' Live-Poets Society ' – A Corner For Poetry

[Valkyrie]

Here's my final week of poems.  I am so proud to have actually finished the month! 

 

https://www.gayauthors.org/story/valkyrie/aprilmusings/6

[Former Member]

Here's my final week of poems.  I am so proud to have actually finished the month! 

 

https://www.gayauthors.org/story/valkyrie/aprilmusings/6

It's a big commitment, and a big achievement. You should all be proud! 

[Parker Owens]

And like Tim, I have an urge to write poetry that continues unabated...most recent sonnet is here...https://www.gayauthors.org/story/parker-owens/occasionalpoetry/23

[dughlas]

I like it Parker but need to think some more as to the why. That sounds very odd I know. It feels like wading ankle deep in a summer stream ... cool and soft water flowing about my feet and yet warm sun upon my face. Does that make any sense at all? I have been heavily medicated for the last couple of days and my brain is still a bit muzzy.

[Parker Owens]

Wow, it makes sense to me, though I never thought of it that way....hope you feel better soon.

[Headstall]

Wow, it makes sense to me, though I never thought of it that way....hope you feel better soon.

It does to me too. The greatest thing about poetry is the variations on what a piece invokes... my feelings were more internal... I like the way dugh experienced it....

[Former Member]

Here is Week Three of NaPoWriMo

 

https://www.gayauthors.org/story/valkyrie/aprilmusings/5

I left you a review

[Former Member]

Here are mine

 

I'll be reading everyone's poem soon!!!  Looking forward to them!

Stunning poems, Tim. I left you a review

[Former Member]

Wow. I didn't know this was here. I'm a typical poet in that I have trouble seeing outside of my own eyes.

 

Anyways, I guess I'll share my collection:

 

https://www.gayauthors.org/story/mrm/MPoetry

I've always liked your poems, MrM. So glad you found this forum, and please do share more of your verse with us!

[Mikiesboy]

Stunning poems, Tim. I left you a review

Aw thank you, AC. Means a lot... 

[Former Member]

 

WARNING! Today's offering contains explicit references to higher mathematics. Perhaps it appealed to my base instincts...thanks to Val for the prompt to write about layers...

 

 

APRIL 22

 

The partial differential with respect to x

has more to do with function z;

as y is held as constant, this is what protects

the coefficient y, you see?

 

Now do it once again, but with respect to y,

a different planar slope obtains.

The two define just where the tangent plane may lie,

though this may overtax our brains.

 

Despite confusion, onward go another round,

a second differential take.

But when you do, you're at a stand, what have you found?

More partial layers, for heaven's sake!

 

Four choices wait, use x or y with each or none,

two branches off each first attempt;

by now velocity in three dimensions won,

acceleration now must tempt.

 

Now Pascal tells us there are eight that we can take

in different permutations wise;

and if the student still remains at all awake,

the fourth is left for exercise.

 

Gosh, it's a brilliant poem. I read it with all the delight of seeing The Cat in the Hat (assisted by Thing 1 and Thing 2, naturally ) standing at the front of the room, pointer in hand – or, paw that is.

 

It really brought a smile to my face. I also (perhaps arrogantly) think my meager Ode to a Polynomial had something to do with setting you on the course to write this much, much finer example of Math meets Art.

[Former Member]

 

I am busy tomorrow, so I am pre-sending tomorrow's poem now...Val's prompt on a poem as a house or structure....

 

APRIL 23

 

I built a verse upon a solid rock;

I would not have it rise upon the sand.

My syllables lay strewn upon the land,

and seemed my roll of blueprints there to mock.

 

Foundations measured in iambic feet

and formed in brief accented beats to lay

We used as moulds for mortared words and clay,

while slowly poured my images concrete.

 

My poem's house rose framed in quatrains three;

it's spacious rooms pentametered and bright;

while windows help bring metaphors to light.

This is the place I hope for us to be:

 

A home we build within a worded vale,

a place we live so we can tell our tale.

 

Holy wow! …a sonnet dedicated to a house of words…

 

Conceptually, it's fascinating, and then you deliver the goods with wit charm in lines like "while slowly poured my images concrete" and "windows help bring metaphors to light." Amazing. I feel like I want to 'borrow' shamelessly

 

Overall, I'd judge there is a growing confidence to your sonneteering, and how do I know? There's a smoothness that's expanding, and the pow that's delivered with the couplet comes from it being the simplest, most straightforward set of lines in the poem. That's how!

[Parker Owens]

Holy wow! …a sonnet dedicated to a house of words…

 

Conceptually, it's fascinating, and then you deliver the goods with wit charm in lines like "while slowly poured my images concrete" and "windows help bring metaphors to light." Amazing. I feel like I want to 'borrow' shamelessly

 

Overall, I'd judge there is a growing confidence to your sonneteering, and how do I know? There's a smoothness that's expanding, and the pow that's delivered with the couplet comes from it being the simplest, most straightforward set of lines in the poem. That's how!

AC, I am in full blush. 

 

Funny, but I started this while riding on a school bus riding back from a game for a team I coach. Saw the farmhouses passing one by one along the way, and all this came to mind with Val's prompt. 

 

Thanks...

[ZephyrSky]

At Valkyrie's suggestion, two little poems I wrote:

https://www.gayauthors.org/forums/blog/657/entry-16202-not-meant-to-be-free-verse/

 

https://www.gayauthors.org/forums/blog/657/entry-16201-contemplating-water-free-verse/

[Mikiesboy]

At Valkyrie's suggestion, two little poems I wrote:

 

https://www.gayauthors.org/forums/blog/657/entry-16202-not-meant-to-be-free-verse/

 

https://www.gayauthors.org/forums/blog/657/entry-16201-contemplating-water-free-verse/

Welcome aboard...

[Mikiesboy]

Found this today. Tips on becoming a good poet from Sir Andrew Motion, who was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom for 10 years and who's won a number of prizes and awards. You can read the tips here.

 

These are sensible and I was happy to find out I do a lot of them.

[ZephyrSky]

Found this today. Tips on becoming a good poet from Sir Andrew Motion, who was the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom for 10 years and who's won a number of prizes and awards. You can read the tips here.

 

These are sensible and I was happy to find out I do a lot of them.

 

Good advice -- thanks for the share. Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the US and one of my favourite contemporary poets, once said that a poem should have a low occupancy: the poet should try to be alone with the reader. I try to keep that in mind and not drag in parents and aunties and the mailman. Unless he/she/they really must be there, of course. And then preferably just briefly. In general it's good to try for intimacy in poetry and that means not allowing a big cast to intrude.

 

I also find that the poems I like best are the ones I write in one sitting. If the poem isn't going anywhere after an hour or so, I abandon it. I can't return to a poem the way I can with prose. The greatest experience is when you lose track of time and yourself and it's just the writing that happens. There's nothing but the pathway from brain to fingers to poem. You look up and two hours have slipped by unnoticed but you've got these neat little rows. Bliss.

[Mikiesboy]

Good advice -- thanks for the share. Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the US and one of my favourite contemporary poets, once said that a poem should have a low occupancy: the poet should try to be alone with the reader. I try to keep that in mind and not drag in parents and aunties and the mailman. Unless he/she/they really must be there, of course. And then preferably just briefly. In general it's good to try for intimacy in poetry and that means not allowing a big cast to intrude.

 

I also find that the poems I like best are the ones I write in one sitting. If the poem isn't going anywhere after an hour or so, I abandon it. I can't return to a poem the way I can with prose. The greatest experience is when you lose track of time and yourself and it's just the writing that happens. There's nothing but the pathway from brain to fingers to poem. You look up and two hours have slipped by unnoticed but you've got these neat little rows. Bliss.

I agree-my poetry is mine. I rarely share it until i feel it's ready and i rarely take advice.  I've had poems i write in minutes to poems I write over days. Depends on what it is and what I wants to say.

[ZephyrSky]

I agree-my poetry is mine. I rarely share it until i feel it's ready and i rarely take advice.  I've had poems i write in minutes to poems I write over days. Depends on what it is and what I wants to say.

 

For sure. I don't think I've ever written a poem over a couple of days, though. If I can't do it in one sitting, it tends to go into the digital bottom drawer. Most of the poetry I write is in Afrikaans, my mother tongue but prose tends to be English with me, though.

 

By the way, I love the Freddie quote in your signature, Mikiesboy. It's one of my favourites. 

[Mikiesboy]

For sure. I don't think I've ever written a poem over a couple of days, though. If I can't do it in one sitting, it tends to go into the digital bottom drawer. Most of the poetry I write is in Afrikaans, my mother tongue but prose tends to be English with me, though.

 

By the way, I love the Freddie quote in your signature, Mikiesboy. It's one of my favourites. 

name's tim...husband is Michael ... glad you like it. Freddie is someone I wish I'd had the opportunity to meet.

 

Some poems take longer especially when I working through AC's Poetry Prompts and I'm learning a new form. I started writing when I was 16 but didn't know what I was doing really, but it was free verse. New forms take a bit more work, but I enjoy the experience and the effort. 

[ZephyrSky]

name's tim...husband is Michael ... glad you like it. Freddie is someone I wish I'd had the opportunity to meet.

 

Some poems take longer especially when I working through AC's Poetry Prompts and I'm learning a new form. I started writing when I was 16 but didn't know what I was doing really, but it was free verse. New forms take a bit more work, but I enjoy the experience and the effort. 

 

Name's Louis.

 

I've always wanted to write -- no, needed to -- and I've been a bookworm since I was 6. My mom used to have to frisk me for books before we left the house on the way to some family gathering / social event. I'd be the kid in the corner with the book being horribly antisocial. Parties, weddings, funerals, whatever. Other kids bored me. I wanted to hang out with the Hardy boys or Nancy Drew. So I knew I needed to learn how to do to others what those writers did to me. But it's hard to get some good stuff done when you work full time. I used to write more in my teens. Anyway, this is getting horribly off topic. Is this even allowed? I'll shut up for now.

 

Looking forward to making my way through this thread and read everyone's poetry.

[Mikiesboy]

Name's Louis.

 

I've always wanted to write -- no, needed to -- and I've been a bookworm since I was 6. My mom used to have to frisk me for books before we left the house on the way to some family gathering / social event. I'd be the kid in the corner with the book being horribly antisocial. Parties, weddings, funerals, whatever. Other kids bored me. I wanted to hang out with the Hardy boys or Nancy Drew. So I knew I needed to learn how to do to others what those writers did to me. But it's hard to get some good stuff done when you work full time. I used to write more in my teens. Anyway, this is getting horribly off topic. Is this even allowed? I'll shut up for now.

 

Looking forward to making my way through this thread and read everyone's poetry.

Lol. different up bringing. In my house boys didnt read much and werent allowed to be gay. I was out of the house at 15 and got a different kind of education - no school involved. I did my best to educate myself during those years.

 

I understand about working full time. Lucky to have an hour to write before dinner needs doing. I would love 2 hours of quiet a day. 

 

Off topic but we get to know you better...

[ZephyrSky]

I understand about working full time. Lucky to have an hour to write before dinner needs doing. I would love 2 hours of quiet a day. 

 

I wish I could take a year off to do nothing but write. Anyone wish to provide a generous stipend? Now's the time to step forward.   

 

No, I scribble when I can but sometimes the muse shows up when you're at work or getting a root canal. Not convenient. And then when you have time, nothing happens. She's in New York somewhere, checking her accounts. (Yes, I lifted that line right out of a Tori Amos song. Unapologetically.)

[Former Member]

 

Today's offering...

 

APRIL 24

 

Is it too humid?

Go check the weather station.

I'm just in a sweat.

 

Are these clothes all right?

I should wear something different.

Why is it so hot?

 

Why did I agree

to go out with you tonight?

A knock on the door.

 

What time did we say?

This happens every first time.

Anticipation.

 

I appreciate this poem on a few different levels. First, the theme is great, and the poem's meaning is only clinched by the final word. That's great.

 

Second is how there is a 'choppy' feel, but you've done it in a totally constructed way - regular lines of five and seven beats. This back and forth serves as the mind talking to itself very effectively. That internal structure does not 'show,' or perhaps I mean, 'show off,' but it's there and guides the poem from start to finish. 

 

If you can't tell, I like this one a lot          

[Former Member]

 

Here is today's NaPoWriMo poem. You can tell I struggled for inspiration, prompts or no prompts....

 

APRIL 25

 

Hear my cries and hear my curses,

it is time to write my verses,

but I haven't got a single thing to write;

for despite my cogitation,

I've not had an inspiration,

and frustration put my puny thoughts to flight.

 

Late last night I tried a sonnet,

told my brain I'd get right on it,

but of all my noble thoughts I made a wreck;

and my rubayat, salacious

sounded clumsy and not gracious,

and I'd filled the page pretentiously with dreck.

 

Later, crafting verses blankish,

my results were still more rankish,

as my trochees were despondent as the rain;

so I downed a liter lambic,

switching to the foot iambic,

and I set upon my poet's quest again.

 

Though I aimed for something serious,

filled with meaning and mysterious,

every fit and start made worse my shameful plight;

now instead, I wrote a ditty,

and it isn't very pretty*

for the drivel that I wrote was only lite.

 

 

 

*the original draft read:  "and it's really pretty...awful"

 

Wow. You are SO close to flirting with a Ballade form here. Knowing that, and then reading all the other types of poetry mentioned – and a few tipsy metres to boot – I am really, really impressed.

 

Perhaps this poem reminds me of something Mozart said: "My music should be easy on the listener, but hard on the performer." Here you seem to make his case.

 

Bravo.