Book of Poetry

For a while, I've been putting a different one of my poems on an easel outside my house on Renaissance Island. I finally put them all together in a book and put it outside. The price is L$100. I've been thinking about creating books of some poetry from Tudor England as well.

The Poet's Corner

Since my house on Renaissance Island is on the village square, I decided to create a sign and give it a name. I called it The Poet's Corner and put out a poem of the day at the corner of my house and the intersection. I'm rotating the poems so there's different one every day. Maybe this will motivate me to start writing more.

Sonnet for Theater Opening

I've been working on a sonnet for the Grand Opening of the Globe Theatre on Renaissance Island (in SL). Here's the first complete draft, which still needs some work:


To a New Globe

The deaths of lovers end their families’ strife;
a feckless prince becomes a warrior king;
a jealous husband kills his faithful wife;
the king and queen of fairies dance and sing;
a king’s ungrateful daughters drive him out;
a duke usurped receives his own afresh;
an indecisive prince gives voice his doubt;
a maiden saves a merchant’s pound of flesh--
these scenes have oft been played upon thy stage.
With topics elevated and benight
in poetry like music on the page,
the bard will still enlighten and delight
within thy walls--in second life or third--
arising as the legendary bird.

Parish Poet

On Sunday I agreed (volunteered actually) to be the poet for the Parish of Reading Primley (i.e., Renaissance Island in Second Life).

I have ideas for a couple of sonnets to celebrate upcoming events. I hope I'm able to get them finished.

Literature Alive! Renaissance Classroom

I finished making a presentation on the sonnet for Desideria Stockton's Literature Alive! Renaissance Classroom in Second Life. I also created a t-shirt to be distributed for free.

There are now four members of CCC SLED.

Serious about Writing Poetry Again

I guess I'm getting serious about writing poetry again and having it published. I bought a copy of 2007 Poets Market and have been looking for markets for the type of poetry I do and want to write, primarily traditional lyrical forms.

I ran across a form I hadn't tried before: the cinquain. This form has five lines (hence the name) with two, four, six, eight, and two syllables, respectively. It can be iambic, but that isn't necessary. When I first read about this form, I thought it would be interesting to write one with all synonyms for being alone. Here's what I came up with:


One

alone --
solitary --
solo -- isolated --
segregated -- separated --
lonely


I like the way the syllable "lone" frames the middle three lines. I also like the irony of all the words for being alone having an even number of syllables.

Yesterday I also wrote a couple of haiku, scifaiku, actually. I'm not going to post them because I want to try to get them published, and some publishers apparently consider being posted in a blog or on a web site to be prior publication, which means they will pay less or not accept them.

Another Haiku

The Comet

Solar-wind-blown hair
frames the crater-marked face drawn
always toward her sun.


I'm not entirely happy with it, but I've had this idea in my mind for some time.

My First Haiku

--at least it's the first one I remember writing. Yesterday I mentioned to someone that, having grown up in Missouri, one of the things I missed here in Colorado is fireflies. It occurred to me later that fireflies would be a good subject for a haiku:


Fireflies

flitting, flickering
in the darkness, delighting
enchanted children


I liked the idea of linking the words in the lines with alliteration, though the alliterating sound should be on stressed syllables, which it isn't in delighting in the second line.

Writing versus Literature and Humanities

I finally realized (duh!) this week that I'd much rather teach literature and humanities courses than writing classes. Of course, that's what most of my classes are in. I'm working on my c.v. so, hopefully, I can apply to some other colleges or universities to teach more classes in those areas.

I also wouldn't mind teaching some poetry-writing classes, though I probably need to do more poetry writing myself. All that I've done recently has been lyrics for political songs, and I did that more than a year and a half ago.

The other day, I did write another poem that is less political. I was going to make all the lines end in a rhyme with weary, but I decided to break that up:


Snow Weary

skies dreary
eyes bleary--
kids cheery
snowballs forming

still leery
of “theory,”
my query:
global warming?


I do like the way the title rhymes with most of the lines as well as the way I used punctuation but no verbs.

I'm going to have to start carrying a notebook with me so I can do some writing when I have the time--or the inspiration.