10/14/08For the past three weeks that I've resumed posting regularly, and reading (quite voraciously) poetry blogs, aside from the books I now have lying on my bed (which now looks somewhat of a nest of pillows and books), I have come across several that have kept me engrossed and, at times, engaged in a sort of astral projection (grin). Here I am eager to share a baker's dozen of them, with you.Sit back. Relax. Click. Enjoy the read. Be part -- rather, acknowledge that you are a part -- of the microcosm that is the writing community in the blogosphere. A Runner's Sonnet by Scott Ennis. link Abram's Neighbor on the 10 O'clock News by Scott Ennis. link Antique Horns by KGT. link Flower Bead by Yuzublizzard. link Impulse Purchase by Joaquin Carvel. link In My Dreams by Kathleen Mortensen. link October Apples by Dean J. Baker. link Saturn Devours His Son by Jo Hemmant and Michelle McGrane. link Shaken by Robert Cameron Hazelton. link Tuesday Morning, Painting the Moon by Steven Schroeder. link Umoja by Diane Ferri. link We Leave The Beaches For Tourists by Julie Buffaloe-Yoder. link And, to complete the list, here is a classic piece entitled "The Sentry" by English poet Wilfred Owen (1893-1918). I've been rereading his book for the nth time; this particular war poem of his (one of his last pieces of writing before he died in battle) never gets old for me. Every time I read it, my hands tremble, and my mind is transported to several places at once: far south of where I am, in provinces in Mindanao where our own soldiers are engaged in decades' long conflict of blood and land, in the Middle East where my own mother has witnessed one of the many instances of bombings in key cities, and in other parts of the world where peace-keeping missions are on the verge of going awry. Read the poem. Know that you are fortunate, to be able to read this poem at this very moment, because you are safe in your own patch of earth. The Sentry by Wilfred Owen We'd found an old Boche dug-out, and he knew, And gave us hell, for shell on frantic shell Hammered on top, but never quite burst through. Rain, guttering down in waterfalls of slime Kept slush waist high, that, rising hour by hour, Choked up the steps too thick with clay to climb. What murk of air remained stank old, and sour With fumes of whizz-bangs, and the smell of men Who'd lived there years, and left their curse in the den, If not their corpses . . . There we herded from the blast Of whizz-bangs, but one found our door at last -- Buffeting eyes and breath, snuffing the candles. And thud! flump! thud! down the steep steps came thumping And splashing in the flood, deluging muck -- The sentry's body; then, his rifle, handles Of old Boche bombs, and mud in ruck on ruck. We dredged him up, for killed, until he whined 'O sir! my eyes -- I'm blind -- I'm blind, I'm blind!' Coaxing, I held a flame against his lids And said if he could see the least blurred light He was not blind; in time he'd get all right. 'I can't,' he sobbed. Eyeballs, huge-bulged like squids', Watch my dreams still; but I forgot him there In posting next for duty, and sending a scout To beg a stretcher somewhere, and floundering about To other posts under the shrieking air. *** *** *** Those other wretches, how they bled and spewed, And one who would have drowned himself for good -- I try not to remember these things now. Let dread hark back for one word only: how Half-listening to that sentry's moans and jumps, And the wild chattering of his broken teeth, Renewed most horribly whenever crumps Pummelled the roof and slogged the air beneath -- Through the dense din, I say, we heard him shout 'I see your lights!' But ours had long died out. =====================
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Poetry and Site DesignWriters and Readers
An Affair With Line BreaksNow, here's a bonus: a link to a portion of the handbook, Dictionary of Poetic Terms by Jack Myers, Jack Elliott Myers, and Don C. Wukasch, pages of which are available for viewing online, via Google Book Search. (Tip: Once the page loads, hit the 'refresh' button. Oh, and don't be deceived by the title of the book; it functions more like an encyclopedia than a run-of-the-mill dictionary.) The topic I've highlighted here is that of "The Character of Line Endings" with an explanation of the three types of line breaks (according to the effect thereof), namely: (1) anticipatory, (2) transformational, and (3) emphatic.I have always loved playing with words. Reading stories, telling stories, writing scripts, acting them out before an audience, directing and/or performing them onstage, writing endless pages of narratives, learning jargon in different fields, and arguing/debating 'with' them and 'against' them. When I crossed over from prose to poetry, I discovered something else that I loved instantly: playing with line breaks -- a fitting complement to my fascination with the utility of words. I was enjambing lines even before I learned what in blazes enjambment meant in poetry. This technique gave me room for experimenting not only with the effect of end-words (visually, and by way of sound) and of pauses, but also with layering meanings (that of a line read separately vis-a-vis that of two or more lines read together). In addition, enjambment paved the way for fluidity, for seamless continuity of sense from one line to another (which appealed to me for I had been used to the rigors of prose writing). Where I break lines is thus something I consider from Line 1 and so forth, and which I rethink while editing the poem. Moving words from the end of a line to the beginning of another -- to change or add meaning, and to strategically create effect -- is thus an incredibly useful, flexible means for purposes of how I say what I intend to say, and at what pace, with a considerable latitude for 'reader interpretation.' Do have a look at the relevant portion of the book. I highly recommend it (not just the emphasized topic of line breaks, but the whole handbook) for writers of poetry. It is, after all, an exhaustive collection of poetic terms, notably with a fair ease in providing explanations without the heavy bombardment of jargons explaining jargons, and yet without being vague or simplistic. And it's available for online viewing via Google Book Search which has a nifty "search in this book" feature; cross-referencing of terms is just a click away.
S.L. Corsua
11/11/08 |
