Here, There be a Writer

Showing posts with label Edna St. Vincent Millay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Edna St. Vincent Millay. Show all posts

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Golden Shovel Poetry and 24 Hour Theatre

I miss yesterday, because some friends and I were making something rather awesome. Theatre in a day! So, with little sleep and 5 very talented dedicated writers and 5 equally talented and dedicated director and a slew of talented and dedicated folks (it was a dedicated crowd). We made art! We made theatre! We made something ALIVE and much larger than ourselves. We made the world smile, laughter, and exist inside the Old Havana Courthouse for over an hour.

It was glorious!

Of course, this means that I feel behind on NaPoWriMo and CampNaNoWriMo. But, it was in the name of art, theatre, and the Clown Porn in my Heart (okay, that was an inside joke. Once I get the DVD of the shows, I might post it. Maybe!) It's a line from my husband, David's show, "...because if I never share the clown porn in my head, I’ll never truly know the clown porn in my heart."

Today I present two poems. One is the Golden Shovel poem, that uses the last word of each sentence is used as the last word of the poem being written. This was created of a Terrance  Hayes, using the poem We Real Cool, by Gwendolyn Brooks.

I am using Edna St. Vincent Millay's poem "First Fig", to Golden Shovel-it! Ha! ~pauses~ That's kind of funny!

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Anyway, I not only desided to write using the last word's of Miss Millay's poem to finish my sentence, but I wrote a second verse using the first word of each sentence (I had to add a line, because It is hard to end on the is 'IT').

Hey, wait a minute....I just did, Dammit. Oh, well, I was experimenting. I hope to like it. It's the feeling I get after a successful show, or when I am hanging with good friends. I also chose Miss Millay's poem, because for this month I am incredibly busy and have felt the burning of the both ends.

First Fig

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends—
It gives a lovely light!


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
My Golden Shovel Poem:

Day's End

Here at the end
at the fading of the light.
Come to me, my Friends--
And sit around the firelight.

Where we can talk of the times my
own memories recall, it
will be a grand time, but,
you can also remember your own, it
will be the best end of this Day's End.

The second poem is today's and it's a simple poem based on the view from my window, except I am not currently inspired by my view, so I am going to write a poem about the view during my Tempest rehearsal this afternoon. It was a beautifully sunny day, blue skies, and relatively warm-ish.

Outside Rehearsal

Blue skies arch across my vision,
as I movement to the theatrical rhythms.
There is the sounds of sweeping as the voice's ring out
of Miranda, Prospero, Stephano,
and Caliban--
criss-crossing the back porch, with cool breezes.
I am at peace,
watching Ariel lead dance Ferdinad across the way
and littlew Wendy running around
tall,
treeish forms of the actors.
It is a moment were the browns of winter's reveal
and the sapphire skies or the most alive.
The Tempest dost not blow within the
confides of the Love yard,
but makes a music all it's own.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

My first love: Poetry!

I really love poetry. It was the first genre and form (can it be both?) that I really sank my teeth into and attempted to write. Mostly in school, but then I started journaling. While the VERY first poems I ever wrote (in 8th grade, I believe) are lost to the winds of great writer's void. I have kept everything since 9th grade. I even started collating them into nifty binders with stickers all over them (I am such a kid sometimes).

No matter what I always come back to poetry for inspiration. I absolutely love the works of Robert Frost, Edger Allen Poe, Edna St. Vincent Millay, and Emily Dickenson. Quite the range of emotions I have there, from the dark and morbid, to the natural and quiet reflective.

When I write poetry I usually write free verse. Sometimes it's better to let it run wild. Other times having a regular pattern that I really can bring out the imagery. I really loved to describe items and concepts. Descriptive language is very much my friend. I thrive on adjectives! Sonnet form is one that I have come to appreciate. Shakespeare has to be added to the list above (I totally forgot). The man had such a way with language. Sometimes I felt that modern language holds no comparison to Shakespeare and his peers. His use of words, language, and imagery is something I would love to be able to write. Maybe the language is archaic, and not as productive to being a modern writer, but it's something that the nerd in me wants to strive for. Maybe that's why I did a sonnet a day for a month. I will revisit the sonnet in future writing endevours. But, for now I am enjoying the more obscure poetic forms that I have been writing this month.

Villanelles
Terzanelles
Triolets
Cinquains
Rondeaus
Haikus
Sonnets





1/19: Smiles (via Christy Holter)

Rondeau: aabba aabR aabbaR

What Makes you Smile

What makes you smile in cascading rivulets of bliss?
For you are not one to easily dismiss
That there are ways with which to create a smile.
I know such matters, do not think I am lacking guile--
To make a smile, all must one do is kiss.

Do not think that I can remiss,
That I would give up a chance and miss
A chance to sing for you. Thus is worthwhile
To see what makes you smile.

Then we can sit awhile to reminisce
Of the times of that and this.
The times that brought to our faces style
A joy, akin to a smile that was most gentile
But do not simply think that I am amiss
That I know not what makes you smile.

1-19-2014 11:28 pm

Sonnet #7 Alberta Clipper (via Sarah Harrison)


Warning of the Alberta Clipper (or The Warm Winds)

The warm winds descend from the Pacific.
My love he is riding across the plains
He is over the mountains specific
and is free to follow the breeze as do the cranes.

While I am lonely on the windward rise
The breeze, I send a gift to my amour.
But, on the leeward side he also cries
For upon the plains, a sadness unsure.

From our reach, the sadness is reeling
Of wind that unleashes upon the lands,
A coldness resembling our heart’s feeling.
Those who huddle between their frozen hands.

Can you feel the wrath of women parted
By unseen forces who would have thwarted?

2-17-2013

They are all very lyrical forms. One could put many of these forms to music, maybe not haiku. But, I would loved to see/hear someone sing a song of haikus. Go ahead, I dare you! :-) Villanelles, terzanelles, and rondeaus were pretty much used by bards back in the renaissance times to compose songs of courtly love, beauty, nature, death, triumph, and tragedy.

Haiku have become a fast favourite over the month. It's the simplicity of the form that speaks to me. I have tried to challenge myself in writing haiku. My friend, Laura, from college is very good at haiku; also there is Haiku Hare (on twitter) who is a favourite. I have even gotten into a few haiku war (or haiku scuffles) with them. That's a good time. Check them out on twitter at Haiku Hare.

[example of the grand Haiku Hare, via twitter]
 
@draconicwitch 
Rhyming in haiku 
Is one thing I love to do. 
This one is for you!

[example of my haiku - 1/11: Ukulele (via Amy Chaplin)]

Ukulele Haiku in Triplet

So little you are
What mighty sounds do you make
With little strumming

O Ukulele
When dost thou play thine notes
The world spins gaily

Mini guitar, you
Make music differently
So verily good


Dear Readers, who are your favourite poets, if you have one? Do you have a favourite form of poetry? Leave me a comment or a poem below. Have a great week and be take care of each other.