter’s graduation?
Quite a bit, actually.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As her parent, I’m desperately hoping that she’ll finish the
education she has begun. I don’t care if she doesn’t stay in the medical
field. Personally, I was shocked when she decided to travel down that route in
the first place. Her squeamishness around needles came vividly to mind the day
she announced her intentions. So, if she wants to study something else, that’s
fine with me. What is not fine with me is the idea that she might come back
home and hide in her little corner like she’s done these past two years since
her high school graduation. Once, when I was badgering her about applying at
the nearby junior college, she asked, “But what if I get my Associates Degree
and still don’t know what I want to do?” My reaction was, “And what if you get
your Associates Degree and you DO know what you want?” My point being that she’d
never know unless she tried.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Neither will we know unless we try. Will someone other than
our loyal family and friends enjoy our stories? We’ll never know as long as
they’re deposited, half-finished, in a drawer. We’ll never know unless we search
out agents who are interested in our specific projects. We’ll never know unless
we glue our seats to the chair, struggle through those pitch-line constructions,
then write <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and send</i> those query
letters. Not just once. Not twice. But as many times as it takes to find the
markets we seek. <br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At this point, an acquaintance comes to mind. What was it?
One hundred eighty-plus rejections before she sold her first novel? One hundred
eighty-plus times someone said, “No. It isn’t good enough for me to represent.”
Now the book that one hundred eighty-plus agents rejected is being printed by a
major publishing house. Like that intrepid woman we, my fellow writers, should <i>n</i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">ever
give up. Never, never give up!<o:p></o:p></i><br />
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And when your elusive success is finally obtained, when that
elusive perfect agent is finally found, and that elusive publishing house has sent the advance, have a party on me. You’ll have earned
it.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></div>
</span></span>k m kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201119068196061672noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760494381625658824.post-52949351952685176602010-05-24T11:39:00.006-06:002010-05-24T12:06:35.400-06:00Open discussion with God<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">I’m having an issue
with God today. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">My irises are beautiful, my columbine are flowering like gangbusters, the creeping phlox has never looked better, and my double-flowering crab is so covered with blossoms one can scarcely see any leaves. I planted most of the vegetable garden last week, squash and all, AND. IT'S. SNOWING. TO-</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">DAY!</span></i><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq-ov98b117cU73AwsuLq4HefePh4p3P5EMNP6tT3LAdm5Jx67y0mbpaESUn9ZvWgE847ZE5aE7e-TMkshX6RVLzQ59iKO7vs7NRZTpwcMU1m_oIpuwonXBdDW8Fnk666Kl4BbGpuJWYs/s1600/may+snow+062.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq-ov98b117cU73AwsuLq4HefePh4p3P5EMNP6tT3LAdm5Jx67y0mbpaESUn9ZvWgE847ZE5aE7e-TMkshX6RVLzQ59iKO7vs7NRZTpwcMU1m_oIpuwonXBdDW8Fnk666Kl4BbGpuJWYs/s320/may+snow+062.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<o:p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Are you freaking </span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">kidding</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">
me??? It’s the 24</span><sup><span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">th</span></span></sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"> of May, God. Who sent this work order in?</span></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Have Your angels been
dipping in the sauce behind Your back? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Did the head of Your
weather department develop Alzheimer’s when You weren’t looking?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">I’ll bet it’s those cherubs,
playing tricks again. The little scoundrels!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Respectfully speaking,
Sir, you need to give someone a talking to. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">We had weather like
this in Jackson Hole where I grew up. Two inches of snow on June 18 in—when was
it—the mid seventies? Snow on the fourth of July when I was a kid. Snow in
August, occasionally, and almost always snow on the high peaks each Labor Day. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Ok</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">, so crap happens in
Jackson Hole. Accept that and if you don’t like it, move on. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">I didn’t like it and I
went south. I did my part, God. So why am I seeing this unmentionable white
stuff all over my lawn? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">And don’t even tell me
snow is ‘soft white crystalline flakes’. I don’t care. It’s COLD, for Pete’s
sakes, and that takes any loveliness it might have ever thought of having and
flings it right out the window!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Don’t give me a
scientific explanation about how the ‘upper atmospheric conditions’ got out of
control and the rain we were scheduled for was ‘run through a </span><span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">deepfreeze</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"> on the
way down’, either. There’s a simple solution to all that.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Turn on the heat! </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Then blow
that upper-atmospheric </span><span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">deepfreeze</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"> back to the top of the Grand </span><span class="goog-spellcheck-word" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Teton</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"> where it came
from, originally, and tie it down so it won’t escape again. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">Or, if you don’t like
my suggestions, think up some other brilliant solution to the problem we’re having
down here. I don’t care. Just do what You have to do and clear this mess up,
please. My sense of humor does not include admiring beautifully-shaped ice
crystals in May – or June, July, August, September or October, either, for that
matter. These are the months for </span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">gentle</span></i></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"> warmth—please note the stress
on </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">gentle, </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">there—, and for green growing things,
backyard barbecues and tanning on the trampoline. That’s a little hard to pull
off when there’s a freakin’ </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">blizzard</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"> going
on outside.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: normal;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: #fce5cd;">So, quick!, tie up those
cherubs, replace that Alzheimer’s angel with a seraph who can think straight, and lock up the sauce. Snow in summer
belongs in Jackson Hole. Let’s keep it there!</span> </div>k m kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201119068196061672noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760494381625658824.post-54991017545093567072010-05-22T17:30:00.001-06:002010-05-22T17:34:49.555-06:00Read the fine print carefully - or - hook lines for my current wipI wanted to join Bryan's Logline/Hook Line Blogfest but it's been a very hectic week and I didn't read his rules closely enough. I got the part that I was supposed to have my hook lines posted today. What I didn't catch was that I was supposed to let him know my blog url <i>before</i> May 22, not <i>on</i> May 22. So I'm going to post the hook lines I've worked on this week and I'm going to let him know but I don't know that it will do me any good. Too bad, so sad. One needs to always read the fine print carefully.<br />
<br />
Before I post my hook lines, let me say that this has been another huge learning experience. I've read several excellent blogs about hook lines this week, blogs that helped me craft my own. Chris Richman of Upstart Crow Literary says they should be 25 words or less. I read another blog from an editor who said it shouldn't be over 20 words. Have you ever tried to distill a complete novel into so few words? !!! It's doable but it's difficult.<br />
Anyway, here are the hook lines that I've devised for <i>FIND EXCALIBUR'S SHEATH!</i>.<br />
<br />
#1. Elfhame wants its treasures back and expects abandoned adolescent, Alex Anderson, to face off with Morgan le Fay in Avalon to get them. (23 words)<br />
<br />
#2. An adolescent must guard his virtue and his life from Morgan le Fay while searching for Excalibur and its sheath. (20 words)<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
#3. Both virtue and life are at stake when an abandoned adolescent must retrieve Excalibur and its sheath from deadly sorceress, Morgan le Fay of Avalon. (25 words)<br />
<br />
#4. Elfhame requires an abandoned adolescent to face off with a deadly sorceress and retrieve Excalibur and its sheath. (18 words)<br />
<br />
#5. A rune reading sends an orphaned adolescent and his companions on a deadly mission to retrieve Excalibur and its sheath. (20 words)<br />
<br />
<br />
Which do you think is best? Are any of them worth keeping?<br />
<br />k m kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201119068196061672noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-760494381625658824.post-22636059490870884752010-05-18T16:18:00.000-06:002010-05-18T16:18:38.391-06:00Do you love to write?I love to write. I love to hate to write. I hate to write. Sound confusing? That's probably because my feelings for my craft depend on the day, the hour, and sometimes the minute. When it's flowing well, I love it. When it's not, I have to glue my seat to the chair, grit my teeth and plow through. When the block is large enough, I think some not-so-nice words and go find a good book. Sometimes I get a lot of reading done.<br />
But that's all good, too, isn't it? The more we read the more aware we, as writers, become of how words can and should flow, of the common mistakes that even copy editors miss, of how to structure successful stories. So I read a lot.<br />
I've also fallen into the blog-hopping business lately. I'm seeing a lot of blog contests on the blogosphere. They're interesting. Simon Larter's recent contest on his blog <a href="http://www.constantrevisions.blogspot.com/">www.constantrevisions.blogspot.com/</a> taught me a new form of writing. It was fun. It was also fun to be one of his five winners. And Simon's blog can be very entertaining so check it out when you have a spare minute (or the writer's block gets too big).<br />
This week Bryan at http://timeguardiansaga.com/blog has a blogfest going called logline/hook line blogfest. I checked that out, along with a few related blogs, and ended up over at the Upstart Crow Literary Agency, reading Chris Richman's blog about hook lines.<a href="http://upstartcrowliterary.com/blog/">http://upstartcrowliterary.com/blog/</a><br />
They should be 25 words or less? Are you freakin' kidding me? If you say so.<br />
I sat down last night and came up with two hook lines under 25 words, each, for my wip that's almost ready to send out and I'm entering them in Bryan's blogfest, just for the fun of it. I do like a good challenge.<br />
So what are your favorite blogs? I'm always open for a few more to read when the muse is sleeping.<br />
<br />k m kellyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201119068196061672noreply@blogger.com0