Nightingale's Song

Today prompts is a little different. I have quite had anything like this since high school. Find an Emily Dickenson poem, remove the breaks, dashes, and punctuation. Then re-break the poem, add and/or remove words to create a new poem. I have read some of Emily's work, but not well enough to know if this will work. Going to try though. It feels weird to take a poem and basically re-write it. Anyway enjoy, Dear Readers.

I tried to put me into the poem, as I thought that maybe Emily might have put herself into the poem, or at least someone into the poem's world. I looked up Currer Bell and that is the pseudonym of Charlotte Bronte. Hmmm!!

NaPoWriMo prompt: As you may know, although Dickinson is now considered one of the most original and finest poets the United States has produced, she was not recognized in her own time. One reason her poems took a while to gain a favorable reception is their slippery, dash-filled lines. Those dashes baffled her readers so much that the 1924 edition of her complete poems replaced some with commas, and did away with others completely. Today’s exercise asks you to do something similar, but in the interests of creativity, rather than ill-conceived “correction.” Find an Emily Dickinson poem – preferably one you've never previously read – and take out all the dashes and line breaks. Make it just one big block of prose. Now, re-break the lines. Add words where you want. Take out some words. Make your own poem out of it! (Not sure where to find some Dickinson poems? Here’s 59 Dickinson poems to select from).

All Over By Cunning Moss (original)

All overgrown by cunning moss,

All interspersed with weed,

The little cage of “Currer Bell”

In quiet “Haworth” laid.

This Bird – observing others

When frosts too sharp became

Retire to other latitudes –

Quietly did the same –

But differed in returning –

Since Yorkshire hills are green –

Yet not in all the nests I meet –

Can Nightingale be seen –

Nightingale's Song (re-write)

All this,
   overgrown by cunning moss
   interspersed with weeds.
She feels alone.

The little cage that holds
   the other me,
   within the quiet glades
   where Clark's laid, is home.

And this bird, me,
   observing others of her kind
   and the frosts too sharp
   retired then to other latitudes.

Sad.

Quietly,
   are the same, but different.
   This she knows.
Oh, how I know!

In returning,
   to the Chautauqua hills
   where birthed to life,
   anew and becoming verdant
   yet not at all
She seems alone.

Nightingale can be seen,
can be heard singing now.

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.