Love Poem Advise

I was out and driving home last night when this hellatious storm just pounced on us like a cat. It has beet overcast with some bits of sun rays parting the clouds in places. An occasional rain drop here and there. You know the kind of situation where you see sunshine to you left and oh may was that a raindrop on your right?

My daughter was with me and as we pulled away from her karate class, the sky just filled with vengeance all at once.
Winds, rain and lightening like you would not believe. On the interstate a car hydroplaned and spun out ahead of us. There was just so much going on all around us. In hindsight, I am thinking today how I'd like to have captured some of the images on paper. I'm sure however, my daughter appreciates my attention to the road without writing while driving.

***

So I was thinking the other day about subjects that should never be written into poems. Then, I remember the advise from someone much wiser than I, who said that the best subject matter for poems is that which you least think is poetic material. Hence, in place of suggestions for subjects that would make bad poems, I give you the following....

Five words of advice if you are writing a love poem....

1. If you are writing a love poem, I'd stay away from whale blubber as a metaphor.
2. If you are writing a love poem for your spouse, I'd forget about mentioning in-laws.
3. If you are writing a love poem, take it easy with words that rhyme with runt and bunt.
4. If you are writing a love poem, try not to make yourself the subject of worship.
5. If you are writing a love poem, remember fantasy is a whole other genre.

***

So tonight at the KC METRO VERSE MEETING:

Our topic of discussion is the poetry that is in the April issue of Poetry Magazine. This issue is entirely translations of poems. Which begs me to wonder the following for example.

On page 6, the poem titled The Fog - originally by the Italian poet Giovanni Pascoli is translated to English by Geoffrey Brock. So, here we have what appears to be an eight stanza terza rima with a single one line floater at the end. This of course means the first and last lines of each stanza rhyme and the middle line will rhyme with the first and third in the following stanza. Or so this is what Brock has given us in translation. In my trivial mindset, I am wondering, is the original Italian likewise in a tera rima as well? If so, it would seem the task of translating could become a little more diecy. The word translations are not going to all have the same letter or sound endings making it difficult to follow the rhyme pattern over into a new language with another word meaning approximately the same as the first. Further complicating, is that very often Latin derived languages have noun and verb placements different in sentences from that of our own. Such changes in the syntax would seem to give one a headache much less actually trying to translate, keeping a specific rhyme form.

Perhaps one of you have had some personal experience in translations. I find this process interesting. My daughter is very fluent in French and I have often thought of having her translate some of my work to French. Of course I largely write in free verse, and this would be far less demanding.

Tags: Writing and poetry Poetry Giovanni Pascoli Geffory Brock love poems

KC METRO VERSE

Is American Poetry All About Me?

This week the quotes come from the poet Diane Wakiski.


"American poetry is always about defining oneself individually,claiming one's right to be different and often to break taboos." ~ Diane Wakoski

Always is such a specifically defining word and am not really sure that Wakoski is correct here, but I would say that I agree that for the most part, this statement is accurate to American poetry. I think it is often true of poetry other than American, though perhaps not to the same degree.

Certainly I have written of things that I don't believe have particularly spoken to my own individuality. At least not intentionally, though I perhaps do a good deal of the time.

Et Cetera:

• A city with it's own poet laureate - Poet laureate working to connect local writers [here]
• An Essay - A Toast to the Happy Couplet [here]
• Editorial - Shameless election politics [here]
• Greenfield: Going back to the well -Will gay marriage and flag burning rally the GOP base one more time? [here]
• Advise to the person who came to this site via a google search for "long hair dachshund cuts," Don't! I've had two long haired Dachshunds, and aside from trimming a tangle (usually around the ears) or cutting away hair on their hind side, for obvious reasons, the dogs don't need cuts. They are not poodles for God's sake. The natural growth of their long hair is part of the beauty of this breed. Of course this person has already come and gone from this site so right now there is probably some previously long haired Dachshund out there looking half naked and feeling silly & shy.
• Poetry and Politics [here]
• Picked up a book of Love Poems over the weekend.

Tags: dachshunds Bush Diane Wakoski

GOP Poet Laureates Writing and poetry

Down in flames

Boggle came and went last night. The Megster prevailed, beating us all. Her vocabulary is phenomenal for her age. I bow and pay homage to her this morning. But we will challenge her again and again and again. We'll beat her or die of old age trying. ;)

Reading some translations today from the April Poetry Magazine. I have KC Metro Verse chapter meeting Tuesday in which we are discussing the April edition.

I feel a Boggle game coming on

Busy day… Fixed Kitchen sink sprayer, went to grocery store, Target, and some other store I won’t bother to give the publicity. Cooked lunch for wife and self. Worked on a poetry manuscript, selections of poems and arranging proper order, in addition to a new first draft of a poem that I mentally wore myself out on.

Blogger was acting strange earlier so I am doing this off line to upload. Hopefully it will work.

My daughter just walked through and asked if any of us were up to getting beat at Boggle. She knows we are glutton for punishment so easily. However, It has suddenly occurred to me that she was beaten by her mother last match we played, so technically she is challenging for her title back.

Saw this news item: Gays, flag-burning and indecency! Good Grief! The GOP CULTURE WAR is alive again. [here]

By the way...

I just love how the red dots are overtaking my cluster map on the sidebar. Hum... Wonder if I can get those in blue? :::snicker:::

Poets without boarders?

"I never thought of myself as a New York poet or as an American poet."~ Kenneth Koch

This sort of remind me of Doctors Without Boarders. I'm not sure that Koch is suggesting anything other than the fact that he never saw himself in any more specific role then that of just "a" poet. Still, I think there is something exhilarating about poets being able to transcend artificial boundaries of geo-political & cultural nature.

• Canadian Sylvia Legris and Barbadian-born Kamau Brathwaite were the toast of Toronto on Thursday night after being named winners of the Griffin Poetry Prize. [here]
• Queensland has been home to some of Australia's finest poets [here]
• One of the most unusual galleries in New Harmony, Ind., will celebrate five years of exhibitions with art, music and poetry. [here]
• ‘New’ national writers workshop raises the bar [here]
• North-Voorhees High School (New Jersey) student editor resign over censorship, nearly all of staff walks too. School. David Steffan, principal said that many of the magazine's poems and photographs failed to meet "community standards." [here] Oh boy, we have another gifted person who is capable of defining community standards for those of us not in the know. Thank you Mr. Steffan for your "gift" of censorship. (did I sound sarcastic enough?)

Tags: Poetry Censorship David Steffan Charles Shaddow Voorhees High School Laramie Silber Boyer Griffin Poetry Prize Kenneth Koch

That Clicking Sound

"When you finish a poem, it clicks shut like the top of a jewel box, but prose is endless. I haven't experienced an awful lot of clicking shut." ~ Kenneth Koch