JP At Olive Garden

Thursday Poetry Forms (Poetry for Dummies) Week 27

2012-03-08T08:33:00.000-06:00

Leaning up against the olive tree this Thursday CC Champagne is here again to explore the white areas of the poetry form map with you all.

Today I wanted to talk about a form I've been holding back specifically for this time of the year. I didn't find it on Wikipedia either, but still think it deserves a mention since, to me, this is the kind of poetry form that is truly inspirational. We have previously talked about counting syllables and how a specific number of syllables to a line or a poem is often part of the rules of a specific form. With Haikus the traditional seems to be the 5-7-5 line distribution, and today's poetry form uses a similar system.

Pi-poetry (or Π-poetry) is so named because of the 3-1-4 structure, where the first line consists of three syllables, the second of a single syllable and the last line of four syllables. The form seems to be yet another attempt at merging mathematics and the 'hard' sciences with the 'soft' art of poetry. Pi, or the number 3.14, is famously a mathematical constant which is the ratio of any Euclidian circle's circumference to its diameter. Exactly what that really means is something I probably did know for about a week prior to some math test in High School, but have since quite definitively (and happily) managed to forget.

The reason I've chosen to bring it up now is that this form also seems to be connected to the Americanized way of writing the date March 14 2012 (or any year), namely 3.14.2012, which is also known as Pi-day.

So with this little mathematically inspirational nugget I leave you for now, urging you to add any poem you've created, whether it happens to be Pi-poetry or not, to our Poetry Picnic Week 26 where the topic is Seven Deadly Sins, or why not put on your reading glasses and join us at Hyde Park Poetry for Thursday Poets Rally Week 63. With this I raise my glass of bubbly spumante to you and hope to see you back here again next week!

*Cheers*

Poetry Picnic Week 26: Seven Deadly Sins

2012-03-04T08:13:00.000-06:00

Welcome to Jingle Poetry @ Olive Garden Poetry Picnic Week 26,

Last week's poetry picnic was a GREAT one, where the Jingle Poetry Community has had a great opportunity to learn and share poetry on military, ... and we officials at the poetry picnic are happy about the response that You give us. Thank you very much.

This week is going to be very interesting too as we are going to touch upon seven deadly sins, well, everyone got a few, let’s spend some time self checking, or peer picking. Take a sin and study about it, then write what you think of it…Read the samples below, then join us...

THE SEVEN ENLIGHTENMENT'S by JamieDedes

Luxuria

Shop ’till you drop

And lusting the night away

What emptiness filled?

Gula

Stuffing down dinner

Eating when you’re not hungry

Emotions packed

Avaritia

Must have and more

Never enough when feeling less

Running on empty

Acedia

Ah, discouragement

No faith in God or in Man

Swim in depression

Ira

Wence comes this rage

And hatred is your hallmark

Angry with your Self

Invidia

Other’s good brings low

In your backpack, jealousy

Feeling valueless

Superbia

Arrogance and pride

Heavy indeed your burden

Narcissistic you

Greed by Shan

On plush leather chairs,
And air conditioned avarice,
They sit and decide our fates.
These suits.
These hierophants of etiquette.

Below in the streets,
People fight for aid sent
from overseas.
They throw money at the armed
well muscled guard.

Begging,
Mercy,
My child is ill.
My family starves.

Coffee is served.
With ginger biscuits.
Ties are loosened,
And money exchanged.
Not pennies,
Like below.

Uncomfortable laughter.
As consciousness
becomes a figment
and a bank balance.
A memory.

Patterns by u keep moving forward

I only write because I am

Tired and too weak to resist;

Otherwise I would push

The swollen part of myself

Back down to the core of me

And let it marinate,

Waiting for the sweet air

Of expression to connect

With it, allowing the fully

Flavored pain to explode onto

Paper, soaking through

Layer after layer as

The pen presses harder

Against the resisting desk,

Trying to break it apart

With frenzied stabs

And strokes.

I pull the pen back,

Dip it in the

Pure oxygenated blood of my heart, and let

It drip across

The page in random patterns.

Armani Pride by Chris G.

Armani, sir, don’t you mind

The scales underneath the silk—

My tongue is worth a hundred souls,

My pen a thousand more.

The world, my throne, self-carved—

I think mere mortal knowing

Might yet be deigned to see

Some tracest memory

Of wealth, innumerable, that lies

Within this fairest grace.

Before the pride, yet rides The Fall,

One-winged angel recompense

With Hell and Fire resolute

This passion, wild, divine

Will never bow nor know

Another master but its own—

Smile through the pain,

For you and thee are nothing but

This maddened laughter spouts

From believer, know er, all.

Cast me down, you break me down,

It is of your own pathetic drives—

Kill it, beat it, des-e-crate it,

Such a base begotten crave

Of jealousy, and ranched salivation

Of those below the knowing

Of this manicured salvation—

All I need, the dollar, plastered

Forming yet eternal

The foundations of my history.

Seven Deadly Sins by Emmanuel Ibok

On the high throne

the judge sits

about to pass verdict

for sins commit.

Her name is called

and I’m the issue

“Remember when you lied?”

the Judge counted

“promised you’ll love him

deceive him to believe

cheat on him in secrecy

lavish his cash

file a divorce

and took all his wealth

Remember?”

She tried to plead

like it was a sin

she inherited

not one she committed

but the verdict

had been concluded

and a seven deadly sins count

was charged against her

for my useful life

she rendered useless

still

my life could not be

restored

as my body slept

peacefully in its casket

and my soul taking flight.

Thanks for supporting poetry, poetry promotion, and poetry sharing here Olive Garden Poetry Picnic!!!

How To submit your poetry?

Add your entry via InLinkz below by clicking on the blue button, and leave a comment in case it is your first time! It would be great if you could link back to us on your blog.

Weekly poetry collection starts on Sunday, 2pm (CDT), and will stay open till Thursday, 8pm (CDT), at least four days for you to share your poetry with us...

Life In Verse and Taylor Boomer Love Your Presence, Smiles! :) ;) ;)

Please share your poetry, comment below and read some very talented artists and have fun!

Week 27 Theme: Rain, Spring Break, My Favorite Color, First Kiss

Poetic Reflection Week 26: Elaine Danforth

2012-03-03T18:04:00.001-06:00

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share on these questions and link my blog to your honor roll.

Looks to me like there are 11 questions. I've numbered them below, and my answers, so you'll know which ones I am answering. If it's too long, I am willing to edit it down, if you like, or you can-- these were mostly my immediate responses.

1. I call my blog The Danforth Anchor because I strive to use my writing as a force to steady, ground, or anchor myself and others. To offer an occasion to pause, reflect, and then be better able to choose a direction and move on as a result.

2. I started blogging in June 2010, at the encouragement of a friend

3. My first poem? On the blog, I remember it was called "We Are Not Amused or Turn This Ship Around". In life, I do not remember. I can only say that I've known I wanted to write since my first grade days at the age of seven, while I was still using those fat, red barreled kiddy pencils to write on the very wide ruled light blue lined newsprint paper with the dotted line to mark the level for the lower case letters. In second grade I first began to learn Haiku in school assignments, but I don't remember whether I'd written other poems before. I had probably started to compose little song lyrics in my head by then, though, which is similar to writing poems.

4. My writing inspirations could be anything. A lot of them come from direct interaction with nature or people when I'm on my walks, but some might be on mundane or esoteric topics outside my life, or directly related to any kind of life experience, mine or other people's.

Some of my poems just start writing themselves in my head-- I can hear them begin. From there, I may consciously try to continue with them. I don't always know where they're coming from.

Sometimes they just start with words I want to use, or sounds or rhythms.

5. Good poetry can be a lot of different things. The Jingle Poetry community often surprises me with the kinds of subjects that end up in poems, like a recent one related to high technology, that was very effective called "Nano Informatics" on the Zongrik blog. What impresses me is a unified whole, everything in the poem adding essentially toward a central idea, story or effect.

Do I revise my work? If it needs it. Some of it doesn't, I think. Probably most of it does. I do often write things and post them on line immediately, so many of those have had little or no revision. I am often able to improve a work substantially with revision, especially when sufficient time has passed to give me more perspective on in. But sometimes, I am restless about a poem, and the revisions turn out worse, often more complex and over-written, so in those cases, if I recognize that, I tend to leave the poems as they were.

6. As I said, I started writing poetry as a child, for school assignments, as far as I can remember. But I was also keeping diaries and journals, starting from fourth grade, at the age of 9. Sometime after that I began occasionally to write poems, either in or outside of my journals.

In my freshman year of college, I think, I wrote a poem I really liked,about an experience of crying over a jigsaw puzzle I was doing, while I was grieving over a difficult experience I was going through at the time. Later, I ran that by a poet friend in my dorm, who gave me constructive criticism and was generally very encouraging about my work. That helped me eventually feel good about choosing an English major, with the aim of becoming the best writer I could ever be rather than continuing on the path toward business major, which I could not love nearly as much as language and writing, no matter how I might try.

I don't write fiction. Fiction was my original vision of writing, when I recognized my desire to write, at the age of seven, inspired by The WIzard of Oz movie and the Oz books. I remember beginning a story book, typing on a piece of paper when I was a little girl, I'm not sure exactly how old, but probably before I was ten. I only got to the end of the first page, although I was very excited about it.

Later, in elementary and high school, I had to write a one-act play and a short story along the way. These were very hard for me to write, and the teachers did not grade them as well as they did my regular essay assignments or any poetry work I did for school. So I was pretty discouraged by that, and never cultivated a fiction writing skill or much of a concrete desire to do so. I would still like to be able to write a decent short story some day, just to show myself I could do it, even if it was not especially good.

I was very surprised when I learned the great American novelist William Faulkner, whose work I enjoyed reading in high school, considered himself a failed poet. A bit of a shock that writer of that stature would consider himself a failure in any realm of writing. I fortunately don't think about fiction that way so much,with my own writing. Poetry comes so naturally to me that I can sometimes barely write a line of prose. But I normally don't complain about that, or regret not taking a path to writing fiction, because I enjoy the poetry on the brain.

7. My favorite author or poet:

Shakespeare has been my most consistent literary sustenance, beginning in high school. Still haven't read or seen all his work, but I hope to.

8. Favorite quote:
There's a lot of quotes I like, from Shakespeare and others, but one of the ones I often come back to is:

"If it be now, ’tis not to come.
If it be not to come, it will be now.
If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all."

~Hamlet Act V, Scene II

9. I support Jingle Poetry, including at the Gooseerry Garden, because it feels good to be read and to explore the work of other poet bloggers. I continue to be impressed witht he vriety and the fine range of work I have been discovering in the Thursday Poets' Rallies and the Poetry Picnics.

10. My future plan for writing:

I hope to publish my poetry in print. I had originally set a goal several years ago to publish a book of my poetry, even if it had to be just self-published and/or a chapbook. I figured I need about 30 well-revised and edited poems.

By now, there are more than 260 poems on The Danforth Anchor, so I've got the material, but I'm not so sure what I'll do with it. I think my next step may be to submit individual poems to magazines and journals that publish poetry, and see how far I get with that. But the most important thing is, no matter what else I may need to do in life, I plan to keep writing.

Visit my blog:

http://elainedanforth.wordpress.com/

Poem of The Week 26: Home

2012-03-03T12:35:00.000-06:00

Home
by
Mark WIndham
He had not been here in some time,
Was thousands of miles away and
Did not witness the flash of fire
That destroyed the thatched roof -
Leaving nothing but a hearth,
Where once there had been a home.
Standing by the gate that led to ruins,
Struggling to control his breathing,
Heart beating like the fluttering of moths,
As he forced himself to grope with the
Memories that lay forgotten in those stones.
Resolve bubbling like anger through his tears,
Decisions made without thought,
He would rebuild a home for his ghosts.

Image Credit: Google.com

Friday Blog Review Week 26 ~ Week 25~A.B Thomas

2012-03-01T23:07:00.001-06:00

Welcome back to the world of Friday Review. We have been on a break for two weeks and I am sure we all had a blast in the break from writing, but if you all are like me I am sure you kept on writing when the muse came to visit you all.
This week I am highlighting one of the officials and also a well known blogger name,AB Thomas .

About The Blogger by the author

What’s there to say really? Write and occasionally doodle. I hail from the province of Alberta, Canada, born in the badlands and have gone out of my way to live up to being ‘bad’ – not in the Michael Jackson sense but a far poorer Russell Crowe sort of deal.
Surprisingly, the above original “about” page wasn’t enough for the few who have stumbled upon this much abbreviated input of information. The stray tendrils of demand to formulate a formal introduction behooved me to sit down to pen such a result – mostly because I really dig the word “Behooved” so when the occasion arises that I can slide it into something I invariably do so…which coincidentally seemed to be the path that my dating life led to for a certain period of time. To those who mistakenly have requested that I expand the ‘about’, you’re about to find out how I can walk into the bar with a twenty and come out liquored up and sixteen in change…
The ‘splash’ of this could be said to be I was born two years after the Summer of Love within the bosom of the Alberta Badlands. My influences are many but the few that seem to stick out would be Oscar Wilde, Sir Winston Churchill, Tom Robbins, Lord Byron, Shakespeare, Truman Capote,Tom Holt, Anne Rice, Stephen King, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Dave Barry,Elvis, Barry Allen, Bobby Curtola, The Beatles, The Sex Pistols,Teenage Head and The Ramones – in other words I’m an egocentric megalomaniac punk with politically conservative views that have no linear evolution…kinda, sorta, but not really.
An accurate portrayal of how I see myself is as a disgruntled refugee from the netherworld of academia; against my better judgment I continue to think. I contend that there is a surmountable chasm between thinking and thinkin’ – with thinkin’ being the proper and advantageous way of having consciousness. Thinking implies that it is the rules that matter, that there is an established methodology to how things are to be done, opined or dismantled. Thinkin’, on the other hand is turning one’s attention to the apostrophe and having the options to decide what said apostrophe commutates. I don’t have faith in those that rely on a slick looking certificate hanging on their walls informing all that this person has a higher sense of validity because they were good little learners and handed in material that concurred with their professors and teachers beliefs; that and the fact that I made a bit of cash on the side writing the material for those who have those slick looking certificates hanging on their walls. So how was that for an ‘about’? Now you know why people buy me drinks at the bar – if I’m a drinkin’, I ain’t a talkin’!

The Blog

His Poetry

If’t Broughten Miled Death be a God

A story in 55 words
In witness harken not
Who wouldst proclaim “lesson taught”
For a away far strike to kill
Tis but in naught tenured skill;
For though blooded shred
Of tissue organ bone
A part by part in strewn lie
In gether hast they die
Whist faceless Grimms
Had their try
Left are none to bemoan in cry

Say I

Upon these sheets stuck to intertwined flesh
Stickened with slick sensual sweat
There is but a pause,
A hesitate in a mere whisper,
Yet of note just the so
Sayest I:
Of this moment
Prayst do not begat a stranger’s distant,
Mayhaps in the morrow
Shalt we recant
From the seed of yearn
The actions taken
In this night of plant
In the now let these sensations slide
Become swept away
In the swell of passion’s riptide –
Hold back not
To fantasy’s abide –
Drown in the tsunami of molten excite,
Let the scorching want emanate
Out from our shared inside.

I am Chimnese, the author of My Poetry & Writing hosting Friday Blog Review along with Robin, Write It . Till next time & wishing you all good week ahead.

Thursday Poetry form Week 26: A Repost on Bouts-Rimes

2012-03-01T11:10:00.000-06:00

I am still (or once again) CC Champagne and I am still (or once again) trying to, with your help, make heads or tails of some poetry forms here in The Gooseberry Gardens on Thursdays. Take a load off, pull up a blanket, unpack your picnic basket and let's get started.

As we already established last week (and I'm sure many of you already knew) Poetry Forms deal with the various sets of 'rules' poems of certain types follow. These rules may describe the rhythm or meter of the poem, its rhyme scheme or a specific use of alliteration. Personally I see these rules, the forms, as tools rather than laws to strictly adhere to, but that might be because I just don't know enough about them. I am, by my own admission, the worst possible person to try to teach about these things, so let's just see how far we get together, OK? Comments are very welcome!

Since I'm trying to start at the bottom and work my way up to the really scary forms (sonnets, haiku and the like), I thought we could continue with something fun and as unknown as the anacreontic verse we looked at last week, but still something many of us - in a way - do when we participate in various prompting memes in the blogosphere: Bouts-Rimé.

I assume not all of you speak or read French (my French is trés rusty, so I consulted a translator to be sure), Bouts-Rimé is French for rhymed ends and this is precisely what it is about.

A Bouts-Rimé was originally in high fashion towards the middle of the 17th century, a poetic game the invention of which is attributed to poet Dulot, who in 1648 complained to his friends that a large number of his sonnets had been stolen. When his friends expressed astonishment - not so much at the theft, but at the number of sonnets stolen and how Dulot could possibly have composed as many, Dulot admitted that he hadn't actually written them all yet, but that he had sorted out the end rhymes for them. This is, according to legend, how the bouts-rimé poetic form came to be.

A, rather famous (or at least often found) example of a Bouts-Rimé is using the rhyme scheme: breeze, elephant, squeeze, pant, scant, please, hope and pope, the following stanza (poetic paragraph) is the result:

Escaping from the Indian breeze,

The vast, sententious elephant

Through groves of sandal loves to squeeze

And in their fragrant shade to pant;

Although the shelter there be scant,

The vivid odours soothe and please,

And while he yields to dreams of hope,

Adoring beasts surround their Pope.

As an actual game - or inspiration for your own Bouts-Rimé - you would need to list various rhyming words on a piece of paper, cut the paper up to leave just one word on each piece, mix the pieces up and then try to make a working poem with full sentences out of the words you draw from the mix. Since the 'form' of the era when this game was invented was the sonnet, the original game calls for the construction of such, but why not do it your own way?

You could also ask one of your poetically inclined friends to provide you with a few words and then set about turning them into poems? In fact, Alexander Dumas (The Elder) did something similar in 1864 when he issued an invitation to all poets of France to compose a Bouts-Rimé based on a set of rhymes selected by poet Joseph Méry. 350 poets responded and a book containing the poems was later on published.

Until next week! *cheers*

Poetry Picnic Week 25: Military, Soldiers, and Veterans

2012-02-28T07:20:00.002-06:00

Trenton Passmore and Tom Woo,

Super Kids Day, Sangre Ridge Elementary School,

Our poetry picnic week 25 theme is: Military, Soldiers, Veterans, or poetry dealing with physical, mental, and emotional healing…

You have About less than a Week to work on this topic, submit to us and share any time, officials are taking a three week break, so come in when you have a moment to read or submit, we will never stop reading or encouraging you, as for posting here, we will start fresh again for Week 26 on March 1, 2012.....

Tom and Friends, at Tom's Birthday Party, Home...

While you are linking your entry to us, make sure to link your entries to Bradley’s blog at the same time (see the link below), Thanks in Advance!…Anti-war, Politics, etc. will not be acceptable.

http://perainopoetry.blogspot.com/p/in-memory-of-our-fallen-soldiers.html

Tom, Justin, and Sheng, Corpus Christi, Texas, 1999

Alive 2 by Ruchi Jain

A silent winter eve

Was stepping on sand

Moving along a running beach

Gazing two holding hand

Only they were known

Else everything was strange

That eve, sand was soft

And sun shined orange

Waves were calm

And water was cold

A sheer love was new

Else everything was old

She wanna hug

He wanna kiss
They wanna die with

Their last lively bliss

They had less time

As life was near to end

Last minutes all together
They only wanna spend

In the sea of love
They took the last dive

Their bodies are no more

But their Love is still alive.

Confessions Of An Addict by Craig Watson

I want to ravish you
But I’m afraid
I may fall in love with you
Or should I say deeper…
I no longer care about the outcome
I know that you’re never going anywhere
Because it’s imperative that you’re in my life
I don’t want you
I need you!
You’re the sense in my train of thought
You’re the pulse
That you need to feel…
Indicating Life
Just thinking of being away from you
I’m lost…
In the past
A fear overcame me
I didn’t want to jeopardize anything
You’re a great asset to my life
But like I’ve said…
I’m no longer worried about the outcome
You’re going to be around forever
No one could ever say anything…
I will forever love you!

You by Bradley Peraino

You have sacrificed and suffered.
You have bore the Nation's pain.
You have fought the fight of freedom.
You have helped liberty reign.

You have given up so much for the
old Red, White, and Blue. So, from
the bottom of heart, I give my thanks
to you!

On A Sad Day by emmett wheatfall

On a sad day we tell our stories
of risk and surprise, of life and loss,
of having won, even in the midst of defeat.

We war with each other, with ourselves,
with the internal conflicts found in conscience,
with the enmity in relationships.

Still, we find time to sing, sing the old song,
the new song, to pray, to recite endearing terms
of love, of longing, those songs of passion,
on a sad day.

Calculation by Nicole Wian

Love is war of flesh and might, sweat and tears.
        Sometimes fight,
        Sometimes flight.

                 I’ve battled weary like a soldier, armed with
                                   weapons of all kinds.
                                             Now a veteran, I lay wounded
but undefeated.

War whoops,
                silenced, I hear a new cry, a new call
to drop my arms.

Throbbing from pain caused fervor, I will endure.

                   Mental calculation trumped as the inner man beats
                                                                    his breast
for glory.

The body is a frame,
The picture, Spirit
and I will be sustained.

For the Love of Humanity –redux by California Ink in Motion

Dew laden palms hang under midnight glow
reflecting lunar diamonds off green spears.

soft evening breeze brings forth a dancing flow
small shocks of light reflect within each tear

which falls to earth
abandoning
its high collective perch
one small drop at a time

cascading journeys sliding southward bound
night’s swirling mist create pools on the ground

and with each teardrop’s tiny splash
an echoed cry through smoke and flash

turquoise tattered butterflies stop to view
as clouds dissipate with sun’s mourning dew

the path is dangerous but clear
yet they hear the world’s voice
and know they’re near

the shifting paradigm of consciences
will let the light shine on all injustice

be free brave little butterflies
take your wings and expose the lies

the soul of the earth has
been assaulted with bombs and gas

for the love of humanity
lay down arms of insanity

a global evolution has begun
What a unique time to be in the sun.

Sheng batting at baseball field, 2007

Week 26 Theme: Seven Deadly Sins.

So let your imagination soar to the greatest heights, and immerse in the Milky way... write on! Of course, you can always submit random poems to us, keep your talent coming our way… ;)

Tom and Pandi

Tom and Sheng, London, England, 2000

Sheng and Blue, Yellow Balls

Tom in Beijing, Summer, 2009

Sheng in Germany, 1999

Tom plays Baseball, He hits home run a few times each season.

2003-2011..

Image Credits: Google.com

Poetic Reflection Special: Zoe

2012-02-28T07:19:00.001-06:00

Tell me about yourself?

As someone who likes to look at things in depth, this is a difficult question to answer, but here goes...

Once, under Perth's eternal sun, there was a girl who tried hard to fulfill the plan others made for her life. Then one day, she found love. First, the love of Christ, then a year later, the love of a good man. After this brief blip in the imposed order of things, she got back to the schedule, slotting a wedding into her science based career almost seamlessly. One day, the strain of trying to be someone she wasn't, became too much and she cracked, shed her career of veterinary surgeon and began to heal. Fortunately, her hubby came with her. They had 2 adorable children and she realized that she had always loved working with children. She trained to be a teacher. In the long process of healing, she realized that although she was always pegged as a scientist, her heart was that of an artist and poet, and that her soul yearns to find voice in verse and pigment. She is still finding that voice.

Tell me about your blog, the name, what does it mean to you?

I called my blog "Moonlight and Shadows" because the night has always held a fascination to me. Even deep in the city, I strain my eyes seeking the moon and stars, seeking the solitude of night's velvet warmth, and the gentle touch of night breezes in the moonlight. My poems initially fell into those two categories - beauty in nature and people around me, and a darker style of verse that I associated with the shadows. I think this is also a paradox in me - intense joy and beauty for the most part, but I have also experienced life's shadows and that gives me an insight into that pain and darkness in others too.

When did you start blogging?

Oh, I am just a newbie when it comes to blogging! I had begun tentatively sharing some of the 'Moonlight' category poems and the overwhelming response was that I needed to share them on with a wider audience. I thought blogging would be a good way to do that, and hopefully meet other poets who I could learn from.

Your first poem? Remember?

I did write some rather raw poems around 10 years ago, partly because of that time of healing, partly associated with my mother's death and the resultant events. But my creative 'awakening' really happened only 2 years ago, and found voice in two poems - one called 'Concerto in Rain Minor', which came from lying in bed and listening to a short summer storm in the night. The other was called 'Awakening' and tried to capture that incredible experience of feeling my creative soul start to come alive. I will include both poems below. :)

What are your writing inspirations?

The warmth of sun, glittering on the ocean, the whisper of leaves as they glimmer in the moon, the richness of the earth beneath the golden wheat and the cry of brilliant parrots as they flee before the storm....

The sense of wonder in a child's dance, the hooded mask of pain in a stranger's eyes, the agony of feeling a gulf stretch between two friends, the wordless sorrow shimmering in someone's tears...

The contrast between light and darkness in my soul, long dead voices that taunt me, the freedom offered to me by my Lord, joy, pain, faith when it's easy and faith when it's hard, healing, brokenness, and above all, hope.

In terms of literary inspirations, I cannot honestly identify one author who has inspired what I write. As quite a musical person, I have long enjoyed works of fiction where lines have a sense of rhythm to them, a 'vibe' or certain something in their flow. Authors like Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, the Aussie poet, Bruce Dawe. Authors that draw on intense sensory descriptions and depth of character, like Chaim Potok, Erica Bauermeister.

How do you define poetry as “Good”? Do you revise your work?

I adore poetry that uses vivid imagery, or clever irony to invoke emotion. I also love poetry that just has a wonderful rhythm threaded through strong statements or images, but always, always, I seek depth - of imagery, emotion, character or thought. Having said all that, I do not have the skill to define what makes a poem 'good' - either with my own work or that of others. I just prefer to think of poems in terms of what sings to my own heart.

Regarding revision - well that is something I find hard to do. I tend not to revise at all, unless a line isn't quite hitting the rhythm that feels right to me for it.

what's your plan for your future writing?

At this stage, my plans for the future are simple - to keep writing and developing this talent the Lord has given me. I have a feeling He isn't finished with my poetry yet, but I simply don't know where it is going. I have had suggestions that I should write music to go with some of them, I have experimented with painting to illustrate poems, and I have even been told several times that I should publish a book, but who knows what the future holds?

Why do you support Jingle Poetry Community, including Jingle Poetry @ The Gooseberry Garden?

I so enjoy the community at Gooseberry Garden - what a blessing to have found a group of poets that are both good poets and lovely people! Here is a place we can all grow together, and watch this wonderfully diverse garden develop and produce some very succulent fruit! I wonder what this year's crop will bring...

So, here is to fine verse, good community and an exciting journey as we write together!

Concerto in Rain Minor

The wind hums with pre-concert chatter,

back and forth amongst the gum trees.

with a sudden swelling, it dies down

to silence, awaiting the first notes.

Softly, a drop here, a drop there,

the concert begins.

I lie curled beneath warm blankets,

listening to this impromptu orchestra:

Firm beats on the tin roof, softly echoed in the trees,

each drop clear and crisp, playing through the night.

I cherish each note as it swells with the breeze,

slowly crescendos and stills once more.

In my mind's eye, I see the applause

of dry earth, drinking in each beat

savouring each note that drips from the trees.

As the rain passes, the sun rises,

and each leaf sparkles in

memory of its melody.

Awakening

Drowsing….

Sun-warmed limbs,

Blissfully unaware

Do I dare

To wake the dragon….

Yearning…..

Salt kissed air,

Swooping and soaring high,

Cobalt sky

To ride the dragon…

Committing…..

Bejewel’d eyes,

Awakening fast

What a blast!

To rouse the dragon….

Leaping!

Fearless heart,

Uncluttered, storm cleansed sight -

At last… flight!

To be the dragon…

Poetic Reflection Special:Poetic Ocean

2012-02-26T10:25:00.000-06:00

Tell us about yourself:

I was born in Srinagar Kashmir, now I live in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. My parents adopted country. Teaching is my profession.

We’re happy that you have been part of Jingle Poetry Community, both as a participant and as an official, what has driven you to where you are in this particular community?

Thank You for all your affectionate encouragement and generous support. I found this particular community full of exciting opportunity for creative writing, thrilling sense of competition without any stress and quick response to the poetic expressions that are shared.

How long have you been blogging? Do you think being part of a poetry community contributes to your creative writing?

I have been writing on the web since 1999 as a freelance writer and more regularly since 2006 with US Legacies.com, Litvision.org, Gather.com and Triond.com. I realized that I needed to focus on poetry as my poems were getting more response so I setup ‘Poetic Oceans’ and that has brought further International recognition. I met Fiona Robyn on line in 2003 in the UK and her website ‘writing your way home’ has given me more writing opportunities. Yes, one must be a part of a community and member of an association , not only that but one must participate and contribute actively also. I have definitely written more, and am myself surprised at the results.

My best source of writing inspiration is Gooseberry Garden Jingle Poetry Rally and Poetry Palace making me a Poetry Princess. Thank You All.

Why poetry? Do you write fiction too?

I have a natural flair for writing poetry. My grandfather was an educationist and a poet. He wrote in the Urdu Language though occasionally and on request. I love poetic expressions and classical poetry of the ancient writers like Homer, Pope, Chaucer Milton T S Eliot and Robert Frost have inspired me. I have written 4 short stories and numerous articles and just completed my first novel (Fiction-Adventure) in the National Novel Writing Month ( NANOWRIMO) challenge.

How do you know when a poem is done? Your own experiences need to be shared here...

It depends on the topic, theme, subject or the objective. A poem is never complete till it goes through the third draft., sometimes one feels a block after only a few lines, many are never completed. A lot of thinking rewriting and rereading is required to get the right effect. I know when I find the idea complete , a sense of satisfaction and a feeling of pleasure is aroused. My experience varies with the natural flair for I have written lines that rhyme more easily but one cannot call them real quality poems.

How do you decide when a poem is "good"? Do you redo your own poems after they’re posted? it could be poem someone else written...

The quality poem must have the classical touch of the ancients, it must feel close to reality and must give a certain level of enjoyment to the reader. I know a good poem by the balance in the lines, the choice of words, the supreme idea yet being simple in approach. No I try to upload the final version.

Do you think music and poetry are related? Why?

Yes, in a way. Instrumental music can inspire and help a writer to generate ideas and language. Music soothes the nerves, relaxes the mind and builds an atmosphere conducive to creative writing. Maybe not for every writer’

Please list your blog links below, share 1 or 2 poems that represents best of your poetry talent…

www.anjumdar.gather,com,

www.triond.com/anjumdar,

www.poeticocean.blogspot.com,

www.anjumwasimdar.wordpress.com,

www.creativepen.proboards.com/anjuwriter, www.bookrix.com/anjuwriter,

Mohali Match (on the game of cricket)

Match game chance, be it anywhere on any land

be it with sword or spear, bat or ball, gun or lance,

forces have fought in thicket and on wicket

dauntless and bold, without fear, songs sonorous

have been sung, arms raised , aimed and swung,

obdurate pride and steadfast hate in arenas Greek

or Green Grounds, what mighty contest uprising

For no reason just or sound, No crime no blast no war

no treason, just another cricket world season,

But This Game is a Combat on war like footing

Padded gloved helmeted, ready for the shooting

thick as Autumnal Leaves and sedge

Police and crowd will watch the match,

All around the fence , from edge to edge,

how many will hold and breathe their last ,

as wickets fall, or hands miss a catch,

all eyes on Mohali the final battle ground

a place Eternal Justice ordained and bound

No Trojan Horse or Aegean Sea, no ship or gun

velvet green, a white orb, 22 yards of hit and run

to be weak on it is miserable no contestant spared

no mistake forgivable, who will the new possessor

be, Of a Cup, One in a Game , One in Name , Just One!

Some say the Blues –some say the Greens -

The result is anxiously eagerly excitedly awaited

Whatever it may be , millions are awake , hearts

Beating, hands together in prayers,

The Best will soon be seen.

The aim is to protect the wicket and make a high score

A game of skill , strategy entertainment a fight for sure

The rest is up to the Umpires two and the third

Above All it should be honest and fair play-no ‘Trick It”

Or else it would really be a war –and ‘Not Cricket’

May The best Team Win-

http://www.poeticocean.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html

Ages Ago When It Was Dark Man Sought

when it was dark man sought the light

in stones and made use of bones,

ages ago

when lights were around

man learned to speak

and made use of sounds,

ages ago

when there was peace

man found the trees

and made use of leaves,

ages ago

when there were herds

man found the words

and tried to fly like birds

ages ago

when life was chaos

man wanted order

and made use of laws

ages ago

when life was tight

man sought calm

and something

to write.

Ages ago

When life was rough

Man wanted it smoother

mixed leaves and trees

And discovered paper,

not many ages

thence

man is fed up,

wants some sense

to clear the mess

and make all world

less and paperless.

http://www.poeticocean.blogspot.com/2011/03/ages-ago-when-it-was-dark-man-sought.html

Poetic Reflections Special: Cloaked Monk

2012-02-25T20:56:00.000-06:00

Tell us about yourself.

My name is Terri. I am currently a student at Seattle University getting my Masters of Divinity and Post Masters Certificate in Spiritual Direction. I am *of a certain age,* a mom of two teens, and a wife. I am also a chaplain at a youth detention center.

Tell me about your blog, the name, what does it mean to you?

My blog is www.cloakedmonk.com. The name “Cloaked Monk” is a reference to a monk in disguise, behind a cloak. In my protestant tradition, monks are non-existent. But a monk is a person who is dedicating their life to the divine. So it is a little unheard of to have a protestant monk. Additionally, I do not typically get in your face about my faith expression. I fully believe that you should see my faith in my actions. That is a little bit of the “cloaking” also. I look normal, but I’m really a monk in disguise! My blog is generally an expression of spiritual writings that includes poetry, prose, research, notes, and scripts that I write for children.

I also have a blog: www.youthchaplaincycoalition.wordpress.com that supports the Youth Chaplaincy Coalition that I have formed. This coalition is a group of like-minded individuals that come together to support and provide services to vulnerable youth affected by the justice system.

When did you start blogging?

June 2008

Your first poem? Remember?

My first poem? I remember writing a poem about dolphins in 8^th grade. It seems like a long time ago!

My first poem on my blog?

“Resurrection.”

Echoes of Beethoven’s Ninth

as I run joyfully

to you.

Sprinkled with sounds

of child-like laughter

bubbling.

Creating the moment

of opening.

In that liminal

place between land and sky

ashes and baptism.

http://cloakedmonk.com/2009/04/24/resurrection/

What are your writing inspirations?

Mary Oliver, Rumi, well, all those Sufi poets, the Bible, the youth I see, the love in the world, my family…

How do you define poetry as “Good”? Do you revise your work?

Good poetry moves me in some way, challenges my thoughts, or (and) provides a new perspective. And yes I revise my work (sometimes).

When did you start writing poetry? Do you write fiction as well?

I started writing poetry when I was a youngster. I leave it and come back to it as my life ebbs and flows. I write fiction in that I create stories based off of Biblical stories for youngsters. So it is sort of a channeling of a character that pre-exists and then writing from his or her perspective.

Do you have a favorite author or poet?

Rumi always makes me quiver.

Favorite quote?

Matt 25:34-36

‘Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’

Why do you support Jingle Poetry Community, including Jingle Poetry @ The Gooseberry Garden?

I want to support the community and I appreciate the support that it provides. It challenges me to keep writing when my life seems so busy with school, work, kids, and school (yes it is on the list twice). I allow *life* to distract me from what is *living.* Weekly emails and invitations invite me to live and go deeper.

What's your plan for your future writing?

Someday, I want to write a children’s book. I also write liturgies and I am being published next year (I got my first check! Whee!). So I am involved in the Abingdon Worship Annual, One of many writers there. I will keep writing poetry and blogging it, keep writing liturgies (and hopefully getting paid for it!), and move forward in my new creation. I’d also like to organize some of the youth in the detention center to start their own writing club and publish some of their creations for them.

Poetic Reflections Special: Noble

2012-02-24T07:23:00.000-06:00

Tell us about yourself.

A wanderer in ocean of life. Wanted to be computer engineer, did it but ended up becoming an HR

Tell me about your blog, the name, what does it mean to you?

my blog name is meethimirchi.wordpress.com , meant sweet chilly . Its just reflection of our lives. Happiness smiles and sadness n tears which we come across our daily routine .

When did you start blogging?

During early 2000's . Had created one in geocities . With all sorts of animation .

Your first poem? Remember?

I used to write for my school and college magazine . Don't remember first one but here is one of them which I wrote during 7 std

went for a tour
From my school,
First saw bellur halebedu
then my sore Bangalore .
Friend asked me
How was the trip,
I said, trip was jolly
But pockets were diwali

*diwali - left with no money

What are your writing inspirations?

Most of my inspirations come across from season, winter being my favorite. And also life love and sometimes just smile,

How do you define poetry as “Good”? Do you revise your work?

Its just instinct. My main preference once writing a poetry is getting appropriate picture . Somehow I'm used to searching pics after writing poems.

When did you start writing poetry? Do you write fiction as well?

I do write fiction , but its been long now. Need to get that inspirations back .

Do you have a favorite author or poet?

Ruskin bond, for the simplicity and the connection the stories have :)

Favorite quote?

Life is all about sharing smiles and spreading happiness.

Why do you support Jingle Poetry Community, including Jingle Poetry @ The Gooseberry Garden?

The inspirations which we get from so many members of jingle poetry and so much of learning . As an individual I have learnt so many things and I always keep . And variety of each individual .

Thanks all for your support and valued feedbacks and appreciations . Its been pleasure to be part of jingle poetry community.

Regards
Noble

Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

Poetic Reflections Special Tribe: ~L

2012-02-23T20:47:00.000-06:00

Tell us about yourself.

About me... hummm... I am a passionate girl that at times causes a bit too much emotion. I truly love expressing myself through writing and music. I also tend to have a camera in my hand to capture moments that I want to always remember. Photography is a hobby that I fall in and out of seasons with. For the past four months I have had writers block pretty bad. I experienced a pretty devastating blow with a loss that caused a deep feeling of being numb and wordless.

The season I am now is one that is bringing up demons from my past... it's a hard season but necessary. Justice is finally starting to play a role in what happened in my past. Sometimes I wonder what my poetry and writing would be like if I would have not have experienced those awful moments as a child. I still would go back into time if I could and change it all... but lately I wonder if my purpose is to be real and honest... share my emotions... strive for healing... fight depression and write a book someday that would help others that have been in my situation know that they are not alone.

I have a hope that someday the hardness of it all will fade... I see a light at the end of the tunnel... but for those who read my blog now you know that I am struggling with that hope... It's still there... but the grief is a lot right now.

Wow... didn't think I was going to type all that :) Okay... basic things about me - I have 3 beautiful daughters - My Sunshine, My Butterfly and My Reason. They bring me joy (most of the time) ;) I live in the middle of five beautiful archers and love being outside. I can't spell :) so excuse me for all the mistakes;) -All the same, the words are genuine and from the depth of my heart. A good Hamburger is my fav, and ice cream makes any moment a bit better:) sing, sing, sing... how I love to write and sing. It's been awhile since I have done much of that but just got a call from a coffee shop in my home town and it looks like I'm doing a small gig and a few weeks.

What you read in my blog is what the moment is... it's not always happy but that’s the moment... I am still holding on to that hope.

"Trust and grief can coincide. It does not take the pain away - it infuses the pain with hope. Hope sees past the pain. Seeing only the pain drowns you with sorrow.

Tell me about your blog, the name, what does it mean to you?

- Untitledmoments - it just came to me... I sat down to write and decided that I was going to title all the moments that have been left on titled.

When did you start blogging?

I started blogging 2 years ago.

Your first poem? Remember?

My first poem was when I was 12. A very special lady took me to a bookstore. She bought me a journal and a thesaurus. She told me I have a lot of heart and she encouraged me to write poetry... I have been writing ever since and now have stacks of journals.

What are your writing inspirations?

Well... I think healing is my inspirations. Writing what truly lies with in... Releasing the pain... I also like to write about my passions and beautiful nature.

How do you define poetry as “Good”? Do you revise your work?

I write it all down... as fast as it come to me... I don't care about spelling.... grammar... I just write... whenever and wherever. I then re-read my jumbled words and start editing. For some reason my poetry does not feel complete without a picture to accompany. Finding or taking the perfect picture to complete a post takes just as much time as writing it – if not more.

Favorite quote?

"Fight for recovery. Fight infection. Fight to avoid complications. But don’t fight The Surgeon." -David Hamilton

“No matter how dark the moment, love and hope are possible”

- George Chakiris

"rock what you got" - superchick

"Feed the faith - Starve the doubt"

Why do you support Jingle Poetry Community, including Jingle Poetry @ The Gooseberry Garden?

I started last year sometime... I love the community!!! I missed it dearly after I suffered a tragic loss.

I from time to time had helped official. I am glad to be back in a community of many talented writers.

What's your plan for your future writing?

A book someday :)

A poetry book accompanied by my photography and other talented photographers,

Closing words: Write… write from your heart. Write for healing, releasing, joy. Don’t worry what others think – write because it’s you and your passion. Never be someone else to please the world… be you and let the world be inspired by who God created you to be – a creative individual who loves to put words into poetry and prose!

Be blessed today and hope you stop by

Untitledmoments <3 ~L

http://untitledmoments.com/

Poetic Reflection Special Tribe: C. Sasmita

2012-02-22T07:22:00.002-06:00

1. Tell us about yourself.

Actually I’m just an ordinary 21 years old person. I’m the first daughter and have two younger sisters. My father is lecturer at university so he wish me do the best on my academicals yet developing my right brain such as painting, cinematography, and writing nonfiction is a useless idea after all, so I studied physics at my campus and life seem flows very plain. Until I follow the theater club at campus in 2010th , I began develop my hobby especially in writing poem and short stories. I show my talent to Dad, until he bring me permission to progress what I love to do.
Now I'm poet who blog. I never feel so confidence to say I’m a poet until... Whooaa... Jingle Poetry is the first who found me! I’m so excited! I can meet and greet the other poet. They commented my poem and I learned a lot from them about a various form of poetry. Knowing people read my thought and feed it back is my highest honor.

2. Tell me about your blog, the name, what does it mean to you?

The same as I get everything I want to paint with words, finding my blog’s name “Journey to Eternity” just kinda revelation for me. As the intersection of births and deaths, which in essence similar, I'm a wanderer in life just only want the simple things, to make my self not be chagrined was born nor regret after death. I drowned in the process of life like everybody does, I started it with hurt, macabre and tragedy (what be the most characteristic in my poem), less romance, until I find enlightenment that change me a lot! Made me realize who truly my self, peoples around me, universe, and God (if you read my first post and compare it to the newest one, please tell me if you find any different sense). But don't you think I’m to young to think philosophically? Hahhaha... I’m proud of being this weirdness

3.When did you start blogging?

I started seriously to administer my blog in June 2011. I ever made a blog before but I forgot the password. :D

4.Your first poem? Remember?

I never ever forget my first poem in English that I write in Senior High School, titled

SACRED

Shore let me know
Hollow of my deep dark soul
Let’s the eve with cursed wish
Trapped on tragedy
Furrow the light
In this everlasting night
Judas priest stare scarily
For the smile of bloody cheers

5.What are your writing inspirations?

My inspiration could be everything. But I never use them, wishing them to flow in my head by force because the inspiration came to me by itself. Actually what I had written does not belong to me entirely. I love to thinking about everything, dig in something into the deep, but I’ve never succeed satisfied my self with what I want to write. Until I find my self trance to bear what “something unknown” feel, what they want to express by using me, they choosing me the words. So, I believe every phrase and words have their spirits.

6. How do you define poetry as “Good”? Do you revise your work?

As long as the poem flows from feeling, and the reader can understand the meaning even with a simple word I define it “honesty in writing”. Is there anything more lovely than that? Indeed I revise my work since English is the language that I still learned for. I’m afraid there is any grammatical mistake in my poem. :)

7.When did you start writing poetry? Do you write fiction as well?

I started writing short story and novel from Junior High School especially for poetry I started write it in Senior High School but not really discipline.

8. Do you have a favorite author or poet?

Indeed! no author who could make me feel a strange sensation and palpitations by her writing except Barbara Cartland

9.Favorite quote?

“Everything is all for good” by revelation

10.Why do you support Jingle Poetry Community, including Jingle Poetry @ The Gooseberry Garden?

Of course I support Jingle Poetry Community. Because without Jingle, I can’t develop my skill in writing. It seems if Jingle didn’t find me by links, I will be “a poet who blogs but trapped in the box”. I do appreciate the motivation, comment and compliments among the poets so it motivates me a lot so I can be better and better.

11. What's your plan for your future writing?

I want published a book of my poem collection, if there is any fortune. But most of all I want to awaken the world by my words. Everyone would enjoy what is inside in my mind, and I will accept it as my precious honor.

Sincerely,

C.Sasmita -Journey to Eternity-

visit me at:

Poetic Reflections Special Tribe: Lilly

2012-02-21T20:35:00.000-06:00

Tell us about yourself.

Well, there isn’t actually that much to tell. Very briefly, I’m a translator and a writer, with

a preponderant inclination towards poetry rather than towards prose. I have started to write poems when I was 18 and haven’t stopped writing since that day. The only changes made in time were related to my writing language, which some years ago turned from Romanian into English :).

Tell me about your blog, the name, what does it mean to you?

“Endless Journey” is a symbol, the symbol of my own constant search for more, of my personal openness to experience and to learning. It is the place where I prove myself on a daily basis that infinity can be touched and felt.

My blog link:

http://summaryofmysoul.wordpress.com/

When did you start blogging?

I wrote the first post in my blog in June 2010. I still remember the thrills of that start and how I had no idea of how to use the platform :). God, I can’t believe it’s been already a year and a half.

Your first poem? Remember?

Yes, it was called “Anonymous will”, it is posted on my blog, on the “Who I am” page, together with its birth history :).

What are your writing inspirations?

Life, love, nature, words, philosophy, people…honestly, I never made a list of those…

How do you define poetry as “Good”? Do you revise your work?

“Good” means that, if I read it out-loud, I can hear it flowing. I rarely revise my work, because usually I don’t publish a text unless I am perfectly satisfied with it.

When did you start writing poetry? Do you write fiction as well?

I began writing poetry the moment I began to write at all, 14 years ago. I do write fiction, mainly short stories, and currently I am also working on a novel.

Do you have a favorite author or poet?

I have many favorite authors and poets…But to quote just two of them, I’d say that the poet that marked my soul from the very first second when I read it was Nichita Stanescu, and the writer was Umberto Eco.

Favorite quote?

The one that comes to my mind in this very second is one that belongs to Mother Teresa, and it goes sort of like this: “I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.”

Why do you support Jingle Poetry Community, including Jingle Poetry @ The Gooseberry Garden?

First of all because I was adopted by this community when I was just beginning to learn how to blog, and I was kinda lost in the vastness of this online activity. Then one day Jingle came around and in the next second I wasn’t alone anymore :). So you see, JPC is sort of my blogging family :).

Secondly, because there are so many wonderful poets and writers that are a part of this community! And they all deserve to be supported and read and encouraged!

What's your plan for your future writing?

Well, I have tons of future plans – I have one new poetry collection ready to be published, I’m working on a novel, as I have already told you, and since poetry still flows through my being and comes to life through my pen, I guess I’ll just keep on writing for the rest of my life :).

Poetic Reflections on Carlin Brian: A Special Tribe

2012-02-17T13:57:00.004-06:00

My name is Brian Carlin, am a 53 year old Scot, living in Glasgow with my beautiful wife Susie. Married for 32 years, with two grown up kids , Cassie and Liam. I've been a psychiatric nurse for 25 years, mostl of that time caring for the elderly.

In my younger years played bass guitar and wrote lyrics in a band called Apes in Control, thus online I became apemanb (a play on the beefheart song title Ant Man Bee) and the blog became my Big Ape Diary.

What does the blog mean to me?

well I'm not the most gregarious of characters and it's a means of getting what I write out there and connecting with people

I started the blog about two and a half years ago, having been on twitter a while doin haiku, which kick-started the drive to write poetry again.

The first EVER poem I claimed to have written was a spike Milligan one about a Strawberry Mousse which got me plaudits from my schoolmates...never ever owned up to the plagiarism.

The first lyric I wrote was for a piece called Helmet which began:

He's got a helmet
And he's inside it
Writing inspirations?
Recreating memories of childhood
Trying to crystallize a particular image or feeling
Writing about the people I love
Occasionally trying to turn words into paintings or sculpture
What is good poetry for me?
The exact word for the exact feeling or thing.

In the truest rhythm of free verse, where I can feel the beating heart of the poem as I read it.

Revision? Never used to, but yes, all the time now...I've taken down about 300 pieces which I feel need reworked, as I've gotten to understand more about how I write and what I'm looking for. Tried writing prose pieces , and although they were ok, I find I have a different kind of energy than it requires, so no ,no fiction.

Favourite author/poet?

Knut Hamsun, Kurt Vonnegut , haruki murakami, D.H.Lawrence, Ezra pound, William Carlos Williams , Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Tom Leonard , to name but a few Favorite quote

"watch out where the huskies go, and don't you eat that yellow snow" Zappa

Why support Jingle?

Because it has the unmitigated audacity to get out and do the necessary.

Because of what the community has become through its members, because nothing comes close to the club of friendship it is.

Future plans?

To feel I'm getting closer to capturing exactly what I think and feel in written form, to be happier with it, to connect.

That's all from me, the noo, Brian x :-)

Visit me at:

http://theprimate.wordpress.com/

Poetic Reflections Week 25

2012-02-04T14:12:00.002-06:00

Tell us about yourself.

Let me say first off, I do not consider myself a poet... I always say that sometimes I just like to mess around with my brain and see what I can come up with. Now about me...I call myself Gigi Ann (Gigi meaning Great Gramma) I was a stay at home mom, with 5 children. We lived on a farm, so there was always something to do to keep us all busy. I am now a Gramma of 9 grandchildren. The Great-gramma of 6 great-grandchildren. With 2 more on the way in 2012.

Tell me about your blog, the name, what does it mean to you?

I named my blog "Shadows Of My Mind" because it is where I post my 'so called poems,' and I always think of my poems as 'shadows of my mind' therefore, the name of my blog.

When did you start blogging?

I created this blog "Shadows Of My Mind" in March of 2011. However, I have been blogging since 2007. My first blog was "Quotes and Things" created in 2007.

Your first poem? Remember?

One snowy February day in 2008, with not much to do, but watch the snow fall, I decided to try and write a poem. This is the result of my first try at trying to write a poem.

"Memories"

When I was a young girl, I strolled in the woods,

and ate wild berries, boy were they good.

But, now that I'm older, I set in my chair and

stroll down the path of memories so fair.

I remember running through the pines

all covered with snow, they were so beautiful.

Oh! where did the time go?

There was sledding and dances, school fairs to attend,

also roller skating and fun with my friends.

Then I was married and a mother of five.

How those little ones kept me active and alive.

Oh my! where did the time go?

I remember the smell of the babies so dear.

The sweet little sounds that came to my ears.

But now they are grown and have babes of their own.

And made me a Gramma, so grand and so great !!

Oh, dear me! where did the time go?

Time comes and time goes, but my memories remain.

Bringing me pleasure, as I stroll down memories lane.

It's always a delight to be back in my chair and

stroll down the path of memories so fair.

And wonder again as I look at the snow,

where oh where did the time go?

(Gigi Ann 2/13/2008)

What are your writing inspirations?

I think picture prompts are what help me to set down and try to put words with the pictures. If you cruise through my blog, you will notice that all of my poems are accompanied by a picture.

How do you define poetry as “Good”? Do you revise your work?

As I mentioned before, I don't consider myself a poet, but how I define "Good" poetry is when I can read it and understand what it is about. I never use 'complicated' words in my poetry. I like a more simplified easy to read form of poetry. I also do not care for poems that go on, and on, and on, after a while I lose interest. Do I revise my work? I have revised a few of my poems, after a few weeks, I may go back and read them and try to revise them for the better.

When did you start writing poetry? Do you write fiction as well?

I wrote my first poem on February 13, 2008...Do I write fiction? No I do not write fiction. However, I do read a lot of fiction. I have a blog "Ann's Reading Corner" devoted to reading, and memes about reading things.

Do you have a favorite author or poet?

I do have a favorite poet, she is Hazelmarie Elliott. I love her poetry.

Favorite quote?

My favorite quote has nothing to do with poetry, but here it is. "When I get a little money, I buy books; and if any is left, I buy food and clothes." ~ Erasmus ~

Why do you support Jingle Poetry Community, including Jingle Poetry @ The Gooseberry Garden?

I enjoy reading others poetry. However, I am a bad commenter on others blogs. I need to try and do better in the future. However, I do love reading the poems of all the 'real' poets. I learn so much from reading others poems.

What's your plan for your future writing?

I will try to write a poem or two, but I don't sweat the small stuff. If I'm in a poetry frame of mind, I try to think of something to write, otherwise, I enjoy the poetry of others.

Thank you, Jingles, for hosting the poetry blogs, I have found much enjoyment in reading so many of the other real poets poems, and visiting their blogs.

Jingle Poetry at The Gooseberry Garden ‘Poem of The Week’

2012-02-04T08:43:00.000-06:00

The poem’s Title ‘Walls of My City’ had two deep references that were striking to me as a reader. The word ‘walls’ had multifarious connotations not only as a safe haven but also as a prison or a confined place where one feels highly insecure physically as well as spiritually. ‘My City’ brought nostalgia helplessness and a sense of loss, for the 5^th of February is a Day of Remembrance of my Homeland Kashmir, still an occupied territory, where the natives long to go as free citizens. My reason for choosing this poem is to highlight the importance of Freedom and Human Rights and to make this world a better place for everyone. One should not feel alienated with all the grandeur of towers, grand cities and lose hope to say ‘life is meaningless’ The last lines are an acceptance of ‘reality’ in the words ‘dust’’Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return’ why then do we ignore our fellow human beings and in them the reality of ‘being’A beautiful poem to think about ‘life our obligations and The Truth and to see things ‘as they really are’ as Poet Critic Mathew Arnold stated in his Critical Essays. I present ‘The Walls of My City’ by ‘Altered Reality Mr Visionary as Poem of The Week’…

I have abandoned everything

Like a monk with weary eyes

I am a hermit within the city walls

Tall towers of light are only columns of dreams

I have fled from the horizon

to study the core

I am tired of all the signs -

In a falling leaf

the whole universe is summarized.

Don’t wake me up!

Let me sleep in my rich delusions

Let me be like dust

that never had a name

it never spoke a word.

More about Altered Reality at

http://creativelag.blogspot.com/2012/01/walls-of-my-city.html

Friday Blog Review~ Week 24~ Pages from my mind

2012-02-03T04:21:00.000-06:00

This week I have went to one of the favorites, she has been one of Jingle & Gooseberry Garden's officials.
I have been following her blog ever since I came across it on Jingle Community.
We all know by LadyNimue and her blog Pages from my mind.

“Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself - it is the occurring which is difficult." ~Stephen Leacock

The Blog

The blog sports a simple look with the Coraline template, a black background and single sidebar. The header is simple, showing a person on a bench deep in thought. The widgets like Recent Posts, Recent Comments and Tag/Category Cloud are all there and she adds others like Twitter feed, Tumblr feed and also a link to the poems/posts she liked (Only one in this list up to now). There’s no archive widget, but I remember reading her hundredth post, so I can tell its somewhere above that. I tracked her archives to April 2010.

Her Poetry

Ladynimue's words are expressive and emotional, it stretches deep within the readers being. She's enthusiastic experimenter, she has written in many forms from free verse to haiku's.

Each Poem tells a story and this one They Met, what if you have met someone over and over and knowing there is something that was destined. This is what I read in this poem.

Replicated me this one has so much solitude epscially the inner emotions of who we are.

I like how you have synchronised the words in this poem....filling the Art of life.

I am Chimnese, the author of My Poetry & Writing hosting Friday Blog Review along with Robin, Write It . Till next time & wishing you all good week ahead.

Thursday Poetry Forms (Poetry for Dummies) Week 25

2012-02-02T18:41:00.000-06:00

Welcome, again, to another week at The Gooseberry Garden. Once again (or still) I am CC Champagne and I am here to attempt to help you navigate the treacherous waters of poetry form.

Last week I tried to clarify some of the ins and outs of the Pantoum (though I am not sure any of us felt smarter after that attempt), the week before that we had a go at explaining the fascinating OULIPO form and I frankly sit here undecided about which form to tackle next... I have started looking into romantic poetry for the upcoming Valentine's Day celebration, but that is still two weeks off and I need something for this week.

When talking to a friend the other day the topic of poetry and writing came up, and her response was something along the lines of 'I can't do that, I could never write poetry!'. I know this friend is really good at writing (I have proofread some of her essays), so I was extremely shocked and a bit confused at how difficult she seemed to think that it would be to write poetry, in comparison to other forms of literature. Is it hard to write poetry? I suppose that would depend on your definition of poetry. If your definition of poetry is to be on par with Shakespeare, Keats or one of the other greats, then yes... You will have your work cut out for you. But poetry is so much more than that.

Poetry Picnic Week 24: Free Linking

2012-01-29T14:00:00.046-06:00

Isn't it great to feel free? No constraints, no rules, no restrictions. This week, that is my humble offering. This is what I lay in front of you: a blank slate, an awaiting canvas. Fill our walls with words this week with no limitations on style or theme. My gift to you. Have fun!

Obscure vs. Graceful By Mr Blaque - Obscure vs. Graceful

Damn the world and all its wonders
Burn everything that stands
Destroying the barricades
Let my evilness through
Recognize the purity of death

Glorify all that is living
Watch the beauty of the earth
Rebirth of life shining
The aging enlightenment
From wonders that push through

Kill everything that moves
Having it beg for mercy
Because I’m absolute
Worship this idol
Of selfish greed

Let life progress
Smile at every waking endeavor
Allowing the passionate togetherness
Instilling a unified knowing
Of one’s spirited heart

The letter to Oz by Jennifer Ratcliffe

Fear is love
and there is nothing more ferocious than the creature herself.
Listening quietly and glazing politely
wishing crooked smiles on the windowsill,
enraptured fingers hovering over your desolate skin.
You lose your mind
it'll never come back,
not without the rats and worms.
Living with new memory,
speaking, running, understanding
loneliness and fear.
Fear the affair that casts your endless sleep,
how I wish the kitten would lick my wounds once more.
The empty pit of consciousness
forbidding,
I know that of wrong
but I wish it right anyway.

Grizzly Island Road by Steven Federle

Soft sky, blue and white
cloud swelling over low hills,
delta waters,
twilight sloughs

calling to geese and egret,
kingfisher and mallard
to lounge in waving reeds
as grazing cattle linger
in verdant valley.

Like a river the road flows
down to the sacred sea,
to the deep, living stream
of Earth.

The Huntress-TB by Crayfish

She traces my thought paths

through my thoughts and words.

She scours all my drawing

for footsteps unheard.

A silent hunter between dusk and dawn,

waiting in the wings to pour over scorn.

All Jokes Aside by Alex Dissing

Relationships

are like tectonic plates:

sometimes they shift,

and when they do,

it shakes the ground

beneath you.

Realize

that this is just a simile, though,

because you can’t be at fault

for settling in the fault zone.

It’s only human that we fall in love,

but when we do,

where exactly are we falling from?

A relationship

shouldn't be a leap of faith,

it should be a grasp of the right hands.

The lovely mystery

is sometimes hard to understand.

My answer to my relationship riddle

is not ground-breaking,

it's just me.

As silly as it sounds,

we’re all looking for someone

who we can be comfortable with being silly around.

To submit your poetry entry, please use the InLinkz below. We'd be delighted to hear from you if this is your first (or second or third or millionth) time, so please don't hesitate to leave a comment below or to link back to us on your own blog.

Weekly poetry picnic starts at 2pm on Sunday and ends on 10pm on Thursday. Best wishes this week and happy poeming.

Theme for Week 25: Military, soldiers, veterans, or poetry dealing with physical, mental, and emotional healing…

Link your entries to both our blog and to Bradley’s blog at the same time, Thanks…

That’s for next week….

PS: Poetry for Wounded Warriors, Launched by Bradley A. Peraino

Please post your poems about the military, soldiers, veterans etc. here. (As well as any poetry dealing with physical, mental, or emotional healing,) It will be open all year. I do request that people stay respectful towards our nation and her heroes, leave politics at home and come armed with the love and compassion that our brave men and women so rightly deserve. Thank you for your participation and may God shine down upon our nation's true 1%, her Soldiers!

Anti-war, Politics, etc. will not be acceptable. My request from you is that you post a message with the link on your blog. There is no limit on the number of posts and the posting will remain open until December. I hope that you can help me with this project.

http://perainopoetry.blogspot.com/p/in-memory-of-our-fallen-soldiers.html

Poetic Reflections Week 24: Larry Meredith

2012-01-28T18:44:00.002-06:00

Tell us about yourself.

My name, which I write under, is Larry Eugene Meredith. I live in Delaware with my wife of fifty years. Yeah, I’m old. I have three kids, several cats and very little money. I walk a lot and I write a lot.

Tell me about your blog, the name, what does it mean to you?

I have several Blogs dedicated to different subjects. Two are dedicated to my poetry. “Blossom and Weeds” are poems I wrote from 1954 through 1980. “Old Man and the Syllables” those I wrote since 1980, most of which are from the last decade. The title is a takeoff on Hemingway’s “Old Man and the Sea”.

My regular whatever-strikes-my-fancy Blog is “Drinking of Elder Men”. The title is taken from a poem I wrote called “Time II”, which contained the lines:

The good times are memories

In the drinking of elder men,

As if they exist.

Among other Blogs I keep up is “All the Monsters in My Mind” consisting of my short fiction.

When did you start blogging?

I began with a website in GeoCities sometime in the early-to-mid 1990s called, “Nitewrit’s Lair”. I don’t think the term Blog was in use yet. I began my current Blogs in 2008 with a Blog called, “Night Writing in the Morning Light” that I still do. It consists of essays on various Christian thoughts and Scripture. The title was based on Psalm 42:8.

Your first poem? Remember?

The earliest poem I have was called “Ballad of Peppy the Pup”, a parody of “Ballad of Davy Crockett”. I was 12 when I wrote. The earliest poems I have that weren’t parodies were written when I was 13:

The Goodbye Tango

Means it’s time to go.

The night has slipped away,

It is tapping the day.

The sun is up so

Play the Goodbye Tango

We have danced all night.

The dawn is rising bright.

Wasn’t it fun, though?

Play the Goodbye Tango.

The record player goes

With songs of prose

About love and romance

As through the dark we’d dance.

But all good things end.

The stars grew dim

And the moon grew low.

Play the Goodbye Tango.

The other one is “My Little White Lamb”, a country song. It was published a couple years after I wrote it and recorded a year after that. It went right to obscurity.

She came into my life

Like a little white lamb,

But she went out

Like a big roaring lion.

Why did she double-cross me

At the crossroads of life?

Why, oh why, did she leave me?

I will just walk along the streets

Alone and weary.

All alone in this world without her.

Or ending it down by the river

Because I feel so lowdown and blue.

Was I ever so down right untrue

Or unfaithful,

To her in our attempt at true love,

To make her sad, my little white lamb,

Or has love just flown like a dove?

When they lay me in that big cold coffin,

And when that black hearse starts on its slow way,

Then will you remember how I loved you

Right until that end, my dying day?

You came into my life

Like a little white lamb,

But you went out like a big roaring lion.

There on the doorstep you left me,

All alone and crying.

What are your writing inspirations?

I don’t know. That is a mystery to me. Everything and anything, I suppose. Writing just happens beyond my complete control. Some call it a gift; I think it is more a curse or incurable disease. Write I must, I can’t stop if I wanted to.

How do you define poetry as “Good”? Do you revise your work?

I revise my work over and over. I never feel completely satisfied with it. As far as what is “good” poetry…I think art is very subjective. It is a matter of individual taste. I believe these elements should be present to make a “good” poem. A sense of music to the lines. Take a shopping list: toilet paper, peas, bread, cheese, milk. It is a list, very flat. We can give it a sense of music by rearrangement: Bread, milk, cheese/Toilet paper, peas. So thought goes into construction and word use to give it a rhythm and musical quality. It doesn’t have to rhyme, just flow nicely off the tongue. Comprehension. I think a poem should be understandable. Understanding may not be easy, the reader might have to work at it, but in the end it should be understandable and not gibberish that just sounds pretty. Art should communicate. Meaning and purpose. The poem should have a meaning or a purpose behind it. It doesn’t have to be a profound meaning, but there should be at least purpose. If it is simple a description then that is the purpose.

When did you start writing poetry? Do you write fiction as well?

I began knowingly writing as writing when I was 10. I was performing material and co-publishing a newspaper by 11. I probably began writing poems from the start. Most my early poems were parodies of popular songs. I was also writing fiction and little plays, mostly comedy. I did stand-up in high school and incorporated some of my poems into my routines. I also did my first public reading of 26 of my poems when I was 17. I started getting stuff published regularly and often in the 1960s, both fiction, nonfiction and poetry. (I was paid for these things, too.) Two of my poems were included in an anthology of American Poetry in 1970.

Do you have a favorite author or poet?

My favorite poets in my youth were Edgar Allan Poe, whose work really got me interested in poetry; Edwin Arlington Robinson, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson and Carl Sandburg. I’ve enjoyed many other poets since. My early inspirational writers were Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, Evan Hunter, Henry Gregor Felson, Charles Beaumont, Sinclair Lewis and Ernest Hemingway.

Favorite quote?

“It is better to remain silent and be though a fool than open your mouth and remove all doubt.” This has been attributed to different people. I always attributed it to my grandmother, but it really is a paraphrase from Proverbs.

Why do you support Jingle Poetry Community, including Jingle Poetry @ The Gooseberry Garden?

Because I feel it is important to have a place where poets can share their work with other poets and whom else might stop by to read. Poetry needs outlets in this world to keep it alive.

What’s your plan for your future writing?

Just to keep on doing it as long as I can.

Jingle Poetry at The Gooseberry Garden~ Poem of The Week ~Passing By C Rose

2012-01-28T08:45:00.000-06:00

A poet ‘On a missionto give a perspective of compassion to all things in this world’ using a unique‘verb’ form of the key word ‘poetry’. The word ‘poetized’ became the attractiveelement in the style. I had come across the name but not read any verses. Thisspecial visit revealed a personality replete with creativity dedication, thelove of sharing ideas and expressions above all inviting the ideas and thoughtsof other writers to ‘share’ too. Lately a trend of ‘no comment attitude’ has been noticed across the web, which is not conducive to creative writing. Writers withpoetic talent must come forward to inspire and as I read more about C Rose Ifound that her mission’ is to inculcate the love of writing and sharing’ whichled me to select one of her poems for this week. Being a Teacher myself I washappy to note a special thank you note for her teacher and mentor. Nations whohonor their Teachers are always successful.

The poem is deeply philosophical with areligious touch in the words ‘carried souls splash’.’Perforated borders’ aperfect poetical phrase, reflecting intense imagery of ‘life as a particle ofdust, and the war stricken world on so many borders’ ‘dissecting’ cuttinghumanity to destroy peace and end life. Mychoice of the week is …

Passing by CRose

With each passing

carried souls splash

fingers through the next

crossed through rippled

inertia, experiencing

the came and went

walking the circumstance

ofperforated borders

our particles dissect

Flash Fiction and much more noteworthyexpressions by C Rose on: http://theworldpoetized.com/

Friday Poetry Blog Review: On Few Miles

2012-01-27T10:21:00.000-06:00

A journey in words can go a long way. Engrossed in words, the journey may go for eons, yet we may feel like it has only been a few minutes. It may be a marathon, a hurdle race of millions of meters, yet at the end, if we ever reach it, it may feel like we’ve been traveling only a few miles. Today, I review the blog of a friend, my co-host here at Review Tuesdays, Someone is Special aka SiS. He’s called his blog Few Miles, and we’ll travel some few miles with him here today.

Saravana Kumar, writing under the pen name of SiS began his writing journey with a poem titled “Sorry” but he’s continued to pen down poems and stories which need no apologies. He’s woken up angels in his dreams, and the blog’s poems, he says, are inspired by the dream girl. Given his pen name by his sweet friend, he continues to use the name and with the words he pens, he tries to cross the many hurdles and critics to remain focused as a writer with myriad thoughts in his mind.

The blog Few Miles’ template has been edited by him, a simple look with a mix of orange, blue and the main background of white. The blog header has a logo “FM” that is also the Faison of the blog. The blog has a single sidebar to the right, and the sidebar houses a large assortment of widgets; from twitter contact buttons, to the award badges he’s won on various platforms, from archives and favorite posts, to the recent comments list and category cloud. The blog has, so far, got visits from more than a hundred different countries since beginning in October 2009, and has 242 posts to-date.

SiS is not a “particular” writer; in the sense, he doesn’t prefer a particular form, or genre for that matter. He writes what comes to his mind at that time, or depending on if a meme inspires him. If he feels unable to write, he’s willing to take breaks to refresh his muse. SiS likes to write for contests, be it poetry or prose and experiments with the same. His themes vary from causes to nature, but most of his readers would recognize that the theme that dominates the others is romance. He is a self confessed “romancer” and his stories have that emotional pull to it. Quite a few of his posts also revolve around cricket so I think he is a great follower of the sport as well. SiS writes regularly for memes, and is also the host of a meme called Room for Romance, a monthly meme with themes based on his favorite emotion.

Being a regular writer, his frequency of posting is high, and though is he is talented to hold the quality, depending on the frame of mind he is in; his posts do have a tendency to waver on that front. A positive point about SiS is that he takes critique well and works on his posts to get better as he writes. I’ve been reading him for a while now, and I’d say I have a lot of favorites from his posts to list out here. If any of you are very much addicted to romance in reading, I’d say his blog would be a drug to you. On a personal note, I’d very much say him to work on his determination, as I’ve known him to think of quitting when results are not going his way.

As a reader, I think the first thing I’d look at in a blog is the post. As a writer, I feel that I would also want my reader to read the post. In your blog, I find the sidebar assortment of widgets to be overwhelming. When the badges of winning entries you have had in competitions is present directly, the reader would be distracted to reading that instead (though it being there as a celebration of your success is quite understandable). If possible, try to declutch it somehow. Explore more themes other than romance in your long stories. Look to better yourself each time. I think you are good already, but still aim for the perfection that is elusive. A writer’s journey is always toward perfection, hence the reason for it being an endless one. Other than that, I’m quite happy as a reader to visit the blog. Keep going!

Glad to review your blog, and let me know how you found it, if you’ve found me wavering on some point. Cheers and have a lovely week ahead.

From the Review Tuesdays team here at Jingle Poetry Community,

The Amateur Poet,

Thursday Poetry Forms (Poetry for Dummies) Week 24

2012-01-25T12:05:00.008-06:00

Another week starts here at the Gooseberry Garden and I am CC Champagne, here to delve deeper into the murky waters of poetry forms with you.

A few months ago I caught a pretty bad cold with a fever and all the dizziness that comes with it. I was stuck at home, restless, having nothing to do, and stumbled on this post over at d'Verse Poets Pub for their Form For All about a poetry form called Pantoum. Before this day I had always claimed that there was no point in me trying my hand at formalised poetry, but in my mentally weakened state I decided to actually try to figure out what on earth it was all about, starting with the brilliant information provided by Gay Reiser Cannon in that first post.

The Pantoum derives from the Malay poetry form Pantun and its longer form of intervowen quatrains called the Pantun Berkait. From what I gather this form has developed in translation to the English language and made popular in the early 1800's by, among others, Victor Hugo and Baudelaire. I will not claim to completely understand this poetry form, but since it was my first ever attempt at proper formalised poetry and I found it truly inspiring, I wanted to share it with you. It is also interesting since it shows that new poetry forms are born out of old ones and then, with time, become old ones themselves. We should not be afraid to try, as our mistakes may be tomorrows' new poetry forms!

A Pantoum is

based on quatrains (stanzas or paragraphs of four lines each)
can be any number of stanzas, but always ends with the first and last line of the poem.
Plays with repetition of lines in a set pattern.
ABAB is the preferred rhyme scheme (first line rhymes with the third line, second line rhymes with the fourth line), but ABBA can also be used.

The scheme in which the lines are repeated looks like this:

1. (A)

2. B

3. A (or B)

4. B (or A)

2. B

5. A

4. B (or A)

6. A (or B)

5. A

7. B

6. A (or B)

8. B (or A)

7. B

9. A

8. B (or A)

10. A (or B)

9. A

3. B

10. A (or B)

1. B (or A)

I am sure some of you are probably wondering what on earth I am on about now, so to illustrate I thought I'd give a few examples, starting with Baudelaire's Harmonie du Soir (the apparent starting point for this madness) in translation by William Aggeler:

Evening Harmony

The season is at hand when swaying on its stem
Every flower exhales perfume like a censer;
Sounds and perfumes turn in the evening air;
Melancholy waltz and languid vertigo!
Every flower exhales perfume like a censer;
The violin quivers like a tormented heart;
Melancholy waltz and languid vertigo!
The sky is sad and beautiful like an immense altar.
The violin quivers like a tormented heart,
A tender heart, that hates the vast, black void!
The sky is sad and beautiful like an immense altar;
The sun has drowned in his blood which congeals...
A tender heart that hates the vast, black void
Gathers up every shred of the luminous past!
The sun has drowned in his blood which congeals...
Your memory in me glitters like a monstrance!
— William Aggeler, The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954)

Another example, which is not really very Swedish of me to do (but I hope you will forgive my apparent pride), is my own first ever attempt at this form, 'When Mother Earth Shakes':

When Mother Earth Shakes

When Mother Earth in anger shakes,
no man withstands his human fate.
To her succumbs both love and hate!
How can she forgive us more mistakes?

No man withstands his human fate!
No matter what predictions man makes.
How can she forgive us more mistakes?
When faced with all our human hate?

No matter what predictions man makes,
her righteous anger we cannot sate!
When faced with all our human hate,
she rises up for all our sakes!

Her righteous anger we cannot sate!
She knows man’s care for her he fakes!
She rises up for all our sakes,
reminding us our world can’t wait!

She knows man’s care for her he fakes!
To her succumbs both love and hate,
reminding us our world can’t wait
When Mother Earth in anger shakes!
In any case I hope this has inspired you to have a go at this multifaceted form, where you will find that the challenge isn't only to repeat the lines correctly, but also to - somehow - drive the poem forward within the strict confines of the rules it is based on.

If you do feel like sharing a Pantoum with us here at the Gooseberry Garden, or any other poetry you have written, please join us at the Poetry Picnic Week 23, where the topic is New York Times' Headlines. A fantastic idea to keep us poets current and not just veer off into the poetic dreamland we sometimes inhabit. Another suggestion might be to join in the Thursday Poets Rally Week 61, where the engines have just started for this week. I hope to be seeing you back here next week, for more mind-crunching poetry forms.

*Cheers*

Poetry Picnic Week 23: New York Times Headline Topics

2012-01-22T14:00:00.039-06:00

A Photo Taken By The New York Times on Fashion and Style

Please enjoy some poetry and have fun in our party:

Your Art Matters By Chimnese

This morning I picked up the paper,

Usually I read the financial section,

But instead I took a brief moment

To see the who’s who in the cosmopolitan

Of the New York Times,

I must say I have found a lot of things,

Especially on what’s happening

In the world of literature and modern art,

Sculptures and new books being released,

I have spotted that the Jewish Art centre

Is shifting identity,

The Judah L Magnes Museum has

Reopened as the Magnes Collection

Of Jewish Art and life,

And is also now part of the library

At the University of California, Berkeley,

I am so delighted that art hasn’t died yet,

Those historic monuments can be carried

Through generation after generation,

We stand to know that Art does matter,

That whatever we do in this life,

That our creativity will never

Be outnumbered that Art is timeless.

Smiles by Shail

Smiles

Gathered from all over

In a glass jar

Happy, nervous, tearful, lopsided

Open, beguiling, sinister, guarded

Icy smiles that never reached the eyes

And warm ones that lit them up always

Smiles that opened doors

Those that shut them close

Smiles like sunshine on a rainy day

Like cool breeze on a hot summer day

Smiles protective like parasols

Others the impetus to face storms

Smiles that brought you to your knees

And those that made you swell with pride

Toothless and naughty

Seductive and haughty

Shy, reaching out

Bold, drawing in

Smiles shine like multi-colored pebbles

In my glass jar

Reminders of milestones

Of life’s journeys.

Love By WyomingDiva

Do you remember

special rose-scented

dates?

I do...

mostly my own

though.

Magical first dates

Hoped for engagement

Fairly tale marriage

Surprising birth of daughter

and adoption by her

true father, my husband.

All of our birthdays.

Even the dogs get

remembered in

our home.

The passing of those

dearly missed and

some not so much.

Cinnamon and brown

sugar contentment

permeates our lives.

Relied Upon by Robin

accept it.

heal.

it moves through…

you don’t know what

will be

if you give up

on that fire that relies upon

nothing beyond itself for

strength.

Read New York Times yourself (see link below) to find a topic to write about under certain headlines!

http://www.nytimes.com/

To Submit Your Poetry Entry,

Please use InLinkz below, and leave a comment in case it is your first time! It would be awesome if you could link back to this post on your blog.

Weekly poetry picnic starts 2pm, Sunday, and ends Thursday, 10pm…Enough time for you to take the challenge, write about it, and share with us…

Flash Forward: Theme for Next Week-

Next Week we will have Free Linking, NO Theme, Heaven, Oh?

That’s next week,

Keep up the excellence.

Hope to see you share then!

Food and Style By The New York Times

Home and Garden

Politics

Foreign Relations

The Academy Awards Best Actor Brad Pitt

Happy Chinese New Year

and

Best Wishes for the Year of Dragon!

Much Love!

Image Credit: Google.com

Poetic Reflections Week 23 on Rosie Gan

2012-01-21T13:39:00.001-06:00

Thank you for the invitation. I feel honoured and am privileged to be part of Poetic Reflection.

What can I say about creative writing and me? I have always loved books and enjoyed poetry.

I have a degree in English Literature, but that in no way qualifies me to be a poet! I love poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge, Robert Frost and a host of other Western poets, but I had only recently been inspired by the Japanese poets writing in the haiku form. I love the discipline required in writing haiku, the beauty of the succinct verse, and the imagery related to nature.

I was hooked after my first effort. I had just visited the Alugu Caves in China at that time, and wrote a post about those beautiful caves on my travel blog. The haiku I added to that post was a tribute to the history of the caves, and images of the past flooded the haiku set I wrote. I felt the exhilaration of writing poetry then, and have continued writing, trying out different genres.

I write poetry under two blog names, One is My Garden Haven and the other is Travel-inspired Tales, both on blogspot.com. I started as recently as last year. Most of the poems

I write are related to nature, flowers, and places I've been to. Expressions of emotions are intertwined with the themes. My aspiration is to be bolder in my writing, to scratch beneath the surface and be more forceful. That's the direction I am going with my poems.

Like any writer, I have dreams of publishing a book of my poems, a short story collection or even a novel.

It is but a dream, not an actual plan. However, one needs to begin a venture with a dream,

I believe.

These words by Louise Driscoll echo my sentiments:

Hold fast your dreams,

Within your heart,

Keep one still, secret spot

Where dreams may go.

Jingle Poetry is definitely another spot, not a secret spot, where budding poets such as me may bring our dreams to.

Thank You for your encouragement,

Rosie Gan

;)

My Blogs:

Style Me Adorable

My Garden Haven...A Fine Romance

Rosie Gan Photography

Travel-inspired Tales

Enjoy This Image

Poem of the Week 23

2012-01-21T12:13:00.000-06:00

Hello, talented poets,

This week, we have poem of the week goes to Lola, she has written a story in poetic form about birds and woods, and the theme of freedom is quite enlightening ..

Hope that you enjoy her poem!

Northen Flight

07 Mar 2011 29 Comments

by LoLa in Bird Poems, Poetry

No more sitting bereft
no more reaching for all she sought
this birds got some fight left
And she knows what she is not
Her focus it turned inwards
away from all that wanted to claim
She took her flight to the woods
to add fire to her flame
She sought the sights she wished for
The Redwood trees, the sea so blue
A rapid river and so much more
The prettier it was, the higher she flew
She bathed in the hot spring in comfort and ease
Not worried of bigger birds, hunters or man
joyfully spreading her wings for all to see
She sat in splendid glory, with no worries on hand
Winds invaded the northern mountains
which rose this bird from her splendor
She danced in it for hours
Soaring about playfully, sparkling of wonder
The birds they came to play some too
They saw she had something
as she rolled with them as pigeons do
She sang a tune of all her longing
She sang a song of joy in freedom
then thought of her young ones
wondered when she would see them
And suddenly things weren’t so fun
This bird saw what she needed to do
she had to prepare the nest
thoughts of change distorted her view
as she prepared herself for this quest
This bird is willing to land again
to settle back into its home
If freedom is what she seeks in the end
only time will let us know

Friday Blog Review~ Week 23~ Summer Rain

2012-01-20T03:22:00.001-06:00

This weeks introduction goes to a new blogger I have discovered in the holidays.
The theme and the blog title really jumped at me seeing as I have a love for the rain, which combinds it with summer, making it Summer Rain .

The Blog

There is no information about the author. But i am going to hightlight the poetry that I have read on their blog.

Excerpt on : 54 Months

Birds sing,
APRIL showers on your chin,
Romance springs at one fling.
.
With roses blossoming in JUNE,
Dine near a beach with a fork and a spoon,
Dance a disc dance under the crescent moon.
.
Fireworks in the sky,
Kites fly,
Celebrate Independence in JULY.
.
School starts,
Time 4 fine arts
And some AUGUST pop-tarts.

Another poem that describes emotions of depth and transforming ourselves to what is inside. This is one of my favorites I like the underlying message.

Excerpt : In a place where the ocean is deep & wide

In a place where the ocean is deep and wide,
Lonely soul greets the hungry tide,
Unspeakable things
scream in silence;
Broken wings
search for solace;
Deserted strings
haunt those died in violence!
This fairy
is NOT very merry,
This story
is Not that cheery,
This moment
is so very scary!
Brain-storms flood,
Thoughts stretch,
Let’s pray to God
and redo our sketch.

In the url I have read this words, " Its time for me to think for myself". which is a life lesson in itself that at some point in our lives we will have to be in charge of our own emotions and learn to control what we let in our lives.

Summer Rain if you could try an update on giving the bloggers more info on your ABOUT ME, would be great, so we can all know where you from and what inspires you.
I have enjoyed your poetry.

I am Chimnese and wishing you a great weekend ahead. Don't forget to check out Summer Rain's blog.

Thursday Poetry Forms (Poetry for Dummies) Week 23

2012-01-18T08:12:00.005-06:00

A new week here in the Gooseberry Garden, and I have to say it starts to feel just a little bit like spring! I am CC Champagne, and I am your weekly guide on this excursion into the maddening world of poetry forms and all related issues. Pull up a chair, make yourself comfortable and let's take a look at something that I had never heard of before, namely OULIPO.

OULIPO is a literary philosophy invented by mathematicians in the 1960. The acronym stands for the French Ouvroir de littérature potentielle (a rough translation would be workshop for potential literature) and defines the term potential literature in this case with 'the seeking of new structures and patterns which may be used by writers in any way they enjoy'. This sounds like something I think I could grow fond of!

This group of writers, current as well as those who are no longer alive, have set out to find new constraints with which to inspire a change in the creative process. Rules that forces you to view your writing from a different angle.

There is much to be said about this philosophy and the work it has already created, but I will limit myself to focusing on one OULIPO constraint today, the S+7 (sometimes known as the N+7). The rules for this form is that you take an already constructed poem and exchange all the nouns in it for the 7th noun after it in a dictionary. Exchange noun for noun and the poem might not make any sense at all, or - even more interesting - it might force you to look at your work in a completely new light!

Want to give one of the OULIPO constraints/forms a go? Please feel free to enter whatever work this post inspires - or any of your other work in The Gooseberry Garden's Poets Picnic Week 22, where the wonderful Kay offers us the theme Spring, Colours, Trees and New Life.

I hope to see you back in The Gooseberry Garden again next week, if we don't come across each other rambling around the blogosphere before then.

*Cheers*

Poetry Picnic Week 22: Spring, Colors, Trees, and New Lives

2012-01-15T03:39:00.003-06:00

Greetings From Gooseberry Garden!
Hey! It's me, Kay Salady! It's my pleasure to welcome everyone to another week of poetry here at Jingle Poetry's Gooseberry Garden. This week's topics include one of my favorite things in the whole world and that's trees! Without trees, we wouldn't be here. When we think of trees, we often think of spring, and when we think of spring, we think of colors and new beginnings or new lives. Wow, see how all that just kind of flows together? I'm certain you could write a piece utilizing all of the prompts shown here. We're certainly looking forward to reading your poems. So, get a cup of inspiration and sip it slowly, take a deep breath, ready, set, write!

A New Baby Was Born by Snowflakes

A new baby was born

Full of freshness and light

Promising future to be held

Everything shall be alright

Remaining a curious mind

In his pilgrimage

By the blessings of angel's heart

Humble and daring

He is to blaze the trail

In the honor of God

Grow strong and tall

No need to wonder how

Simply live to give love to all

Name him Wink

Make him think

Lots of giggling

And wiggling

Enjoy the magical moments be nice

As love is the forever theme for human device

I Will Paint You a Rainbow by ~L

If your rainbow becomes lost

I shall paint one for you in the sky

I will pull out my ladder

Use a magical brush

Paint you your hope

And bring to you love so lush

When skies are gray

And your moments are sad

I will passionately pray

For a promise to be made

You told me yesterday

"I'm your hope mommy"

And today I tell you,

You make me happy when skies are gray

You'll never know dear how much I love you

Please don't take my rainbow away

There will be days when you too

Will feel your rainbow has disappeared

I will be there through and through

To be your artist in the sky

To give 'my reason' a hopeful view

Joy 2 The Beginning of Spring by Summer Rain

Joy to the beginning of spring

As I see earthin pure green

Joy to college freshman's spring fling

Where refreshed energy erupts in human

Birds wake up early to let out their happy cry

Church bells give their merriest ring

Emotions in baseball fields run sky high

Home runner is treated like a sport king

Spring and love are inseparable

Life without spring is intolerable

Spring fills hearts with infinite joys

As you and I feel as young as little girls and boys

She, A Tender Bud by Kay Salady

She a silent tender bud

Waited for the rains to flood

High above her peaceful sleep

One with roots so very deep

In the still of Earth's dark sod

Rested in the hands of God

A clap of thunder split the sky

Ere she turned and with a sigh

Gathered rain to drench her bed

The lovely tresses on her head

Floated within a moss cocoon

As her limbs reached for the moon

She reached far past her dark confines

Through the soil with shooting vines

That sprouted leaves of brightest green

With tiny flowers of tangerine

That burst with scent to reach the sun

Then folded wings when day was done

As if to pray when moon was full

To thank the Lord of Beautiful

For all she was and all she'd seen

For all she'd do and all she'd been

And as she bowed her head to sleep

She dug her roots in very deep

Then came the winds from hands of time

That blew her arms from her confines

And sent the seeds from tangerines

Beyond the trees far past the streams

And then a great and mighty flood

Washed away the tender bud

The snow of winter froze the earth

As tiny flowers await rebirth

Beneath the sod they lie in moss

So silently they weep the loss

Of one who bore them all

She who took the fall

A clap of thunder split the sky

As far beneath the soil they try

To gather rain within confines

Deep within the mossy mines

Of sleeping flowers who will bestow

Her sweet perfume before they go

Methods of Submissions:

Share your work using InLinkz below, and leave a comment in case it is your first time! It would be super great if you could link back to us on your blog.

Weekly poetry collection starts on Sunday, at 2pm, and will stay open until Wednesday, 8pm, 78 hours for you to share your talent with us!

Theme for next week?

Week 23 theme will be: Visit the New York Times online, find any headline of the day that interests you and write a poem or prose starting with the headline or with the headline as your poem title, have fun! http://www.nytimes.com/

Keep up the excellence.

Hope to see you share then!

Poetic Reflection Week 22: Words Speak, I Write

2012-01-13T20:12:00.015-06:00

Tell us about yourself:

I am a dreamer for whom creativity fuels my passions in life. Pursuing my doctorate and hoping to mix my interest in women studies and writing in some ways some day.

Tell me about your blog, the name, what does it mean to you?

My Blog is Titled "Words Speak, I Write". It signifies writing in my life. I mostly write spontaneously so it is as if words whisper in my ears for me to spill it out on paper.

When did you start blogging?

I first started blogging in 2007 and used to maintain 3 blogs back then. Years passed, Blogs changed but I still keep writing.

Your first poem? Remember?

Well, I think I first wrote it in class VII but it was song more than a poem in my native language...might be still in my old diary but too stupid when I read now. I seriously started writing poetry in my graduation in English Literature and even got published back then. Stopped it for years due to studies and life and pursued again due to blogging. I do remember one I got published once and was on love,

What is Love,

Love is a feeling,

Binding two souls,

It makes you happy,

It makes you sad,

But the most,

It makes you different.

What are your writing inspirations?

I want to be a writer someday. Be it a poet or novelist , it is my ultimate dream which I hope to achieve one day even if its in late stages of life.

How do you define poetry as “Good”? Do you revise your work?

For me 'Good' poetry is one which appeals to the heart and written directly from the heart rather than forced. I am more of the writing in flow kind of poet. So I hardly revise when I blog but yes I have done the revision when some good critic helps me to improve or when I plan to publish.

When did you start writing poetry? Do you write fiction as well?

I started writing in school, as I told earlier. Yes, I write fiction as well.

Do you have a favorite author or poet?

Among the authors, Charlotte Bronte and Paul Coehlo has been my favorite. I love the Poetry of Pablo Neruda, Eliot and Yeats.

Favorite quote?

"Nothing is Permanent"

Why do you support Jingle Poetry Community, including Jingle Poetry @ The Gooseberry Garden?

Yes , I do. I think you are doing a really good job in giving chances for amateur writers to think and compose through your prompts.

what's your plan for your future writing?

Writing is very rejuvenating for me. I plan to keep writing always and keep learning as much I can so my writing grows more better with time. It's my passion so I will stick to it forever.

Jingle Poetry at The Gooseberry Garden~~Poem of The Week~ Winging It'

2012-01-13T19:42:00.001-06:00

This week, the focus is on personal poetry.

The first thing we need to know is that: one could study it an entire lifetime and still not know everything there is to know about it, this is what makes 'personal poetry' so unique in its style of expression.

Secondly, it varies from person to person. Writers understand poetry in their own unique ways often revealing strange features and attributes about themselves unconsciously. Personal poems are also known as ' portraits'. Reading through this week's entries, I came across a unique title and a deeply effective 'purpose' stated boldly.

The poem "winging it" immediately has a personal opening, I have compassion for others, then keeps moving in between personal desires wishes and even self defense, and a shade of self safety which is instinctive and given by nature. Human nature manifested in 'Than God its not me' how true and starkly realistic ending with a highly futuristic note', Overall I enjoyed this poem very much and today is pleased to present it to all readers as 'poem of the week on week 21':

Winging it by ‘Unprecedentedintellectual’ Carolina

I have compassion for others

Pity sometimes really

Secretly sighing in relief

“Thank heavens, that’s not me!”

I admire human tenacity

Just prefer not having to be tenacious

Due to my noted fragility

Watched myself and others sidestep landmines

While others walked right into live ammunition

Tripped over anthills

While swearing they where mountains

We all muddle our way though

Not saying I am incompetent

Far from it!

Just stating that like the first man who walked this earth,

I make it up as i go along

I am a staunch believer in the school of life

What I know I have experienced

Life lessons ingrained in my psyche

Shaping my character like a river on rough terrain

Telling my story, making it folk lore

Giving that future archeologist

A dig of a lifetime!

More poems on http://unprecedentedintellectual.wordpress.com/2012/01/

Friday Poetry Blog Review: On Dani (A Repost)

2012-01-13T10:13:00.003-06:00

Love is a universal emotion. We, as poets orwriters, love to just express our heart, our mind’s thoughts, be it troublingor caring or random, through our pen. Some of us are romantics at heart, somelike to read romance if not write it. It comes as no surprise then, when theword love itself comes as part of our blog title. Review Tuesdays segment thisweek reviews such a blog, authored by Dani. We take you today to the blog, “Haiku Love Songs”.

Danidoes not say much about herself in the about page, buttells that the blog is about her attempts to write poetry as she tries to gothrough life not flying too high or too low. She attempts various forms likemicro-poetry, haiku, senryu, gogyohka, renga, tanka, short verse, narrativeverse, free verse, and poems sometimes inspired by photographs or music.

Love needs some red, in my opinion; and theblog’s look delivers there. The three column Pilcrow template at Wordpress,with black background for posts and the red flower background quite suits thetitle of the blog. She makes complete use of the four sidebars, including theones at the bottom of the blog to give an array of widgets. From categoryclouds and tag clouds, archives and blogrolls to badges of the memes she sharesher words with, the blog is quite filled with it all. Active since February2010, the blog has seen an astounding 1127 posts to date. Those interested infollowing her wonderful words can do so by subscribing by mail; the option isthere in the sidebar.

LikeI mentioned earlier, Dani is not bound to a particular form. She writes as hermuse desires and writes it simple, even in form. The presentation is verycolorful, with the fonts brightly displaying on the black background and imagesthat emphasize her words are there in the posts as well. She also acknowledgeseach reader who gives a comment with a reply. The badge of the meme she writesfor also forms part of the post.

Fromher recent posts, one of my favorites is the two gogyohka poem “To Love”.It is something that a lot of us would agree with, but to state it simply andpoignantly with just twelve words was something I felt was worth a mention. Itgoes:

to love

the

greatest

gift

be loved

the

second

Thesecond I share with you here today, more appropriately to her title, is a setof two haikus. “Inthe dance of life” goes:

thereare times in life

when the dance leavesyou breathless

from joy or despair

othertimes you waltz

as if gliding on water

…where’s the fun inthat?

Trueisn’t it? We all have had troubles when the dance of life has gone faster thanwe wanted, yet we have also had fun trying to catch up to that speed. Whenwe’ve had it easy, sure, we got where we wanted without troubles but thejourney hasn’t been that fun when the dance has been a slow waltz than aquickstep. Hence the reason I wanted to share this with you.

Danihas more haikus, gogyohkas, free verses for you all to read, I cannot share itall here. I would say you to haunt the memes she haunts; like OSI, Haiku Heights,One Shot Poetry, 3 WW, 6 Word Saturday etc. or even get the whole thing bydropping by her blog often. It is a fun place to visit a lot I feel.

Dani,suggestions to you… I’ve seen that you have a twitter account; it would also beuseful if you had a page on Facebook I think. Seeing your sidebars and theircontent, I’d say to switch to a single sidebar, on the right and shift the lonefeatured poet widget and feed to the top of the right sidebar. That way, thefeatured poet can stay featured, and your posts get a wider post are as well.If you felt something off in the review, anything no matter how small, pleaselet me know. Reviewing your blog was somewhat like that quickstep.

Fromthe Review Tuesday team, this is Leo of IRhyme Without Reason. Have a wonderful week ahead.

Thursday Poetry Forms (Poetry for Dummies) Week 22

2012-01-12T02:21:00.007-06:00

*stumbling hurriedly into the garden, curlers in her hair and still in her pajamas* Hello everyone and welcome to a new week here in our magic Gooseberry Garden! I am CC Champagne (or at least I will be once I wake up properly) back from her holidays to batter your brains with more poetry form talk.

Some of you may have noticed that we are at the beginning of a new year? 2012 it is, and according to the Mayan Long Count Calendar the end time is upon us at the end of this year. Before that though there will be Olympic Games in London, Presidential Elections in the US and all sorts of other goodies depending on where you live and what you are interested in. Personally I look forward to (among a million other things) the European Football Championships and, of course, the 20th anniversary of the Stockholm Tens International rugby tournament at the end of July.

Everything that happens around us in current times will one day be perceived as history - the only question is if someone deems it important enough to be remembered. Have you thought of that? Today is tomorrow's history! Current events, those perhaps unimportant things that we barely notice today may in the future be reported as the starting point of major events that have yet to happen, and the future historians may not always get it right! As poets, we call it poetic license but even scientists can only ever build on theories and here is one place where poetry has been important throughout history. Historically poets and bards helped spread the word on what was going on around them. Songs and fairytales told by everyman would find its way into the repertoire of the bard, or be integrated into the poetry of the times. Poetry is an outlet for the soul, but it is also an important tool for reporting on history in the making, peeling away the need for complete honesty (we are not in a Catholic church) and accuracy (we are not television reporters) and just telling it like it is to you, to the poet!

Historically poetry isn't only about emotions, about love and longing, but also about reflections of the current life and events. Reflections of what people then would think about, would do... Rather than going through rules of some poetry form today (and I might get my head handed to me for this), I would like to inspire you to write a poem that, in some way is related to current events and the New Year. Using the numbers 2012 might be one way of going about it, where they can represent numbers of syllables, numbers of words (though that would be one long poem) or be used as rhyme in the poem. Perhaps you would like to create your own poetry form, based on this new year? What would that be? And what would you, today, as a poet, want people to remember about us living here today when the future turns now into history?

If you want to share a piece you have been inspired to write by this, or any other piece of poetry, please feel free to do so at the Gooseberry Garden's Poetry Picnic Week 21 where the theme is Children's Stories, Riddles, Counting Songs and Rhyming Lyrics for Young Children, or perhaps you would like to rev up your engine and join in the Thursday Poets Rally Week 60? I personally will be attending both this week, and will hopefully come better prepared to our Thursday Poetry Forms meeting next week. *blushing* Until then I hope you all have a lovely week!

*Cheers*