I don’t particularly enjoy writing poetry in forms, especially more restrictive forms such as sonnets, villanelles, sestinas, pantoums, and the like. I’ve tried most of the major forms. It is an interesting challenge trying to fit your thoughts into forms with restrictions on meter, rhyme, line and stanza. Unfortunately, I can’t think of a single
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As I have said before, patterns play a major role in poetry. Repetition of thought, of meter, and of sound generates the patterns that distinguish poetry from prose. Patterns set up rhythms. Patterns organize thoughts. Patterns reinforce ideas. In poetry, isocolon is the term for the repetition of related words, phrases, or sentences of approximately
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Today I received a nasty email about my site. It was a short, condescending note about grammar and spelling errors that the person had found in my articles. The person gave no examples. I can only assume that the errors that person perceived are actual errors. The main thrust of the note seemed to be
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I noticed today that the number of poems being posted in response to the project has started to slow. We are two-thirds of the way through the thirty days. When they hold marathons, this is where most people who will drop out, do drop out. The runners are tired and the finish line still seems
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Good writers are those who keep the language efficient. That is to say, keep it accurate, keep it clear. — Ezra Pound Today I want to write in favor of plain speech. I don’t believe in using words in poetry that you wouldn’t use in conversation. Some poets, usually beginners, try to emulate traditional poetry.
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Dear Readers, I am writing to tell you about epistle. Epistle is a poetic form that is written like a letter. The type of letter can vary: love letter, postcard, business letter, sales letter, email, and in this day and age even a text message. It can be written to a real person or to
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You can tell it is mid September here in the Arizona desert because the temperature is topping out at a mere 97 rather than the 111 it was reaching just a month ago. I’m very much looking forward to mid-October, when the temperatures will only reach the high eighties and it will be safe to
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To see clearly is poetry, prophecy and religion all in one. – John Ruskin Reality is subject to interpretation. I have flown from Tucson to Las Vegas at least ten times. When I’ve sat by the window on the left side of the plane, I’ve seen mostly desert scrub and a glimpse of the Colorado
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Tanka is a Japanese form. The word Tanka actually means “short poem”. Tankas are meditations on emotional issues such as love, melancholy, the passing of the seasons and the transitory nature of life. Thematically, a Tanka is different than a Haiku in that it acceptable to use traditional poetic devices such as metaphor and personification.
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Memories are tricky things. The longer you live, the harder it gets to sort them out. This weekend my wife and I went to a restaurant we hadn’t been to in a while. I remarked that it has been a couple of years since we’d been there. My wife agreed, but then decided it had
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