Rhymed or blank verse?
Old words to live by, /
When life sucks and blows /
In the skin or soul.
.
.
#haiku #poem #poetry #blows #sucks #oldwords #fuck #sunday #january #2021
Tag Archives: blank verse
The blathering idiot and poetry
The blathering idiot knew April was poetry month and he thought he could impress his on again, off again girl friend Zoey with a poem or two. But the month was running out and he had not yet thought of anything poetic to write, though he had taken the time to study some about poetry making.
Additionally, after the restaurant fiasco where he had waited and waited and waited for an employee to come and wash his hands because the sign in the rest room clearly said: Employees must wash hands, and this caused him to leave Zoey’s young daughter Xenia sitting by herself for over 30 minutes, which she then reported to her mother, well, his relationship with Zoey had cooled once again.
So, this was his chance, though a part of him was beginning to wonder why he should care.
He started with something at least a little familiar:
Roses are red and violets are blue
Your eyes are weird and you are, too.
The blathering idiot was proud to have gotten three rhymes in two lines, but the more he looked at the couplet, the more he realized Zoey would not appreciate his poetic efforts at assonance. At least that what he thought it was called. She would probably say he was just being one.
He then tried something that incorporated the month:
The month of poetry is about to end
The rains of April have been real thin.
A new month stands about to begin.
May nouns, verbs & rain come again.
Once upon a poem dreary....
There once was a man from Nantucket
Who went on a dinner date and got stuck with it.
Not the bill, I say,
though that, too, came his way,
but the knife in his heart and the luck of it.
He read it and reread it and re-reread it, and then finally decided to put it in an envelope and mail it to her. He wasn’t from Nantucket – wherever that was – but she knew that. And while it didn’t directly mention love, love was there. And while Zoey wasn’t mentioned directly, she was in there, too.
He could only hope it wouldn’t give her too many ideas.
Filed under blathering idiot, cartoon by author, poetry
The Devil’s Dictionary: Poetry
Every now and then, it is good to revisit a classic, or even a curiosity from the past. The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce was originally published in newspaper installments from 1881 until 1906. You might be surprised how current many of the entries are.
For example, since April is poetry month, here is a definition for the words poetry and blank verse. The Old definition is Bierce’s. The New definition or comment are mine (and in this case a few other folks, too. Sometimes, you need help).
From time to time, just as it was originally published, we will come back to The Devil’s Dictionary, for a look at it then and how it applies today. Click on Devil’s Dictionary in the tags below to bring up the other entries.
OLD DEFINITIONS:
Poetry, n. A form of expression peculiar to the Land beyond the Magazines.
Blank verse, n. Unrhymed iambic pentameters — the most difficult kind of English verse to writer acceptably; a kind, therefore, much affected by those who cannot acceptably write any kind.
NEW DEFINITIONS:
Poetry, n. In this age of digital publishing, to say that poetry is peculiar to the Land beyond the Magazines is more prescient than sarcastic. Maybe I will call upon some other folks give a modern perspective, if not definition of poetry:
Poetry and consumption are the most flattering of diseases. –William Shenstone
(If I have to choose, I’ll take poetry, though I would probably be better at consumption.)
Poetry is nobody’s business except the poet’s, and everybody else can f*&k off. –Philip Larkin
(If true, no wonder poets feel misunderstood, unappreciated, and beyond the Land of Magazines.)
I know that poetry is indispensable, but to what I could not say. –Jean Cocteau
(Probably more indispensable than this blog.)
I think that one possible definition of our modern culture is that it is one in which nine-tenths of our intellectuals can’t read any poetry. –Randall Jarrell
(And what is the percentage of the non-intellectuals?)
Free verse, n. Free verse is like free love; it is a contradiction in terms. –G.K. Chesterton
(Yeah, but paid love is illegal in most states.)
Filed under Ambrose Bierce, definitions, Devil's Dictionary, poetry
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