In my last post, I mentioned the snow is flying where I live. It snowed most of last night, and we woke to 5 or 6 inches of fresh, powdery snow. Keeping with the theme of snow, I thought I’d post a favorite Robert Frost poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” This poemContinueContinue reading “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”
Category Archives: Traditional poetry
Reading the Old Poets
I like all kinds of poetry—modern, medieval, formal, experimental, you name it. The only thing I haven’t read much of is epic poetry because I like shorter poems. Admittedly, I gravitate to free verse in my writing because of the immediacy of expression: I can focus on imagery and wording without considering whether something willContinueContinue reading “Reading the Old Poets”
Sing a Song of Sickness
More than 30 years ago now, I was thinking about the nursery rhyme, “Sing a Song of Sixpence” when a variation of the opening lines went through my head: “Sing a song of sickness / a pocketful of why”. The philosophic overtones of this variant juxtaposed with the sing-song feel of the nursery rhyme intriguedContinueContinue reading “Sing a Song of Sickness”
Dream Land—Christina Rossetti
I became acquainted with Christina Rossetti’s poetry while reading The Oxford Book of Christian Verse earlier this year. While her poems were written before the age of free verse, I was struck by how natural her language is—she avoids awkward word order to fit a poem’s meter or rhyme scheme. Some of her imagery isContinueContinue reading “Dream Land—Christina Rossetti”
Published Haiku!
In a previous post, I mentioned one of my haiku would appear in the August edition of the journal, Better than Starbucks. Well, August is here, and my haiku has been published 😊. To date, this is my third published poem. If you’d like to check out my haiku online, you can read it here.ContinueContinue reading “Published Haiku!”
Nine
Cats are a part of my life—sometimes whether I like it or not, LOL. So I write about them. But a cat isn’t something that can be corralled into a poem, as if I could capture them with words. More probably, cats indifferently wander into my poems because they have nothing better to do, orContinueContinue reading “Nine”
Coloring Outside the Lines
Luc Bat is a Vietnamese form of poetry I blogged about earlier this year. The name means, “six, eight” and refers to the alternating lines of six and eight syllables. There’s also a fun rhyme scheme, which I diagram in my other post. “Coloring Outside the Lines” was my first attempt at a Luc BatContinueContinue reading “Coloring Outside the Lines”
It’s in the Genes—Kate McKamey
My daughter, Kate, attends high school at Wilson Hill Academy. Recently, her biology class had two projects: 1) do something artistic about genetics; 2) create a related meme. Kate opted to write six haiku about DNA and create a meme about writing poetry. We have writers on both sides of the family, so Kate comesContinueContinue reading “It’s in the Genes—Kate McKamey”
Late Afternoon
Tanka is a Japanese form of poetry I learned about last year. Haiku is a related form that started as part of Tanka. Haiku has a 5 syllable line followed by a seven syllable line, and ends with another 5 syllable line. Tanka begins with the same arrangement but adds two seven syllable lines atContinueContinue reading “Late Afternoon”
Clouds upon the Wind
Villanelle is a form of poetry I became interested in last year. It is a highly structured form comprised of 19 lines: five tercets (three line stanzas) followed by a quatrain (a four line stanza). The first line is repeated at the end of the second and fourth tercets. The third line is repeated atContinueContinue reading “Clouds upon the Wind”
A Wandering Minstrel 