Okay, so maybe “scourge” was dramatic, but this, y’all, has been… just about impossible. Don’t get me wrong – every month, I adore the challenge of pitting myself against a poetic form, but the sestina and me… we’ve just never managed to do more than approach a strained détente and limp back to our respective […]
One last villanelle to kick off a new week: “Two people in a burning house must not stop to argue.” – a proverb of Ghana But, how do you live in a house on fire? How do you breathe in the heart of the blaze? Chutzpah, persistence and nerve this requires. A body learns not […]
There’s a sunflower growing between the slats in my upstairs deck. There’s… I guess dirt there. Decayed pine needles, surely. Mulch made up of all sorts of things. And, with the rain, there’s been enough water for germination. It’s a particularly stupid place to grow, actually. I told this to the plant when it started […]
In between episodes of flirting shamelessly with the universe and examining cubism and misplaced ears or whatnot in paintings, Pablo Picasso apparently could not simply hold still. Even while the Nazis were nosing around his studio, he was always busy. Creating. Making. In plaster, metal, wood, bronze — whatever junk came to hand, whatever met […]
Emily: …But first: Wait! One more look. Good-bye, Good-bye world. Good-bye, Grover’s Corners….Mama and Papa. Good-bye to clocks ticking….and Mama’s sunflowers. And food and coffee. And new ironed dresses and hot baths….and sleeping and waking up. Oh, earth, you are too wonderful for anybody to realize you. (She looks toward the stage manager and asks […]
Swords of Seven, Unite! Or, something. We need an heroic-sounding cry like that, for poetry. I didn’t even try to stay on the wagon in 2014. I did my haiku during National Poetry Month, but otherwise, I blew it. We keep promising ourselves that we’ll read more poetry, write more poetry, breathe more poetry, even […]
It’s always Liz. Seriously. She’s the one who pokes and prods us from our dailiness, who whispers, “Poetry!” in our routine-deafened ears, and we six follow the piping of her seventh, back into a poetry challenge. Seven Dancing Poetry Princesses have now worn a crown of sonnets, we’ve wrestled the brooding villanelle, and we learned […]
About a week ago now, I was talking with my Brain Trust about any number of things, and somehow or other I veered onto a digression about a show I hated, which I will leave nameless except that it featured a group of people who specified themselves as “The Fab Five.” I refuse to argue […]
Flushed with triumph from successfully wrestling down the villanelle form in early December (and possibly still drunk on Thanksgiving turkey), the Poetry Seven decided to launch immediately into the next project — the rondeau redoublé, or a double round. Or, somebody decided we’d launch immediately, anyway. And then, we came up with a form — […]