Category: New Things

April 22, 2010 (and Happy Earth Day)

On By Suzanne B. LeitnerIn Intervals, My Poetry, New Things, Poetry, ReadingLeave a comment

Today’s device from William Packard’s The Poet’s Dictionary: A Handbook of Prosody and Poetic Devices is

Macaronics:  The use of foreign words to enrich the texture of DICTION in a poetic line.  The most common practice of macaronics is the mixture of vernacular worlds with Latin words, but macaronics can be any combination of two or more languages in any given passage.

I tried to use today’s device as a forced writing exercise, comfortable in the notion that poets all over the country are doing something similar, either through a collective daily writing prompt, or some other self-imposed practice.  In other words, what follows is a draft – but I’m sure it isn’t the only draft on the internet today!  Thanks for reading! Continue reading “April 22, 2010 (and Happy Earth Day)” →

My Inauspicious Return

On By Suzanne B. LeitnerIn My Poetry, New Things, Poetry, Reading1 Comment

Virtual life had to give way to real life for the last 3 days, so I will carry National Poetry Month three days into May in order to fulfill my stated purpose of a poem a day in celebration of poetry.

Today’s device from William Packard’s The Poet’s Dictionary:  A Handbook of Prosody and Poetic Devices is (oh, dear)

    Limerick:  Usually anonymous five-line light verse poem, generally with surprise or eccentric RHYMES, with first and second and fifth lines in anapestic trimeter [ . . / . . /. . / ], and with a rhyme scheme of a/a/b/b/a.  Limericks often play on geographical or proper names, and commonly treat an outrageous subject irreverently.

    Critical comment on the limerick tends to stress its anti-literary pedigree; thus Arnold Bennett said, “All I have to say about limericks is that the best ones are entirely unprintable.”  George Bernard Shaw commented, “They are most unfit for publication.  They must be left for oral tradition.”  Film director Mike Nichols, commenting on a limerick contest he was once asked to judge said, “It was easy.  We just threw out the dirty limericks and gave the prize to the one that was left.”

    Commenting on the technical effect of a limerick, Morris Bishop wrote in The New York Times Book Review: “The structure should be a rise from the commonplace reality of line one to logical madness in line five.” Continue reading “My Inauspicious Return” →

I Cheated the Prompt, and then I Cheated Myself: April 14 Poem

On By Suzanne B. LeitnerIn Making Mistakes, My Poetry, New Things, Poetry, ReadingLeave a comment

There is only one entry under “J” in William Packard’s The Poet’s Dictionary: A Handbook of Prosody and Poetic Devices, but all is well.  My inability to write anything illustrating the particular tradition described therein has led me back to an old mountain song my grandmother used to sing, to Peggy Seeger’s website, and, ultimately, to a new poem … and maybe even a series of new poems.  Today’s device:

Jongleur:  Roughly from the fifth to the fifteenth centuries, throughout France and Tuscany and northern Italy, Jongleurs were entertainers (acrobats, actors, musicians, singers) who originally wandered from town to town offering their arts for a fee.  Later, these Jongleurs became official fixtures of the various European courts as jesters, clowns, and  reciters of poetry.

At first the Jongleur did not create his own poems but drew from a repertory of ballata and canti and chansons de geste, but by the twelfth century the minstrels or trouvères or Troubadours of Provencal and Tuscany were writing their own poems to be sung.

So, the Jongleur tradition is a tradition of sharing poems through song.  Packard further explains, about the Troubadour:

The Troubadour poet (from tobar, to invent; also from trouvère, to find) usually sang of courtly love – the ethereal, extramarital praise of any Lady who inspired the poet to virtue and to moral excellence and achievement.  Sometimes the Troubadour’s songs followed specific conventions, as the following list indicates:
canzo – song of love
balada – story in verse
plante – elegy or dirge for a lost lover
serenade – evening song
alba – dawn song, when lovers realize day has come and they must part

Continue reading “I Cheated the Prompt, and then I Cheated Myself: April 14 Poem” →

Poem for April 12: Back to the Dictionary

On By Suzanne B. LeitnerIn My Poetry, New Things, Poetry, ReadingLeave a comment

Today’s poetic device from William Packard’s The Poet’s Dictionary: A Handbook of Prosody and Poetic Devices, is

Haiku: Japanese short form poem, sometimes called hokku, with origins as far back as the thirteenth century. Haiku are written syllabically with seventeen separate syllables arranged in three STANZAS according to a 5/7/5 count.

Every traditional haiku uses a kigo, or season word, to specify whether the poem is of a winter, spring, summer, or autumn mood. Traditional haiku will also be characterized by rensō, or loose association of disparate images, and contain an elliptical leap from the second to the third line which simulates sudden zen satori, or enlightenment, illumination of the true nature of reality.

I was thinking about the word “Spring” earlier today, so I’ll just stay with that idea.  Here is my draft haiku for today.

“Spring.” Such a plain word.
Take note: green leaves, new buds, grass.
“Spring.” The perfect word.

April 10 Poem

On By Suzanne B. LeitnerIn New Things, Poetry, Reading1 Comment

I have said many times that the region where I live is thickety-full of talented writers and poets.  My home state has boasted many a fine writer, and given shelter to other fine writers who have come here from elsewhere, but have made North Carolina home.  I have no doubt that the beauty of the state, in part, lures some and convinces them to stay; but I am also certain that the discovery of so many “of their own kind” is a big part of the reason some writers settle here.

I consider myself fortunate to be acquainted with many of the writers in my region;  I am blessed to call a few of them “friend.”

One such friend is the talented poet, Ann Campanella.  Ann is the author of three books of poetry and has many credits to her name, not the least of which is having been named the recipient of the North Carolina Poetry Society’s Poet Laureate Award – twice!  One of those poems is the poem I choose to share today.

Today’s poetic device, from William Packard’s The Poet’s Dictionary: A Handbook of Prosody and Poetic Devices, is

Georgic:  Any didactic poem that instructs or teaches a skill in some art or science.

I might make the argument that every good poem is Georgic, either directly or indirectly.  Of course, I’ve been known to make quite a few arguments.  I have also been known to bend rules until they are unrecognizable.

As I read the above definition, I thought, “Oh!  A ‘How to’ poem.”  As soon as those words came into my mind, so did the title of Ann’s 2001 award-winning poem, How to Grieve.  I don’t know whether it is, technically, Georgic, but I do know it is beautiful.  I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for reading!