Bearing poetry

[avram]

It’s odd. I’ve written poems before (not terribly good ones), but I don’t have a firm grasp on how to do it. Usually raw inspiration takes me far enough that all my conscious mind has to do is fill in the blanks. But then, I usually write parodies, where I’ve got a scaffolding to work with.

The idea that popped into my head on the way back from grocery-buying isn’t a parody. It’s a realization of a connection between a couple of widely-separated events in the life of a biblical character, and a touch of sympathy with how that character must have felt. I’ve got a few images, and a rough idea of how to use them as repeating lines, and I’ve done enough research to know that neither the villanelle (my repeating lines don’t rhyme) nor the triolet (much too short and constrained) is the right form for it. I may not go with a formal form.

And it’s a bitter thing. It’s probably not doing me good to dwell on it.

So, any of the habitual poets out there have any advice?

Comments

[kathrynt.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- if you don't choose a traditional form, choose a dominant rhythmic scheme (iambs, trochees, whatever) at the very least. That will make it sound like poetry. I wrote a piece of blank verse at the age of 16 which, while not really very good, is still lovely to hear:

I shall weave you a necklace of bright stars, to wind about your dusky throat.
I shall forge you a crown of sunlight and moonbeams to rest on your long dim hair.
And wrapped in a gown of emerald silk, which shall catch on the grass as you walk,
You shall go out in the night like the queen that you are to be seated amongst the stars.

All the art in that is from the rhythms.

[gentlyepigrams]

I am old-fashioned and like rhyming poetry. But I mostly write doggerel for games, and cannot be considered a Real Poet.

When I get the poetry bug, I drag down _The Complete Rhyming Dictionary_, ed. Clement Wood, which was published in the 1930s and has a better explanation of various poetic forms than I think I ever got in high school.

If you want the advice of a Real Poet, ask Jim Henley, who is published and everything, and would undoubtedly be flattered to be asked.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about formal forms as defined, but having some idea of a fixed shape in your head can give you a scaffolding -- it doesn't matter if your repeating line is always ninth, as long as it's always ninth. I often find that constraint gives freedom, weird as it seems.

I wrote nothing but parodies for years.

Go for it. I'll be very interested to read it.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

I am big on formal poetry, and one of my favorite resources is John Hollander's Rhyme's Reason (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0300043066/102-0571278-1540928?vi=glance). I recommend leafing through it at a brick'n'mortar bookstore and seeing if anything speaks to you, form-wise. Or there are plenty of other resources (http://dmoz.org/Arts/Literature/Poetry/Forms/Fixed_Verse_Forms/) on verse forms.

I also think that you can riff on existing forms without adopting *all* their constraints. If you want an unrhymed villanelle, fine; play with it awhile and see how it runs.

Who is your Biblical character? Every Shavuot I think about Ruth and how I'd like to write something to flesh out her experiences.

[avram]

Moses. My working title is "The view from Mount Nebo".

Like I said, it's a bitter thing, and I'm probably best off just putting it aside until more of it forces itself on me.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i always return to l. turco's "a new book of forms" for forms galore. but it doesn't matter that much if you have a strong idea for a form anyway; you can always make up a new one. for poems with non-rhyming repetons i would suggest a pantoum; you'll need to rhyme *with* your repetons (and you'll have more repetons) but if you have two to start with they needn't rhyme with one another.

after that, i'd suggest going for euphony. write a poem that sounds good. worry about that as you write, and imho you'll end up with better results than if you aim for emotional accuracy or anything else :)

FWIW, Chris owns Rhyme's Reason.

[(Anonymous)]

It's awesome, and I'd be glad to lend it to you for inspiration.

I have other books on poetry that are also at your disposal. Another suggestion is to leaf through some poet you like and try to find a poem to imitate, by which I don't mean parody.

I imagine that if all else fails, your ideas will be worth reading in prose too.