| A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness. Edith Wharton (1862 – 1937) |
A good friend of mine Joy Cagil shared this awesome link from Signature Guide To Writing. They have a link where you can receive a free pdf guide to writing poetry. I’m passing it along to you. No one can ever know too much when it comes to poetry.
You can ask for it from this link:
http://www.signature-reads.com/guides/the-writers-guide-to-poetry
Plus if you are like me trying to get your writing out there here’s a link for contests to enter your work.
http://www.christopherfielden.com/short-story-tips-and-writing-advice/poetry-contests.php
April 1-April 30th is National Poetry Month. I am excited 30 days, 30 poems. Yay, I can do this.
So can you!
“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”
A Dream is one of the countless poems Poe has written, a poem that contains imagery, symbolism, and a profound theme that explains how a dream can cause hope as well as sorrow. My attraction to Poe has always been because of the dark topics he focused his work on. Last year I shared my very favorite Annabel Lee and also the Raven. Anyone that reads poetry is familiar with the Raven, it’s a classic. But if asked are they familiar with some of his other great poems probably not. I hope you enjoy reading some of his less known works as much as I do.
A Dream Within a Dream by Edgar Allen Poe
Take this kiss upon the brow!
And, in parting from you now,
Thus much let me avow —
You are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, or in a day,
In a vision, or in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand —
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep — while I weep!
O God! Can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see or seem
But a dream within a dream?
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.”~Poe
In the first stanza, “In visions of the dark knight, I have dreamed of joy departed- But a waking dream of life and light, Hath left me broken-hearted.” Poe relates his feelings about his desire and the sorrow felt. Poe’s intention was to show how a dream may be the only hope you have, but it is only a lie in reality. Another example is “Ah! what is not a dream by day, To him whose eyes are cast… Hath cheered me as a lovely beam. Poe is talking to himself about his confusions and emotions when having a dream in the middle of a horrible life he is living in. He wrote the poem in his perspective, and we know this by the figurative language he used to show intimacy. The poem discusses motivation, anxiety, and the false hope you get when dreaming, only to wake up knowing it was never true. It is still very relatable today.
He uses literary devices such as metaphor, simile, personification, symbolism, imagery, and others to show a deeper understanding of dreams and the dynamic but deceitful images that they show us. These devices are fundamental to the development and creation and allow Poe to expand his ideas to a greater extent.
To One in Paradise by Edgar Allen Poe
Thou wast that all to me, love,
For which my soul did pine–
A green isle in the sea, love,
A fountain and a shrine,
All wreathed with fairy fruits and flowers,
And all the flowers were mine.
Ah, dream too bright to last!
Ah, starry Hope! that didst arise
But to be overcast!
A voice from out the Future cries,
“On! on!”–but o’er the Past
(Dim gulf!) my spirit hovering lies
Mute, motionless, aghast!
For, alas! alas! with me
The light of Life is o’er!
“No more–no more–no more”–
(Such language holds the solemn sea
To the sands upon the shore)
Shall bloom the thunder-blasted tree,
Or the stricken eagle soar!
And all my days are trances,
And all my nightly dreams
Are where thy dark eye glances,
And where thy footstep gleams–
In what ethereal dances,
By what eternal streams!
Alas! for that accursed time
They bore thee o’er the billow,
From love to titled age and crime,
And an unholy pillow!
From me, and from our misty clime,
Where weeps the silver willow!
“We loved with a love that was more than love.”~Poe
Poe’s sad poem, To One in Paradise, deals with the loss of a significant other something most of us are familiar with or will be. The narrator says that love between he and the lady was all he ever wanted. He compares the object of his affection to various tangible elements in life. He feels that the love he and the woman shared was too good to last; now his one, true love affair is over, fallen victim to the grave. He is so distraught that he assures the reader that even nature will echo his pain. He was a dead man walking, miserable and alone. In this, we see how the universal love and death theme applies.
Writing is a socially acceptable form of getting naked in public.
– Paulo Coelho
“World Poetry Day is on 21 March, and was declared by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1999. The purpose of the day is to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world ‘to give fresh recognition and impetus to national, regional and international poetry movements’.”
Acrostic poetry is where the first letter of each line spells a word, usually using the same words as in the title. A twist on the acrostic is using the alphabet as the first letter of word in the line.
In this poem I’ve chosen to use the alphabet acrostic to tell you about me.
A-Z of Lyn Poem
Author of In My Shoes, My Poetic Journey from Abuse to Victory
Brilliant at times, usually in the kitchen
Crocheter, chef, I love wearing different caps
Deliberate who me, I’m an angel of sorts
Energetic daily, life is to short not to be
Fiber oh please, I am not that old
Grains a bowl of cheerios, how can you go wrong
Habitual why yes I am, guilty of loving routines
Involved in too many things at one time
Jovial usually, negativity does not suit me
Kinky I have my moments ask my spouse
Liberal indeed I am, I am very open minded.
Mom, to four wonderful children and nine awesome grandchildren
Nice that’s been said a time or two
Optimistic more often than not that would be the Irish in me
Pessimistic seldom, and If I am a good Irish whiskey will cure it
Quilter with a serious fabric stash
Reads avidly particularly history and biographies
Silent type not hardly, I am definitely opinionated
Typical never, I’m an Irish lass
Unique very so I am told
Vindictive no, in the long run it is not worth it
Wicked yes I am a Mainer
Xi fourteenth letter in Greek alphabet
Yes I play scrabble, actually very lucky at it
Zealous, I am indeed devoted to my family and friends.
I saw a picture on Marilyn Armstong’s WordPress that I really liked in black and white. Typically, people do not favor landscapes in black and white but I am one of the oddities. I genuinely love black and white photography. I decided to blog today on another passion of mine that gives me creative license to be different.
This is a picture I took of a seagull when we were visiting Cape May, New Jersey. It has only been cropped and watermarked in the above picture. I love watching them swoop in the breeze over the ocean.
This is the same picture with it sharpened and brightened.
This is the same picture in black and white without any sharpening or added filtering.
This is the final image with denim filtering over the black and white picture. This is my favorite take on the picture because of the way the filter allows the black and white to maintain intensity while adding just a minute coloring to the sky in the backdrop.Photo
Photography to me is like creating a poem. One poet may choose one word and another a different word leaving everything else the same but the poem will have a different feel to the reader.
I know for me when my muse is being resistant I grab my camera and open my mind to different surroundings and when I look at them through the focus of a lens my muse engages.
Thank you Marilyn for the inspiration. I hope you check out her landscapes and let me know which you love best.
I’m fascinated with creating poetry whether it be from a quote or an excerpt from another poet that inspired me or simply a blank page compelling me to write. If you think about it are our pages blank. We have ghosts of other poems, songs, catchphrases, even those silly tv jingles cast shadows on our blank page.
Do you remember that famous T.S. Eliot quote “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different.”
I love making something from something else. Think of it as recycling creativity into a different creativity. Poetry, crafts, cooking, photography and other hobbies or passions it’s something as artists we share in common by deriving pleasure from old things to new things or vice versa.
A boiled corn beef dinner with potatoes, carrots, cabbage and onions for St. Patrick’s Day dinner. Hash on Saturday with diced beets added. Healthy eating. 🙂
Yards of fabric cut up and pieced back together a quilt. That same quilt invites the best cuddles ever on a cold evening. I’ve got two different ones in progress, I love learning new patterns.
Where does inspiration take you?
W.S.Merwin says it the best, “I think there’s a kind of desperate hope built into poetry now that one really wants, hopelessly, to save the world. One is trying to say everything that can be said for the things that one loves while there’s still time. I think that’s a social role, don’t you? …We keep expressing our anger and our love, and we hope, hopelessly perhaps, that it will have some effect.”
I read a lot of different styles of poetry every day. I believe the key to writing good poetry is to immerse one’s self. This particular one by Collins I find stimulating because I love how Collins uses descriptive phrases like sunflash of trumpets, rows of roadside trees, the huge blue sheet of the sky, into a pasture of high grass than drops the reader at the dizzying cliffs of morality. Life is definitely too short to miss all the sun-flash and dazzle of life.
Late Fragment by Raymond Carver
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
| Happiness by Raymond Carver So early it’s still almost dark out. I’m near the window with coffee, and the usual early morning stuff that passes for thought. When I see the boy and his friend walking up the road to deliver the newspaper. They wear caps and sweaters, and one boy has a bag over his shoulder. They are so happy they aren’t saying anything, these boys. I think if they could, they would take each other’s arm. It’s early in the morning, and they are doing this thing together. They come on, slowly. The sky is taking on light, though the moon still hangs pale over the water. Such beauty that for a minute death and ambition, even love, doesn’t enter into this. Happiness. It comes on unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really, any early morning talk about it. |
Carver wrote powerful poetry that reminds us to live in the moment.
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