—And then scroll down for
Form Fiddlers’ Friday, with poets
Nolcha Fox and Stephen Kingsnorth and
an illustration by Sarah Erman
TALE UNTOLD
Early morning, I’m on the trail
for fairy lanterns beaming clear
and ranks of Ithuriel’s spear.
But here lies fodder for a tale:
name & number (school or jail?)
plastic bag ripped open, and a shirt
olive-drab stiff as hardpan dirt.
I keep walking. Poppies bloom,
each green corner a secret room
where hummingbirds with flowers flirt.
GOLD BUG 95667
I walked the nature trail till my phone’s battery
ran dead, beside the creek
whose flow carves and polishes stone,
and schoolkids in a circle tap
twigs on soil keeping our Earth’s pulse.
CAN YOU SEE THE WIND?
Men are tearing
up the landscape,
building a new
gray point of view
in the green fields
as I’m walking.
*
In a roadside heap:
Grateful Dead CD, apple
slicer, catfood dish,
unlit
red Xmas
candle,
a wicker basket
subsiding into the vault
of transforming soil.
*
Wind
ripping like winter
whistling two directions
at once, as I bend to it,
heavy sky pressed into earth by
Wind.
PEACEFUL, PRIVATE
Off the beaten trail I happened upon
a roofless room; a hard dirt floor; one wall
a smooth slab of slate, another faced with
tilted layers of stone, and the third wall
hardpan rooted to forest, the fourth side
wide open to the world; liveoak and pine
standing guard over this old glory-hole
that gave up all the gold it ever had.
UNDER WING OF THE GEEZER-OAK
He
stands as
sentinel
overlooking
woods and field. He’s lost
limbs in his war with Time
which
of course
wins, in time.
But he puts out
fresh green leaves for spring,
never giving up hope.
And
just look—
at his feet
all the strong young
liveoaks—his acorn-
kids—rooted sky-strivers.
FANTASY ON A BRIDGE OF LOCKS
RAINY DAY HIKE
—Taylor Graham
I have wet-green spring to myself along this trail—
no other walkers, just a squirrel on the bridge rail
wondering if all my human comfort-senses ail.
____________________
Our thanks to Taylor Graham for today’s intriguing poems and pix, a poetic tale of her many walks in the woods. She and Katy Brown will be leading another Wakamatsu workshop on July 9, so save the date and a place for yourself. For more about what’s going on in poetry in El Dorado County, go to Western Slope El Dorado poetry on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ElDoradoCountyPoetry/. Also click on Medusa's UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS (http://medusaskitchen.blogspot.com/p/wtf.html) for details about this and other future poetry events in the NorCal area—and keep an eye on this link and on the Kitchen for happenings that might pop up during the week.
Forms TG has sent us today include a 3-style (“Can't You See the Wind?”); a Zip Ode (“Gold Bug 95667”); some Blank Verse (“Peaceful, Private”); a Stepping Stones chain (“Under Wing of the Geezer-Oak”); some Diminishing Verse (“Rainy Day Hike”); and two Decima (“Fantasy on a Bridge of Locks” and “Tale Untold”). The Decima and the Diminishing Verse are responses to last week’s Triple-F Challenges. (I wonder what the plural of Decima is…? Decimae? Decimi?)
And now it’s time for…
FORM FIDDLERS’ FRIDAY!
There’s also a page at the top of Medusa’s Kitchen called, “FORMS! OMG!!!” which expresses some of my (take ‘em or leave 'em) opinions about the use of forms in poetry writing, as well as listing some more resources to help you navigate through Form Quicksand. Got any more resources to add to our list? Send them to kathykieth@hotmail.com for the benefit of all man/woman/poetkind
* * *
We had responses from Nolcha Fox and Stephen Kingsnorth to last week’s Ekphrastic photo. Nolcha and her mother, Sarah Erman, collaborated for Mother's Day (click once to enlarge):
* * *
Love is a gift that must keep moving
from mother to child, from friend to friend.
If we hoard love under lock and key,
love perishes.
* * *
Stephen’s response could also be called an Ars Poetica. Why write a poem, anyway?
BABY TALK
—Stephen Kingsnorth, Coedpoeth, Wrexham, Wales
Why write a poem anyway?
To concentrate the mind and heart,
feel, better understand the plot
in concentrated compact form?
Forget rhyme; if it’s noticed, failed
to play its part in rhythm, pulse,
which pass, not noted, while we sleep;
as soon as jingle claims its place—
is this blue collar, open mic,
where unseen scene so far removed,
sound rhyme alone might take its stake?
Devices crafted by our art
need speak beyond analysis,
and seem an accident of fate?
One image so may capture too
the sum in testamentary;
its verse, commentary provoked,
ekphrastic story reveal more
and find us out, what is within?
Whose focus then should we pursue?
The mother’s fingers, lips both rapt,
as lidded eyes are satisfied?
And baby, pupils yet untrained,
so measure taken touch, of warmth?
But as for us, the jury out,
a judgement ruled by what has passed
in recall, history we’ve learnt
in being, complementary.
____________________
Many thanks to our SnakePals for their brave fiddling! Would you like to be a SnakePal? All you have to do is send poetry—forms or not—and/or photos and artwork to kathykieth@hotmail.com. We post work from all over the world, including that which was previously-published. Just remember: the snakes of Medusa are always hungry!
_____________________
TRIPLE-F CHALLENGES!
•••Flamenca: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/flamenca-poetic-forms
•••AND/OR how about some Echo Verse:
•••Echo Verse: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/echo-verse-poetic-forms
•••See also the bottom of this post for another challenge, this one an Ekphrastic photo.
•••And don’t forget each Tuesday’s Seed of the Week! This week it’s “Gorgeous”.
____________________
MEDUSA’S FORM FINDER: Links to poetry terms mentioned today:
•••3-Style: a combination of a Koori, a Ganta, and a Shoa
•••Ars Poetica: www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/ars-poetica
•••Blank Verse: literarydevices.net/blank-verse AND/OR www.masterclass.com/articles/poetry-101-what-is-the-difference-between-blank-verse-and-free-verse#quiz-0
•••Decima: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/decima-poetic-forms
•••Diminishing Verse: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/diminishing-verse-poetic-form
•••Echo Verse: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/echo-verse-poetic-forms
•••Ekphrastic Poem: notesofoak.com/discover-literature/ekphrastic-poetry
•••Flamenca: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/flamenca-poetic-forms
•••Stepping Stones (Claire J. Baker): Syllables 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (7, etc.)
•••Zip Ode: https://milkcartonpress.com/?p=347#:~:text=What%20follows%20is%20a%20brief%20overview%20of%20the,of%20words%20in%20each%20line%20of%20the%20poem AND/OR https://www.wlrn.org/write-an-ode-to-your-zip-code
For more about meter, see:
•••www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-iambic-pentameter-definition-literature
•••www.pandorapost.com/2021/05/examples-of-iambic-pentameter-tetrameter-and-trimeter-in-poetry.html
•••nosweatshakespeare.com/sonnets/iambic-pentameter
•••www.thoughtco.com/introducing-iambic-pentameter-2985082
•••www.nfi.edu/iambic-pentameter
Make what you can of today's
photo, and send your poetic results to
kathykieth@hotmail.com/. (No deadline.)
* * *
—Photo Courtesy of Public Domain
For upcoming poetry happenings in
Northern California and otherwheres,
click on
UPCOMING NORCAL EVENTS
in the links at the top of this page.
Photos in this column can be enlarged by
clicking on them once, then clicking on the x
in the top right corner to come back to Medusa.
