What is occasional writing? By this, I do not mean that occasionally, from time to time, once in a blue moon or once in a month of Sundays, you pick up a pencil, pen, or stylus, or you sit yourself down in front of your computer, laptop, netbook, iPad, or other device, and write a few lines.
No, occasional writing is writing for a special occasion. For example, your mother's birthday, your niece's wedding, your friend's baby shower, your grandson's soccer victory--an occasion that presents a perfect opportunity to Write Something.
Forget buying a birthday gift, shower gift, or wedding gift! This kind of writing can be a gift in and of itself.
It doesn't have to be long and involved. Start with a couplet! Move up to a quatrain. There are lots of possibilities.
Of course you can always write it in a birthday card or wedding card, just to make it official.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Owed to a Bank
By Pamela den Ouden
Thy mighty halls intimidate the weak;
The poorest men stand mute, afraid to speak;
Thy marble walls guard secrets dark and deep;
Thy stairs, though grand, are never quite as steep
As interest rates.
As did Achilles in the days gone by,
We tackle armies, not afraid to die.
And yet one weak point caused his final fall.
We, too, are weak—our very life and all
Owed to a bank.
Thy mighty halls intimidate the weak;
The poorest men stand mute, afraid to speak;
Thy marble walls guard secrets dark and deep;
Thy stairs, though grand, are never quite as steep
As interest rates.
As did Achilles in the days gone by,
We tackle armies, not afraid to die.
And yet one weak point caused his final fall.
We, too, are weak—our very life and all
Owed to a bank.
Ode to British Columbia
At the suggestion of patb, who commented on my previous post, Think Poetry!, here is my attempt at an ode:
Ode to British Columbia
Columbia! You guard the western shore
Of this great land stretched forth from sea to sea,
Wide azure skies with eagles free to soar
And snow-capped mountains clothed in majesty.
Our motto sings, Here’s “Beauty Without End”—
The coast, the isles, Chilcotin-Cariboo,
The fruit-rich orchards, grapes upon the vine
The northern prairie where wild flowers blend
Their fragrance with the early morning dew.
My heart is conquered, for all this is mine.
Although this land is blessed with great romance,
Our people and their talents are our gold—
Our heritage is rich in music, dance—
In theatre, poetry, our lives unfold.
Our arts tell stories many different ways,
With fabric, film, with paint and words and food.
Contemporary artists fill the air
With magic that will set our hearts ablaze!
The BC Scene will set a lively mood
To celebrate the arts with certain flair!
Ode to British Columbia
Columbia! You guard the western shore
Of this great land stretched forth from sea to sea,
Wide azure skies with eagles free to soar
And snow-capped mountains clothed in majesty.
Our motto sings, Here’s “Beauty Without End”—
The coast, the isles, Chilcotin-Cariboo,
The fruit-rich orchards, grapes upon the vine
The northern prairie where wild flowers blend
Their fragrance with the early morning dew.
My heart is conquered, for all this is mine.
Although this land is blessed with great romance,
Our people and their talents are our gold—
Our heritage is rich in music, dance—
In theatre, poetry, our lives unfold.
Our arts tell stories many different ways,
With fabric, film, with paint and words and food.
Contemporary artists fill the air
With magic that will set our hearts ablaze!
The BC Scene will set a lively mood
To celebrate the arts with certain flair!
Monday, February 21, 2011
WARNING! WARNING! BILL C-32
What's Bill C-32, you ask? It's a bill to introduce the new copyright legislation, which will overhaul a law that is woefully out of date, what with all the new technology.
As writers, we need to be aware and concerned about what's happening "out there," even if we are stuck "up here." Watch this video--it's only 2 minutes 51 seconds. Listen to what these writers are saying.
Then call, phone, fax, text, e-mail, or otherwise notify your Member of Parliament. Make sure he or she is on-side with revisions that will protect intellectual property, not give it away for free.
As writers, we need to be aware and concerned about what's happening "out there," even if we are stuck "up here." Watch this video--it's only 2 minutes 51 seconds. Listen to what these writers are saying.
Then call, phone, fax, text, e-mail, or otherwise notify your Member of Parliament. Make sure he or she is on-side with revisions that will protect intellectual property, not give it away for free.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Think Poetry!
Free verse has reigned over Canadian poetry for the past 50 or 60 years. Writers moved away from the formal poetry, by which I mean poetry with a certain and controlled form, and moved towards the anything-goes-anywhere on the page.
In some poems, for example, "I Watched a Snake," by Jorie Graham, the form supports the content in that the lines on the page imitate the content, by creating the weaving-in-and-out of a snake moving through the grass.
Experimental poetry moves further towards the unformed by unhinging the normally accepted meaning of the words from the words themselves.
Returning to formal poetry, however, is a great exercise for the writer's brain. So let's think about those forms that we all learned in grade school and beyond:
Haiku - everyone always liked this because it was only three lines! We all know the formula: five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables. Mention a season or something in nature and Presto! A haiku! (A glance at the major haiku journals will show that many of today's haiku writers find a lot of wiggle room in that formula.)
Limerick - We all know about that girl or boy from Nantucket. Perhaps this type of verse is not very high in the hierarchy of poetry, but it's lots of fun to try. Does someone you know have a birthday coming up? Write a limerick for the birthday girl or boy!
Sonnet - Okay, some of you are having flashbacks to high school. Your English Lit teacher, Mrs. Dalrymple, is trying to teach you rhyme scheme, abab cdcd efef gg . . . or was it abba abba cde cde? The terms swim in our heads: octave, sestet, couplet, Elizabethan, Petrarchan, iambic pentameter . . . now we're lost, just like back then.
Step up to the plate. Try writing a sonnet! Taking the strict requirements of syllable stress and line length into consideration is great training!
One more:
Villanelle: a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of five tercets (sets of three lines) followed by a quatrain (four lines). The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem's two concluding lines. Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2. (Thanks to Poets.org for help with this explanation!)
Sound complicated? Again, it's great training to think in such a structured way.
Give it a try! Upload your haikus, limericks (remember this is a family-friendly site!), sonnets, and villanelles in the comment section. The rest of you, offer some encouraging comments to those who step up to the plate!
In some poems, for example, "I Watched a Snake," by Jorie Graham, the form supports the content in that the lines on the page imitate the content, by creating the weaving-in-and-out of a snake moving through the grass.
Experimental poetry moves further towards the unformed by unhinging the normally accepted meaning of the words from the words themselves.
Returning to formal poetry, however, is a great exercise for the writer's brain. So let's think about those forms that we all learned in grade school and beyond:
Haiku - everyone always liked this because it was only three lines! We all know the formula: five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables. Mention a season or something in nature and Presto! A haiku! (A glance at the major haiku journals will show that many of today's haiku writers find a lot of wiggle room in that formula.)
Limerick - We all know about that girl or boy from Nantucket. Perhaps this type of verse is not very high in the hierarchy of poetry, but it's lots of fun to try. Does someone you know have a birthday coming up? Write a limerick for the birthday girl or boy!
Sonnet - Okay, some of you are having flashbacks to high school. Your English Lit teacher, Mrs. Dalrymple, is trying to teach you rhyme scheme, abab cdcd efef gg . . . or was it abba abba cde cde? The terms swim in our heads: octave, sestet, couplet, Elizabethan, Petrarchan, iambic pentameter . . . now we're lost, just like back then.
Step up to the plate. Try writing a sonnet! Taking the strict requirements of syllable stress and line length into consideration is great training!
One more:
Villanelle: a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of five tercets (sets of three lines) followed by a quatrain (four lines). The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem's two concluding lines. Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2. (Thanks to Poets.org for help with this explanation!)
Sound complicated? Again, it's great training to think in such a structured way.
Give it a try! Upload your haikus, limericks (remember this is a family-friendly site!), sonnets, and villanelles in the comment section. The rest of you, offer some encouraging comments to those who step up to the plate!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Arc Poetry Magazine Contest: Deadline Soon!
It's time for Arc Poetry Magazine's Third Annual "Poet vs. Poet" Poetry Contest.
They're looking for poets with "talent, drive, kick-ass technique and the ability to meet a deadline."
If you've got what it takes and some poems on the topic of contests, poet vs. poet, competition in art or in life, then get the lead out and send them in.
Please mark your envelope "POET vs. POET" and send to:
ARC Poetry Magazine
P.O. Box 81060
Ottawa, ON
K1P 1B1.
Deadline for poetry submissions is March 1, 2011.
WHAT???!!! No entry fee??? Gotta do this one!
They're looking for poets with "talent, drive, kick-ass technique and the ability to meet a deadline."
If you've got what it takes and some poems on the topic of contests, poet vs. poet, competition in art or in life, then get the lead out and send them in.
Please mark your envelope "POET vs. POET" and send to:
ARC Poetry Magazine
P.O. Box 81060
Ottawa, ON
K1P 1B1.
Deadline for poetry submissions is March 1, 2011.
WHAT???!!! No entry fee??? Gotta do this one!
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
News Pegs as Ideas for Stories
Today I heard on the news about a house invasion in the Vanoouver area. Stolen from the residence was $750,000 worth of silver bars. The police officer interviewed said it is the hope and wish of the RCMP that people do not keep large amounts of cash or valuable metals in their homes, but, if they do, they should "keep it to themselves." She said that it was obvious that the theives knew what they were looking for.
How's that for an idea for a story! Hard to believe, but, as they say, truth is stranger than fiction.
Some questions to ask about this incident to pump it up to a story or a poem:
- why was all that silver in the house?
- where did it come from?
- how long had the owner been "collecting" it?
- what was it eventually going to be used for or what was the owner planning to do with it?
- who else knew about it?
- how did the information leak out?
- what about insurance? (Can you insure that under your regular house insurance??)
Anyway, scan the newspapers. Find the odd stories. Take a line or an idea and go to town with it!
Remember to change the names to protect the innocent and the guilty.
How's that for an idea for a story! Hard to believe, but, as they say, truth is stranger than fiction.
Some questions to ask about this incident to pump it up to a story or a poem:
- why was all that silver in the house?
- where did it come from?
- how long had the owner been "collecting" it?
- what was it eventually going to be used for or what was the owner planning to do with it?
- who else knew about it?
- how did the information leak out?
- what about insurance? (Can you insure that under your regular house insurance??)
Anyway, scan the newspapers. Find the odd stories. Take a line or an idea and go to town with it!
Remember to change the names to protect the innocent and the guilty.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)