(Glwordsignite) Get Lit Classic Slam is s a citywide poetry competition on April 27th at Los Angeles Theatre Center and April 28th at the Wiltern Theatre (classicslam.org). Get Lit is a nonprofit organization that promotes teen literacy. It is embarking on its biggest endeavor ever this weekend during NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!
Poetry is sometimes submitted to Wisdom Quarterly or at least "things that rhyme" or follow a rigid form are. Here is one example by I.P. Freehly:
"Here I sit brokenhearted
Came to Zen,
Butt barely started"
Came to Zen,
Butt barely started"
Or this gem from Richard Hurtz:
"Lotuses are red,
Waterlilies are blue
The truth I dread,
Maybe it's true."
Waterlilies are blue
The truth I dread,
Maybe it's true."
These budding wordsmiths might benefit from Sparkcharts. And everyone would be much better off removing the term "haiku" from their quiver.
Take a cue from Teri Trendler, whom we mangle with a little editing:
The web-site you seek
Cannot be located,
but Countless more exist.
Joy Rothke
Errors have occurred.
Look within for where and why.
Lazy programmers.
Charlie Gibbs
Look within for where and why.
Lazy programmers.
Charlie Gibbs
Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen, mind, both are blank....
Ian Hughes
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen, mind, both are blank....
Ian Hughes
(IndieCabaretNYC) Lady Rizo performs
Take a cue from Teri Trendler, whom we mangle with a little editing:
Sanity vs. Ships
The ocean is vast --
easy to stay afloat
far away, selfishly using wind,
waves, and rain to survive
but storms batter us
and our ropes and hopes fray --
our selves/sails split
and leaks appear.
It is far safer to stay in dry dock --
but dry wood don't boat.
In a harbor others can see how we maintain our ship
(or rot).
The mask of seaworthiness gets us through
work and school even Sundays at church
but we know behind the paint
there are cracks.
How do we fix ourselves?
Maybe we cannot --
perhaps it takes those ships in neighboring slips
to lend a hand.
Therapy is where we admit we want help --
socializing allows us to see the small storms are survivable --
but what about spirits
how do we make them stronger?
Being sane? Sane enough?
Logic tells us what to eat, not drink, when to exercise
and to stress less (about work)
but if we don't do these are we not sane, less sane?
If the root of sanity is opposite to crazy, creative
to sanitize is to clean and kill everything
foreign or not-self.
We put these away in a sanitarium.
A sanitary napkin would wipe up the mentally disturbed --
The ocean is vast --
easy to stay afloat
far away, selfishly using wind,
waves, and rain to survive
but storms batter us
and our ropes and hopes fray --
our selves/sails split
and leaks appear.
It is far safer to stay in dry dock --
but dry wood don't boat.
In a harbor others can see how we maintain our ship
(or rot).
The mask of seaworthiness gets us through
work and school even Sundays at church
but we know behind the paint
there are cracks.
How do we fix ourselves?
Maybe we cannot --
perhaps it takes those ships in neighboring slips
to lend a hand.
Therapy is where we admit we want help --
socializing allows us to see the small storms are survivable --
but what about spirits
how do we make them stronger?
Being sane? Sane enough?
Logic tells us what to eat, not drink, when to exercise
and to stress less (about work)
but if we don't do these are we not sane, less sane?
If the root of sanity is opposite to crazy, creative
to sanitize is to clean and kill everything
foreign or not-self.
We put these away in a sanitarium.
A sanitary napkin would wipe up the mentally disturbed --
maybe the physically imperfect too?
Brain chemistry runs in families
as does fertility to a degree.
If my father's line is less fertile,
and my mother's line less sane...
I'm the last to deal with this.
No children will inherit my brains nor my body
both tools, good for certain work
but antiquated now in me.
So if I am to leave a legacy
it must be an intangible one.
Those I've met, touched, helped or hindered
if not memories which shall last only a few lifetimes
perhaps a change in spirit for those down or discouraged
and if my rewards are here on earth-cheers.
Brain chemistry runs in families
as does fertility to a degree.
If my father's line is less fertile,
and my mother's line less sane...
I'm the last to deal with this.
No children will inherit my brains nor my body
both tools, good for certain work
but antiquated now in me.
So if I am to leave a legacy
it must be an intangible one.
Those I've met, touched, helped or hindered
if not memories which shall last only a few lifetimes
perhaps a change in spirit for those down or discouraged
and if my rewards are here on earth-cheers.
Elements of Style
aposiopesis: breaking off of speech due to rising emotion or excitement
apostrophe: a direct address to an absent or dead person, object, or idea.
chiasmus: two phrases with the same syntax but reversed word placement.
colloquialism: informal expression or slang
conceit: elaborate parallel between two seemingly dissimilar objects or ideas
epithet: adjective or phrase describing a prominent feature
euphemism: decorous language used to express unpleasant idea.
litotes: form of understatement in which a statement is affirmed by negating its opposite.
meiosis: intentional understatement
metomyny: substitution of one term for another that is associated with it
paralipsis (praeteritio): drawing attention to something by claiming not to mention it.
parallelism: use of similar grammatical structure or word order in two sentences to suggest contrast or comparison.
pathetic fallacy: human feeling of motivation attributed to nonhuman objects.
periphrasis: an elaborate and roundabout way of referring to things that uses more words than necessary.
synecdoche: form of metonymy in which a part is used to refer to the whole.
trope: category of figures of speech that invite comparison.
zeugma: one word modifies two things in two different ways.
apostrophe: a direct address to an absent or dead person, object, or idea.
chiasmus: two phrases with the same syntax but reversed word placement.
colloquialism: informal expression or slang
conceit: elaborate parallel between two seemingly dissimilar objects or ideas
epithet: adjective or phrase describing a prominent feature
euphemism: decorous language used to express unpleasant idea.
litotes: form of understatement in which a statement is affirmed by negating its opposite.
meiosis: intentional understatement
metomyny: substitution of one term for another that is associated with it
paralipsis (praeteritio): drawing attention to something by claiming not to mention it.
parallelism: use of similar grammatical structure or word order in two sentences to suggest contrast or comparison.
pathetic fallacy: human feeling of motivation attributed to nonhuman objects.
periphrasis: an elaborate and roundabout way of referring to things that uses more words than necessary.
synecdoche: form of metonymy in which a part is used to refer to the whole.
trope: category of figures of speech that invite comparison.
zeugma: one word modifies two things in two different ways.
- Meter
- Accentual meter: the number of stressed syllables is fixed, and the number of total syllables is not fixed.
- Syllabic meter: the number of stressed syllables is not fixed, the number of total syllables is.
- Accentual-syllabic meter: both the numbers of stressed and unstressed syllables are fixed.
- Quantitative meter: the duration of the sound of each syllable determines the meter
- The foot: basic rhythmic unit
- Caesura: the pronounced pause between feet
- Iamb: unstressed, stressed
- Trochee: stressed, unstressed
- Dactyl: stressed, unstressed, unstressed
- Anapest: unstressed, unstressed, stressed
- Spondee: stressed, stressed
- Pyrrhic: unstressed, unstressed
- Feet measures: monometer, di, tri, tetra, penta, hexa, hepta, octa
- Rhyme Schemes
- Couplet: two successive rhymed lines, equal in length
- Heroic couplet: a couplet in iambic pentameter
- Quatrain: four line stanza
- Heroic quatrain: quatrain in iambic pentameter with an ABAB scheme
- Tercet: grouping of three lines
- Terza rima: system of tercets liked by common rhymes: ABA BCB CDC, etc.
- Poetic forms
- Ottava rima: eight lines in iambic pentameter with ABABABCC scheme
- Sestina: Six six-line stanzas followed by a three-line stanza. The last word in the last line of one stanza becomes the last word in the first line of the next. All the words appear in the final three-line stanza.
- Sonnet: one stanza of fourteen lines in iambic pentameter. The first eight lines or “octave” poses a question or dilemma that the last six lines or “sestet,” resolve.
- Italian/Petrachan: the octave can be either ABBAABBA or ABBACDDC and the sestet can be either CDECDE or CDCCDC
- Shakespearean: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
- Spenserian: ABAB BCBC CDCD EE
- Vilanelle: nineteen lines split into five tercets and one quatrain. All nineteen lines carry one of two rhymes. There are two refrains, alternating between the ends of each tercet and forming the last two lines of the final quatrain.
