April 24, 2010

On By Suzanne B. LeitnerIn 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

Oxymoron:  A radical paradox; a conjunction of extreme opposites.  “Dry ice is so cold that it burns” is an example of oxymoron.

In poetry, oxymoron also functions metaphorically (see METAPHOR) to express a state of ambivalence or contradiction. …

Old Lamb
(by Suzanne Baldwin Leitner)

“What did the tired nurse
say to the complaining
patient?
‘Take your Oxy
Moron.'”

And that’s what
every interminable
minute was like
with him: a slow
trot from one
sad joke
to the next.

April 23, 2010: Just say noh (oh, brother)

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

From William Packard’s The Poet’s Dictionary: A Handbook of Prosody and Poetic Devices:

Noh:  A tradition in Japanese poetry and theater that is over six hundred years old; called “the immeasurable scripture” because it is a synthesis of song and dance and poetry and drama and religion. …

Well, obviously no noh happens in one sitting, and it won’t be happening here! My only other option under “N” is a cross-reference (NARRATIVE  See DRAMATIC-NARRATIVE POETRY; GENRES) and I am too much of a purist to fool with cross references for this exercise.

We shall, however, honor the Japanese poetry form with a tanka.  Thanks for reading!

Thunderstorm

The calm that settles
over us before a storm
is a counterfeit;
it is not fury’s absence.
It is fury coiling up.

-Suzanne Baldwin Leitner

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)” →

April 21, 2010

On By Suzanne B. LeitnerIn Observations uncategorizedLeave a comment

Today would have been my grandmother’s birthday.  Happy birthday, Mammaw.

A granddaughter asks …

Some time when you are yourself
again, before heaven comes for you
and you’ve said all you’re going to say
tell the secrets you know about girls
and women and why we cannot and can
unfix and fix everything while someone
else waits, or pushes
or falls away, and why didn’t you ever say
sewing is solemn when done for the last
child or first and the talk of chores
becomes sacred curses in throats gone
gravelly from singing and thirst? Will we forever
look for what used to be ours?
Why did we ever loan it
then take it back after letting someone and everyone
else cut it to fit one size, down to size
or up to the mark, swapped over
and over, worn out
from coveting, cherishing, being lost
or trashed for duty’s sake or beauty’s
lure or whatever, whenever it happened ago?
Was yours worth no more than a pear tree’s leaves
stolen fearlessly in children’s play,
numerous, waxy tangibles
good things to trade for kisses?

(from String Quilt, poems by Suzanne Baldwin Leitner, Main Street Rag Publishing Co., 2005)

April 20, 2010

On By Suzanne B. LeitnerIn Observations uncategorized1 Comment

Hello, all.  This evening’s quick post is a nod to the

Metaphor:  Any figure that asserts the equivalence of two or more disparate elements, as in mathematics, for example, when one states A=B.  Thus in Martin Luther’s classic metaphor, “A mighty fortress is our God,” God is claimed to be the same as a fortress stronghold.

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

The cool thing about Packard’s discussion of metaphor is the multiple examples he gives of the different kinds of metaphors, including, but not limited to,  the double metaphor, the negative metaphor, and the tentative metaphor. Continue reading “April 20, 2010” →