Thursday Poetry Forms (Poetry for Dummies) Week 15

Another Thursday in The Gooseberry Garden and I, CC Champagne, am basking in the imaginary sunshine among the bushes while attempting to make head or tails of yet another poetry form. Please pull up a chair and see what we can find this week.

You may have noticed that I love words? I am, as they would say, rather a verbose person and I believe this is one of the problems I had when I first started my journey in the multi-facetted poetry section of the blogosphere. Haikus! They just didn't seem quite finished to me! As time went on and I found out more about them (and about how to write one myself) it got easier until I now admire those able to write a haiku that packs a punch enormously. Getting a message, the moment or feeling you are describing, across in three mere lines (and a limited number of syllables) is not at all as easy as it might sound, and especially to someone who likes hearing their own voice the way I do, and since last week's post on sonnets was extremely verbose (not to mention slightly confused) I thought we might go the opposite way today.

Monostich is a poetry form that I haven't come across before (apart from on Wikipedia), but the whole idea of writing a poem in only one line sounds fascinating. Could you do that? Say something profound enough, using a single line, conveying an idea, a moment, a feeling or anything else in one single line, and call it poetry... ? The Wikipedia explanation is simpler and gives no rules, apart from the 'sticking to one line' bit, but a few rules could be applicable:

• One line only
• Six to twelve syllables (always an even number)
• Similes not allowed, but at least one poetic devise must be used.
• No punctuation allowed, apart from the full stop at the end (and capital letter at the beginning).
• Should be a complete thought (not a fractured sentence).
• Should not be able to be broken up into several lines.

A quick troll around the blogosphere reveals that there are actual blogs dedicated to this poetry form, like monostich and Monostich Poet (to name the first two a Google search came up with). The history behind this form is that it can be traced back at least to Roman poet Marcus Valerius Martialis (known as Martial in English), via 19th century Russia and Valery Bryusov and into the 20th century where it is said to have been re-invented by Guillaume Apollonaire.

A whole poem in one single line... The thought is staggering! However, I did attend a session of creative writing poetry class a while back, and out of the ten or so people who attended, and all our joint efforts during that evening, I only remember one single piece (and it's not even my own). When asked to do some free writing (of no more than eight lines), one of the participants was having a particularly hard time and by the time the teacher got round to having her read her poem she looked around at the rest of us (all eager to hear what she had come up with), took a deep breath and said:

Telephone cord...

I don't remember any of the other poems from that evening, but I will always remember that one.

If you feel like you want to share a monostich of your own with us, please feel free to visit The Gooseberry Garden's Poetry Picnic Week 14, where the theme this week is "What I am Thankful for". Me? I'm thankful that I have been given the opportunity to take part in not only the sunny Thursday goings-on in The Gooseberry Garden, but the amazing journey that is blogging - and also for any and all comments you may have on the topic of poetry form! Until next week!

*cheers*

Poetry Picnic Week 14: What I'm Thankful for in My Life

Welcome to Jingle Poetry at The Gooseberry Garden Poetry Picnic Week 14. We’ve enjoyed

your participation last week and look forward to reading this week’s entries.

This week, we will cover the idea of thankfulness and its many facets in one’s life. 

I, Kay Salady, welcome you to the 14th Poetry Picnic today!

I’ve chosen three poems centered on thankfulness as examples for you and certainly hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I have.  I look forward to reading your entries!

Ode to a Chestnut on the Ground by Pablo Neruda

From bristly foliage
you fell
complete, polished wood, gleaming mahogany,
as perfect
as a violin newly
born of the treetops,
that falling
offers its sealed-in gifts,
the hidden sweetness
that grew in secret
amid birds and leaves,
a model of form,
kin to wood and flour,
an oval instrument
that holds within it
intact delight, an edible rose.
In the heights you abandoned
the sea-urchin burr
that parted its spines
in the light of the chestnut tree;
through that slit
you glimpsed the world,
birds

bursting with syllables,
starry
dew
below,
the heads of boys
and girls,
grasses stirring restlessly,
smoke rising, rising.
You made your decision,
chestnut, and leaped to earth,
burnished and ready,
firm and smooth
as the small breasts
of the islands of America.
You fell,
you struck
the ground,
but
nothing happened,
the grass
still stirred, the old
chestnut sighed with the mouths
of a forest of trees,
a red leaf of autumn fell,
resolutely, the hours marched on
across the earth.
Because you are
only
a seed,
chestnut tree, autumn, earth,
water, heights, silence
prepared the germ,
the floury density,
the maternal eyelids
that buried will again
open toward the heights
the simple majesty of foliage,
the dark damp plan
of new roots,
the ancient but new dimensions
of another chestnut tree in the earth.

After Apple-Picking by Robert Frost

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
the scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
and held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
upon my way to sleep before it fell,
and I could tell
what form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
and every fleck of russet showing dear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
it keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
the rumbling sound
of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
of apple-picking: I am overtired
of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
as of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
this sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

On Fields O’er Which the Reaper’s Hand has Passed by Henry David Thoreau

On fields o’er which the reapers hand has pass’d

Lit by the harvest moon and autumn sun,

My thoughts like stubble floating in the wind

And of such fineness as October airs,

There after harvest could I glean my life

A richer harvest reaping without toil,

And weaving gorgeous fancies at my will

In subtler webs than finest summer haze.

Methods of Submission to Our Poetry Picnic:

Share your work using InLinkz below, 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, at 2pm (CDT), and will stay open till Wednesday, 8pm (CDT), 78 hours for you to share your poetry with us.

Theme for Next Week:

For Week 15, we will have theme ”November, Winter, Change,and  Hope!”!

Jingle Poetry at The Gooseberry Garden  

Appreciates Your Continued Support, 
Please Feel FREE to share, encourage, and get inspired! Random poems are welcome too!

H-A-P-P-Y P-O-E-T-R-Y P-I-C-N-I-C!

Poetic Reflection Week 14 on C Rose

Tell us about yourself.

I pen under C Rose, known as Carey Rose O'Connell, outside of my poetic domain. I live in the American Southwest with some words, intentions and dreams. I began a journey just under 2 years ago that moved me toward the walk of poet and healer, its been beautiful.

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

My blog name is: "The World Poetized" - My creative passion in words is to try and share a global perspective of compassion and middle way thinking. We are each of the same flesh, to shed a light on that perspective through poetry is how I came to title my blog. If only the entire world could just be poetized....

My Blog: http://crosescribe.wordpress.com/

When did you start blogging?

I just recently began my blog in February of 2011, only joining a small group of poets online and sharing poetry for the first time late in 2010. Before that my writing was something I did infrequently and viewed it more just for my own needs. When my journey changed and words began to fill the answers I was seeking I realized it was time to accept this as part of my life's truth.

Your first poem? Remember?

I wrote a lot of little poems when I was young, that and short stories, I don't remember my first, but the first poem I shared online was "Searching" a free form I wrote about the process of writing.

Searching

Wandering through the corridors
my steps ring loud in the silence
Searching for the story
Searching for the reason
Searching for a path
Out of silence comes chaos
pounding into me with a thunderous jolt
Flooded with dramatic pleas
Flooded with pitiful disease
Flooded with mocking prose
Digging for the thought, my hands
become weak and my judgment clouded
Searching for the light
Searching for an end
Searching for an identity
Silence again surrounds me
a gleam of hope appears
Peaceful with the fruit
Peaceful with the decision
Peaceful with the end

By C Rose

What are your writing inspirations?

I find a lot of my inspiration comes from conversation, hearing people's perspective, position or even just state of being often will help inspire me in words that I think can help everyone experience the moment of our true commonality. 

Also reading books, online poetry, micro-poetry...reading anything inspires usually!

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

Because I often meditate before or even sometimes during my creative process I don't do as much editing as I should, it becomes a much more visceral process at times. I will take from something that inspired, hold it in meditation and explore from there. Because I do enjoy various form poetry I will do editing to ensure I meet form requirements such as syllable count and rhyme, however editing and community critique is something I look forward too as I develop my craft.

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

I have been writing for as long as I can remember, poetry and journal writing were always helpful for me to clear the head. I love writing larger work, flash fiction and even some larger novella sized work is in the cooker. I am even participating in National Novel Writing Month

Do you have a favorite author or poet?

There are many that I enjoy, naming a "favorite" is always a challenging. 

I do have to say Rumi is a poet I feel very connected to in words and message.

Favorite quote?

"My religion is to live - and die - without regret"  ~ Milarepa

“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me..” ~ Hunter S. Thompson

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

I support the Jingle Community family because it helps keep the movement of poetry forward, which is, in my opinion, desperately needed in our world right now. I believe its time for a renaissance if you will, a time again for creative to re-paint the landscape with hope and vision and the wallowing in pop culture to win in its dominance of our mind.

What's your plan for your future writing?

Just to keep on, share it love, share it in compassion and walk a minute with you.

My thanks again for including me in your series.

My best to you ~ Rose

Poem of the Week "Childhood, Dreams, Books, and Role Models"

A weekend welcome to Gooseberry Garden!The theme "Childhood, Dreams, Books, and Role Models" itself has lots of muse to write about.Children are a source if joy and childhood is a source sweet remembrance.Pretty little things by Jothi Mishra is one such poem that recalls sweet memories from childhood.I can't ignore the facts on these lines...so sweet.Thanks to all contributors and your wonderful poems.

Pretty little Things-by Jothi Mishra

Pretty little things

So many, you ignore. 

Few, you can never forget.

For some, you are not sure. 

Few, constantly pricks. 

Many others, just useless tricks. 

No matter how small they are. 

They have this bundle of power. 

Which can control you,

or can twist your mood. 

Some, you wanna retain. 

Others, you elude. 

The tiny gift your friend gave. 

For a sip of coffee, you crave. 

First prize, you won in school. 

Silly things you did, pretending to be cool. 

Sarcastic comment, your classmate made. 

Fun you had in college parade. 

A friend, who stopped talking to you. 

Next door pal, with whom you grew. 

Mistakes, for which your mother slapped.

Ohh, the height of enjoyment you had

in designing pranks and getting trapped. 

Flowers of the plant you planted before. 

That girl in your class, always outscored. 

Lovely, unusual sibling love you shared. 

Shine of your new bike, you proudly glared. 

Movies, outings and trips with your gang. 

Irritating others with your private slangs.

These small things.

They do count. 

Adds meaning n spice

in your lives n surrounds. 

Pretty little things 

they may be.

Made from people 

like you and me.

An elegantly blended.

potpourris, of sweet n sour 

moments n memories. 

This is Umamaheswari Anandane from Inside My Poem Book and Perpetual Mind , one of the official in Gooseberry garden feels honored to be a part of this lovely community .

Cheers!

Lets encourage each other and grow together !

By Uma @ (http://umaspoembook.blogspot.com/) 

Friday Poetry Blog~ Terri

This weeks blog is another blog that I have been reading up for awhile since she has started sharing her poetry on The Gooseberry Garden, I introduce thsi weeks blogger, Terri (What About God).

About The Author

(in her own words)

I have not added her entire about me, feel free to go read up on her.

What do I say about myself?  I am a baby boomer. It is only by the grace of God that I function as well as I do today. 

The road I’ve walked has been one of falling away and returning to God many times.  It has, I admit, been quite a painful one but I wouldn’t change a thing!  I’ve made a lot of stupid mistakes.  Through the rebellions and the states of grace, I have grown much closer to God.  I would not be the person I am today and have the relationship that I now have with Him if I had not been struck down with this disease.

I know He is a God of love, compassion and forgiveness.  This is why I started a blog in the first place and named it “What about God?”  I have a wide variety of life lessons to share with anyone who wants to listen.  Hopefully some of you will relate and find inspiration from them.
God bless you and always remember that Jesus died for us because He loves us!

Teresa Marie

Her Blog

What About God?

I have gone straight to her blog and on the right side of her page i went to go see her blog hits, (214,515 hits)quite amazing just to see how many hits this blog has since she has started blogging. Welldone Terri, i have also spotted her christian badges and other awards she has received over a period of time as she writes for Bluebell books and also other online communities.

The blog has the comet theme. Which fits the night sky and her poetry and short stories fits well with that as her background.

To view more on her blog have a look.

About the poetry

(i love all her poetry but this one stuck out to me)

Don't Ask God

Don’t ask God to make
what things you can’t take

To be easier on you
but rather ask Him to

Make you a little stronger
that you will last longer

Bad times to get through
because He has blessed you!

Teresa Marie  11/17/11

All her poetry is uplifting in the spiritual realm, and i have enjoyed reading up on her poetry and stories.

I am Chimnese and it was a pleasure to share this brave ladies work with you on the blog sphere.

Her webblog click here.