Sonnet of Steam Pipe Alley

You know what's harder than writing a sonnet about Green Day, it writing a sonnet about the 80's kid's show Steam Pipe Alley and all in iambic pentameter too. Seeing as I knew next to nothing about the show, it wasn't one I watched with regularity, but from clips that David has shown me. It seems to have been a kid's game show with silly tasks to do to win prizes, some skits, and cartoon. It reminds me of Double Dare, Weinerville, and Commander Tom, but on crack! Hope you enjoy!

Screen shot of the show

Steam Pipe Alley (or A Long Time Ago…)

A long time ago the television

Saw the likes of one, Mario Cantone.

The games that were featured were the reason

For other such shows that were to be shown.

Do you remember that time when Mario was…

Imitating the great Sammy Davis?

When he introduced the game because…

All were there and waiting for the bonus.

You see, she had to find the hidden prize,

Somewhere deep inside a dish of stuffing

But there are rules; this is not a surprise,

She cannot use her hands and so she is laughing.

The funniest thing that has been conceived--

To see, because I wouldn’t have believed.

7/20/2013

How to write a Sonnet (the Easy Way!)

Sonnets are a lovely forms of poetry and a lyrical jungle gym, but when you know what a sonnet is and how it's made up then it's easier to take a crack at writing them. For me sonnets are like little stories. In many ways that's how Shakespeare presents his sonnets. Let's take one of mine and dissect it.

The first thing to understand about a sonnet is it's composition. Sonnets are made up of 3 quatrains (stanza with 4 lines in purple) and a couplet (a 2 line stanza in blue). There is a rhyme scheme in the sonnet that goes - quatrain #1: A, B, A, B; #2 C, D, C, D; #3 E, F, E, F; Couplet G, G. ie: SUPPORT = RAPPORT and OTHER = MOTHER

Built like children’s blocks to form a support A
They are so stacked one upon each other B
A towering form that has a rapport A
With the spine, as a child to a mother. B

Together they are made strong as a whole, C
But separate they know are wavering. D
Married by right in a love of the soul C
That only they are now both savouring. D

There is one course that could rip asunder E
A love true and so bodily in realm. F
A storm that has come and brought the thunder E
And a bolt of lightening that broke their helm. F

A divorce that neither would they have sought G
When those, the careless could have brought it nought. G

Now that we have the structure, let's discuss the Iambic Pentameter! OOOOO, big word thingie!!! Iambic Pentameter is not as scary as you would think. Yes, it takes a bit of practice. To break it down, each line of the sonnet, both quatrain and couplet, is made up of Iambic Feet (a foot is a stressed and unstressed syllable). Each line has 5 Iambic Feet, roughly 10 syllables, "Built like children’s blocks to form a support." Note how the each colour has 2 syllables, making each colour a foot.  After many tries I think I have balanced the unstressed and stressed syllables, but I also am still learning and am not quite the expert, yet. If you have tips, please share them in the comments box, on how to build proper Iambic Feet. I find that after a number of tries you notice the rhyme of the sonnet. It could almost be sung. This is a sign you have the idea, or the rhythm.

With that, the next step is to write. You can't very well learn to writ sonnets without actually writing. I would recommend just picking a topic and writing. Don't worry about rhyming or iambic pentameter, just write a basic poem in the outline of the sonnet (using the 3 quatrain and a couplet.). After to get your rough draft sonnet then go back and figure out the rhyme and the iambic pentameter. I like to use THE THESAURUS  (online version) and THE RHYMER (online version) to help with finding the right words and rhymes, you can use real books too. I also, spent a lot of time clapping out the rhythm of the lines. Use whatever means when help you to get the Iambic Pentameter right.

If jumping right in to write whole sonnets is a bit daunting, then start by writing couplets, using rhyme and iambic pentameter. Start simple and build up! You have the potential! I believe in you! So, go out there and write some sonnets! Let's bring back the art of poetry back into the mainstream! ~w00t~ Okay, well, I hope I inspired you to write. Feel free to post your own sonnets in the comment box. I would LOVE  to see what you guys come up with.

Here is one of the Bard's Sonnets (for more sonnets see Shakespeare's Sonnets):


SONNET 1

From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,
His tender heir might bear his memory:
But thou contracted to thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,
Thy self thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel:
Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament,
And only herald to the gaudy spring,
Within thine own bud buriest thy content,
And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding:
   Pity the world, or else this glutton be,
   To eat the world's due, by the grave and thee.

Life in the last 2 weeks...

So, in the past 2 weeks I have finished my month long sonnet-a-day project and hosted 24 Hour Theatre. I am quite pooped, but very satisfied with how it all went down. I am not one to sit idly by for long. This is a story of a number of things that brought me to this point, so important lessons that have change my outlook.

See, 2012 was a VERY busy year for me, actually it started sooner, the 2012 was truly a busy year. Back in august of 2011 I was laid-off I was suddenly not busy without having a job to go to. I threw myself into theatre. It's one of my hobbies, and a solstice to the long boring days of unemployment. I was asked to assistant direct a production of "Sweeney Todd" quite the endevour. I enjoyed the thrill and challenge and learned a great many things about the theatre arts. After Sweeney, there was the Christmas shows and auditions for "A Midsummer's Night Dream"; I got cast as Bottom. That was the first 5 month of 2012. I also became employed again, and I still was doing all manners of theatre, Oliver! in the Summer and then directing Charlotte's Web in the Fall. The whole time I was swept into a world of imagination and music. By the time I hit Thanksgiving I was ready for a break.  At that time I had also decided that I was going to devote more time to writing.

I wrote a novel through "National Novel Writing Month" (NaNoWriMo) in November 2011, and started writing stories, poetry, anything. By Fall 2012, I was so busy with Charlotte's Web that NaNo was not an option, but I still wanted to write. I start "Here, There by a Writer" in November 2012 as a blog. It was partially because the post show crash with Charlotte was harder than any other show I had done previous. I had given 'birth' to a theatre baby and that kind of emotional rush is hard to let go of. So, I blogged about it. That lead to a previous idea that I had had, about trying to go free lance with my writing. I had proven that I could write and write to some degree of  skill. "Here, There be a Writer" was the perfect outlet. So, I brainstormed ideas and concepts of things I wanted to research and write about. Sometimes it was an interview with someone, other times it was a retrospective on something from my childhood, or even a top 10 list of something that inspired me.

The blog almost 4 month old, and I do not feel that it's slowing down. I blogged about sonnets one day, after I decide that I wanted to try writing in Iambic Pentameter. That was the beginning of the month long project and to make it a challenge I chose to still blog one a week and write a sonnet-a-day. Even more of a challenge was when I ask friends for sonnet topics. This lent itself to some interesting topics and some creative telling, or retelling of stories, ranging from Vertebrae to cheese and numerous Doctor Who related topics.

I did it! I wrote 31 sonnets (from February 11 to March 14th) which was when I wrote my last sonnet (well, not last, but the last for this project). It was a fun and awesome ride. I learned a few things about writing and myself in that month.

1. Iambic Pentameter is not as hard as you think to write it. After a while you well often write the right number of iambic feet in a sentence (line).
2. Rhyme is hard, but not difficult. I still haven't mastered writing rhyme on the first draft of a sonnet. There are get tools that make writing sonnets easy. Rhymer.com is a rhyming site, very handy for getting the right word to match the rhyme.
3. Thesaurus's are your friend. Whether it's an online one, or a real book version, a thesaurus is very useful. I think it also helps increase one's vocabulary.

I feel more confident with my writing after this month of literary happenstance. There are other poem styles that I want to revisit, forms that I wrote back in college, but haven't touch since then (Villianelles, Terzenelles, Sestinas). I also feel that I get inspired more after writing these sonnets.

 Sonnet # 3 Sealed with a Postage Stamp: A Sonnet (or, I will seal my love)

Postage Stamp

I will seal my love with the confines here,

A token of myself that I give to

You. I see you from far, you shed a tear

I am not by your side. What do you do?

A letter you do write, upon the page--

Words you craft by your hand from your own heart

To tell me the love that rests within, Sage

wise, know that words can cause us two, to part.

With that knowledge you still mail your passion

To me, within a poem of your own speak.

You have sealed and stamped in careful fashion

And to the post you go without a creak.

The sign you pass allows you by, to place

                                                                       the letter to one that makes your heart race.

 


Something else that has brought a change in how I view myself and the world is a book and the author of this book. My really dear friend who lives in another state, had told me about this inspirational book by this writer friend of hers. He was giving away digital copies of this book. She recommended I that read it. she said it would change my life. It was a short read. You should give it a try.

Okay, I said. I went and downloaded this book. I wasn't sure what to expect. I am not really the inspirational type. But, I told her I would read it. I mean, it was free, right? It wasn't going to cost me anything. Maybe just an evening, a few hours of reading. I read it...

...and I cried! I found it very open. Almost as if this man was baring his soul to me. It reminded me of all the times I would go to Perkins with my best friend and we would talk, baring our souls to each other. This man was telling me about his life, the hardships, the joys, the lessons, and the the realizations. I saw myself in some of these moments. I saw that even after everything he still kept going. He found a way past those 'speed bumps' of life and made his dreams into reality. I was left with a sense of wonder, that if this man, this random man on the other side of the country can pull himself up out of the mistakes he made and find joy in the everyday, then certainly I could too. That was my introduction to James Owen and "Drawing Out the Dragons." I have never been the same after.

Not long after I read "Drawing Out the Dragons" there came "The Barbizon Dairies" book two in a trilogy series call "The Meditations". I bought the digital version of Dairies and read it from my computer in a few hours (not owning a Kindle or Nook). I balled! I sat there and  cried! Afterward I came to realize something, something that James was trying so hard to teach others. No matter what, you, YOU have a choice in how you live, you feel, and make your own way through this life. It's so much more than that, but sometimes word fail me when trying to explain something that  is so very important and very  emotional for me. I even told James in a poem (actually to poems, one a free verse and one a sonnet) what my heart felt  after reading his meditations. I cannot accept feeling sorry for myself, when there's a life to live, books to read, movie to watch, and choices to make.

I used many of James' phiolosophies in my directing of my Charlotte cast, to help them bring out their own great, their own personal brand of awesome. This is the quote that went with each of my emails to my cast!

"Purpose is the reason;

Will is the means;
and Will guided by
Purpose leads to Aréte:
the fulfillment of one’s
potential for
excellence..."

James tells people that all it really takes is one person to tell you that they believe in you, and that start a chain reaction of goodness and awesome that awakens the soul. "I Believe in You!" It's a small sentence, but it packs a punch. I DO NOT say this unless I mean it! I had my Wilbur, in her first show, with some intense stage nerves. I kid you not, I told her that I believed in her, and the young lady wowed 3 nights of audience members that weekend.

I just headed up an event called 24 Hour Theatre that my friend Sara Love introduced me too 2 years ago with one of the theatre groups I perform with (there are about 4 or 5 theatre organizations in the area where I live). I decide to bring this concept to my home theatre group. You create theatre in 1 day! Writers write shows the night before, then the next day directors and actors bring the shows to life. I found 6 teams of writers to write 6 shows and 6 directors to direct these shows, and about 20 actors to act in these show. Again I have taken James philosophies to boater the creative energies of these people and make something truly amazing, beautiful, and awesome.

"The focus of one's life and work

should not be on enduring trials,

which everyone has, but on finding, seizing,

and exulting in those rare moments of 

Transcendent Joy."

"Choices are cumulative, but the results are

not always  apparent, or immediate."

"If you really want to do something,

no one can stop you;

but if you really don't want to do something,

no one can help you."

I saw people working together to make stories come to life. I saw blossoming writers and directors who were coming alive by the chance I gave them. I saw new friendships begin. I saw people from different theatre groups working together. It has made me so happy to known that I have helped create this beautiful moment. It has given me purpose to a previously failing attitude that I had been holding onto. Not only has James bolstered my writing confidence, but he has helped me to see that I can help others.

I would recommend "Drawing out the Dragons" and "The Barbizon Dairies" to anyone looking for a little help. maybe a hand to hold crossing the bridge, riding the bike, or just a dark in the dark. I cannot wait for the final book in the Meditation Trilogy, "The Grand Design". My heart is lighter and I enjoy waking up more (well, as long as I have my coffee too). Thank you James!!

I am working on another script for a script writing contest and still blogging about pretty much anything. I even made up a story for 2 1/2 year old Wendy Love and am going to make a book version of the story for her 3rd birthday. I am going to write. You see, I have this dream, to be a writer and I am going to pursue it...

...For Here, There be a Writer!

Iambic Pentameter and Beyond

I am going to post a sonnet that I wrote in iambic pentameter. While is not that great (compared to Will's work), it a solid attempt, certainly for a first attempt using iambic pentameter.

See, it is very hard. I am writing a blog for each day this week (a challenge to stretch my mind to it's limits). This means I need to have something to write about each day. Well, then I came up with my Sonnet-a-Day for a month project. I feel like this week I could cross over for seven days. That feels like cheating. I need really content! Today is iambic pentameter day (so decreed by me).

Okay, I am rambling! The sonnet written in iambic pentameter. To give me credit, I did sit down and one. I counted the syllables, stressed and unstressed. It might not be perfect, but I feel that I got what The Bard was going for. It was hard. Yes! REALLY hard! Trying to get the right amount of "Iambic Feet" (a stressed and unstressed syllable) and 5 of them in ONE line. Then to make matters worse, rhyming every other lines. 3 quatrains with rhyme and a couplet.

Wow! I feel literate. After all the the poems I have personally written, or written for various classes over the years, (and that's a lot). Trust me, I feel great! It might be a small accomplishment to some, but to write a sonnet, with rhyme, and in iambic pentameter. That's wow! That's AWESOME!

I am normally used to free verse. I just write and go. When I stick to form, I go for Haiku. They are one of my favourite poetic form. They are easy to write, but also,  eastern thought and eastern poetry makes me happy. While in college I had to write a villanelle and terzanelle for my "Intro to Creative Writing" with prof. Lord. They had a definite form and rhyme scheme. I really took to them. Wikipedia's definition: villanelle is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets (3 line stanza) followed by a quatrain (4 line stanza) and the first and third lines repeat thorughout the poem. It's a very song-like form. One could put music to some villanelles. Here is my first attempt at a villanelle back in 1997:

Entity: A Villanelle

Here comes the darkness that engulfs the eyes

in a mass of acrid bile; it burns alive.

All in disguise?

Purely by surprise

among the ancient ruins it does dive,

the darkness that engulfs the eyes.

Of the times, it has tried to die

it never thought to contrive

that it was all in disguise.

Never given a chance to try 

there are now only five

left alive, left of the darkness that engulfs the eyes.

Why all sudden lying?

No longer will it survive,

in the end, it is a disguise.

It rises

and it writhes

the darkness that engulfs the eyes

in all; it is a disguise.

 Dylan Thomas one of the most famous villanelle out there:

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

The other form that I was introduced to in my creative writing class was as a Terzanelle, also a 19 line poem. This is very similar to the villanelle, but with a terzanelle, the middle line of each stanza is repeated as the last line of the next stanza. Likewise, the first and third line of the first stanza repeat in the final quatrain. The Terzanelle also has a rhyme scheme making it also song-like .

A Moment

Jays chatter wild among the trees

they spiral slowly earthward.

I see three

who leap skyward

heading to a warm place.

They spiral slowly earthward--

their tails, delicate like lace,

only blue.

Heading to a warm place

there are only a few

 feathers that fall like heather;

tall and filled of hue.

Cold turns the weather

bitter; it bites the wings.

Feathers that fall like heather

are funny little things.

Jays chatter wild in the trees.

The cold, it bites the wings

and I see three.

Okay, enough of the old college poetry, you came here to read some sonnets. I now I present my  freshly typed sonnet, written in iambic pentameter (first time ever). This sonnet is dedicated to Adichappo, who gave me my first topic in my month of sonnets. It's day two of sonnet month!

Lord Oberon

Oh, thy Fair Face

Oh, thy fair face, that graces my own eye

From the farther oceans you have traveled.

Coasting in to the bay, your tears, they cry--

From the hardest journey that you reveled.

You realize that your world is far from you.

This land is fresh and green from the long rains

And your elfin heart soars at the sky blue

Of the new home you have long sought in vain.

The magic has returned to your slight hands

Now that your feet are on the land once more

And can feel the earthen power, so grand.

That you, gazing across, can feel you soar--

Your home is now amongst my folk and will

Sing together in a harmony still.