#21

After reading the "List and Found" packet this week I have noticed potential poems everywhere. While I'm in the classroom taking notes. When I'm walking the halls noticing the posted info on the doors and walls. While I'm driving home. Reading ingredient labels of the food I eat. The instructions from the new heating pad I received (for stress relief). Telephone conversations. Homework instructions. Magazines. Television. EVERYWHERE. All of the possibilities are making me crazy. It somewhat exciting though. Has anyone else noticed these things?

#20

I really enjoyed reading over the new forms and their examples this week. When I was looking them I really wanted to try them all. Unfortunately, I do not have time to do that but I feel that I will try the few that I wrote down in the near future. I was really surprised how well everyone created these new forms. I was equally surprised by everyone's attempts at others new forms.

On a different note, the sestina form I was complaining about earlier is coming along quite nicely now. At least I think it is. I'm pretty proud of the work I have done so far on it but it still has a long way to go. I wonder if anyone else has had a hard time of keeping the lines close to one another in length. This has been something that I have struggled with this time.

#19

It's late. I am again attempting to conquer the Sestina. This form is extremely difficult for me. I'm not sure what it is that I keep doing wrong but my lines are not as uniformed as I would like for them to be. I feel that if I could find the "perfect" words for this form I would feel less frustrated. I feel that if I was able to get a good amount of sleep my brain would be clearer.

SESTINA SATURDAY: Ass On Cushion

To write sestinas, first I have to sit
And ponder on a topic. As I think
I take strange journeys deep within my mind
And memories, until at last I stop.
Ideas are tricky to pluck from the dark,
But till I do I really have no peace.

This one is all about my search for peace.
Twice daily I take time out and I sit -
Ere sunrise, a quick shower in the dark,
While eve'nings, it's my living room, I think
That is best for my effort to just stop
And tame the monkeys rambling in my mind.

For many years, I've given little mind
To anything that you'd call inner peace.
Too much to do; the chore list doesn't stop
Because I'd like to take the chance to sit
Without having to talk or write or think.
Lights out? I'd still be toiling in the dark.

But now I'm stumbling blindly in the dark
Most of the time, just trying to calm my mind.
Just for a little while, just not to think
About what's pressing me, a bit of peace
Is all I want. Still mostly when I sit,
My ass on cushion, I can't seem to stop.

But one day soon, I know that I will stop,
That I will find there waiting in the dark
Some things I need. Until then I still will sit,
And treat with patience all that plagues my mind.
(I'm sure among them is a thought of peace
That's way off base). That's what I hope and think.

I've spent a lifetime learning how to think,
'Twill take a long time, too, to learn to stop
My dwelling on the things that threaten peace
And quiet. But it's quite good to go dark
For its own sake meanwhile, and I don't mind
A little space and time to simply sit.

This poem was my chance to sit and think
About how much my mind just needs to stop
And let the dark sink in and bring some peace.
~Kate Sherrod

I actually found this on Blogger and liked it. I feel that it sums up the way I feel right now.

#18

Light Space

Glitter dances
upon the shimmering
ripples if iridescent blue.
Specs of glass-like
granules dance
through the breeze.
Rush, Thrust, Pull, Recede
Breaking free of this
world, stands a lonely

peak of plaster.
White as the sun
stained with blood
colored varnish.
Spiraling planks
fill the interior
of the dome shaped
architecture.
Shine, Rotate, Illuminate, Blink

I wrote this piece last semester. For some reason I really like it. However, I need some advice on how to format it and I despise the title. PLEASE help a chick out.

#17

My poem this week, "Traveling Charleston and Main" is about the discriminations between different classes, but it was meant to be more than that. The setting of this poem is in a older time (the early 1900's). The young women are meant to be whores or prostitutes. I'm not sure how many people caught that. The word bedclothes seemed to catch some people off guard the intended meaning for this word was for bed sheets. When I did some research on the dialect of the 1900's this was in there and I thought it was cool. So, as far as the title goes I picked Charleston because it is known as the Holy City and I thought that might give the old women more of a reason to scowl and heave. I chose Main because this was the main road lower class women of this time were forced to do. That you all for the comments. I was unsure how everyone would feel about the language and was relieved to find that almost everyone liked it.

Traveling Charleston and Main

From when ce do these churlish people come?
Is it not enough to be a lady,
to curtsey gracefully, polite fully so?
We do wear our dresses and keep our manners.

Is it not enough to be a lady?
We cross our legs and pin our hair,
in fear of the cold night's draft.
But the women in bonnets scowl and heave as if we did something wrong.
We pull the Gents aside privily,

for they too fear the cold night's draft.
So we warm them in our weary bosoms,
but we pull them aside privily
and are steadfast within our tattered bedclothes.

Though we warm the Gents in our weary bosoms,
we still curtsey to all, polite fully so.
We are always steadfast within our bedclothes.
So from whence do these churlish women come?

#16

Even though I did not speak out in class I did find some interesting things that Billy Collins made reference to in his poem "Journal"(page 20).

Corot: was a French landscape painter and print maker in etching.
Catullus: was a Roman poet of the 1st century BC. The works that survived are still widely read today and continue to influence poetry and other forms of art.

Camus: was a French author, philosopher, and journalist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957.

Anodyne: is a medicine that relieves or soothes pain by lessening the activity in the brain.

Kingfisher: Because I didn't know what it was... Is a bird.

Leonardo's Codex: I looked at a picture of the this. It had many doodles and drawings in the margins.

I really could not believe that I had read through this poem the first time and didn't even realize that I had read over so many unfamiliar things. The poem seemed familiar and comfortable enough without knowing the exact meanings and that really amazes me. Collins is pretty awesome if you ask me.

#15

A Cross Haiku

For my newly created form I used a non-traditional styled Haiku with the use of Acrostics.

My example:

Ted

Trees have a time to
expand, during a season
drenched enough at the heart.


The first words of each line spell out Ted and the first letter of each word makes the statement: That Ted as death. Not the best example but I ran out of time. It was a fun form to try out and if any of you have some extra time I encourage you to try it as well.