16 February 2012 - Blinders- haiku

Yeah, another slamming the current cultural norm that eschews poetry in novels let alone in its pure form.  I can’t help but think that all of those I read at Absolue Write would be great shell con men (and women) in the days when culture reached for more than titillation.  According to them, it’s all about the money and all for entertainment.  Poor shallow saps...

16 February 2012 - Blinders- haiku

against the rail, running

no whip needed for winners

prose jockey blinders

3-20-12

params: 5-7-5 Americanized version

15 February 2012 - Broken Rungs - haiku

I read a thread tonight, extolling the virtue of NOT putting poetry into prose novels.  I know this is probably culture dictating art, but the many shallow and febrile minds (of the reading audience) that currently exists makes me want to vomit.  I know most of the advice I get/read is geared toward making an author some money, but seriously, the idea that most will skip, advise abstinence, and in general flames the whole idea of poetry (ESPECIALLY in novels) really galls me.  I shouldn’t rant and just let the ignorance level eventually bottom out, understanding that this same audience of whom I’m trying to reach, isn’t worth the effort.  Okay, having a bad people moment, but the idiocy is surpassed only by their ignorance.  And this is coming from writers; sheesh!

So, guess you can see what this poem is all about...ruby verse being the juice of the fruit, which when bitten and consumed, is sweet.  And better, it’s sweeter when the picker has to reach for the fruit.  And because so many don’t, reach, try, care, they become the ones whose ladders are broken, albeit by their own shallow tastes.  Okay, that was a fun rant...on to the poem.

15 February 2012 - Broken Rungs - haiku

ruby verse drowns chin

plum is sweeter when reached for

too many broken rungs

3-20-12

params: 5-7-5 syllables (Americanized version)

14 February 2012 - Stopping Before Starting - hendecasyllabic

This one is based on a conversation I had with another poet in which he stated that about line three or so, he could tell the poem was not up to his standards and therefore, time to stop.  I argued that the idea needs to be expressed, whether it be done well or not was not as important as finishing.  THEN, knowing what a poem should look like, applying those attributes and improving the presentation.  That stopping before you really get started meant keeping beauty in the can instead of letting it out...something like that!

14 February 2012 - Stopping Before Starting - hendecasyllabic

Coarse at first, it’s a shame you can’t put words down,

pinching minds and a heart that just won’t do it––

this is where you’re beguiled, bemused, and fucked up,

held behind and imprisoned, words were lightning,

thunder bolts in a play you once were writing;

now they’re dead in the silence you won’t finish.

Spark the spark––in a perfect world you’d know it,

chained by links you reformed were of your doing,

hit the third line and start defending quitting,

leave the music because your ears are tone-deaf.

Let the night wings of motion fly before you

then creation of verse will find you dragging...

This the way you’re intending art to perish?

Keep the whining and wines of lines will burgeon,

lifting song in a key that language pines for.

Still, there’s plenty of room for you to join them;

YOU know, all of the others walking sleeping...

Finish, polish; remember, life needs growing.

Taxes...marry the cat––oh, lovely notions...

3-18-12

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13 February 2012 - Leave Without a Mark - planet poetica sonnet

This poem shows the dark promise of love without commitment, how the music and mystery of  a tryst can be alluring but filled with fear because you can’t know if you’ll ever see such lovers again.  And when one is in love but the other not, this is the dark promise.

13 February 2012 - Leave Without a Mark - planet poetica sonnet

Each silver leaf is dripping moonlit dark,

she dances there, a graceful silhouette

a soft acoustic drum brush plying night

a rippling song, her lips to mine, will spark

my hand to trace and limn with hips’ arrest.

Percussion weaves sonatas when there’s love

and heartbeat symphonies are not enough.

Some nights the stars will fall and slip their net,

moons trip and spill their light, exposed and stark

but like songs urge, I’ll bare it all and fight

for love and life; holding light, I’m still in debt

until her leaves leave light without a mark.

In waves the violins are plying tears

and catching rosined stars on bows of fear. 

3-18-12

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first couplet (a) is to sum quintet A, and second couplet (b) to sum all the poem OR quintet B

12 February 2012 - Archangel - blank verse sonnet

Last one for tonight, done to the tune of another ‘Two Steps From Hell’ melody, ‘Archangel’.  This song brings to mind the book ‘Bloodstone’ (why, I’m not sure, because there IS a graphic of one of Robert E. Howard’s characters, painted by Frank Frazetta, which is called ‘Archangel’ already) and the character Kane.  This book is one of my fave sci-fi fantasy books by Karl Edward Wagner.  So, this poem will have an ‘eternal’ feel to it, much as the song title and the book character emulate.

12 February 2012 - Archangel - blank verse sonnet

A bored antiquity of warrior art,

a lifted sword upon a backdrop’s mat

of emerald shot with bloody filigree;

eternal marches to a distant beat

and begs the bard play one more song of sleep.

Demonic reasons race to fill his eyes,

a desperate plea still lingers on his soul;

he’d give it all to die in peace and find

tomorrow’s dreams were over yesterday.

I’ve felt like this and wished for clearer sight,

I’ve followed tales I wished included me

and even tried to never close my eyes.

But water sleeps and bides it s time so still,

won’t someone hold a mirror to breath of dreams?

3-17-12

params: 14 lines of iambic pentameter, unrhymed

11 February 2012 - Strength of a Thousand - sonnet

Another very good ‘epic’ instrumental from ‘Two Steps From Hell’, is ‘Strength of a Thousand Men’, which will be this poem’s backdrop.  This poem portrays the moment when what should be the strength of a thousand (modern culture, its people’s values) won’t measure up to a hard fight, one where focussing on self means the society as a whole dies.  Stemming from a discussion I had with several people about the merits of letting Paypal censor four taboo novel subject (bestiality, rape, incest, and underage sex).  The face that the majority (the thousands) did not see these ideas as unhealthy for society, really bothered me, so I wrote my bit of introspection.  Sad to say, most would rather have such topics be easily available than to denounce their titillating value.  Just reinforces my opinion of people in general though.  

11 February 2012 - Strength of a Thousand - sonnet

The odds were rising, hills were far escapes

the enemy lay waiting while we grieved

it didn’t matter horns were blowing rapes

this scene was going down, so we believed.

A million marched against our vaunted flank,

the strength of thousands faced relentless foes

there wasn’t armor thick enough for ranks

of countless bites from swords of endless rows.

And still the call went out to find just one

one reason we should rush to death and claim

there’s evidence that nothing good will come

from normalizing sins where blood has run.

The question begged a single voice be heard,

while thousands closed their eyes when strength was stirred.

3-17-12

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10 February 2012 - Sword of Pain - sonnet

So here it is more than a month later, and I finally finished ‘Beryl’, there fore I can get back to some poetry.  Got a bit of catching up to do, but maybe if I keep the poems short, it can be done more quickly.  While writing the novel, I did come across some really good thematic compositions that I used for chapter tone backdrops, and I think I’ll revisit and see what comes poetically.  The first is penned to a song called ‘Black Blade’, a ‘Two Steps From Hell’ instrumental.

This one is an echo from the same chapter in Beryl as I use ‘Black Blade’ to be another name for the ‘sword of pain’ which my MC Jareth possesses.  When he takes up his ‘pain’ in the form of a sword and is one with his hurt, he can either die by this sword or use it to slay his current misery.  That’s what this poem is saying.

10 February 2012 - Sword of Pain - sonnet

It grips the hand and fosters pain,

there’s shadows burrowing in the steel;

it comes to claim the claim revealed,

the same which haunts and forms my bane.

A rigid length inscribed insane,

blood oaths and vows that bit my heel;

its timeless tune, a blade annealed,

I’m forced to knees where tears have lain.

Still, winds will rise, receive the dare––

these storms abate in small degrees

and sow my penance, root to tree.

The cuts I made can’t be undone,

a suture’s thread find wrists have run;

now second act, I’m almost there.

3-17-12

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