February 26, 2008

• ElectricPoetry: Form Fit and Function

   

  "Surcease of Sanity's Sorrows" (a pantoum)
  Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
  February 7th, 2005 at 12:17 a.m.

  
  We were alerted to illusory agendas
  Whilst reading each life somewhat religiously
  We have seen how sullen strife renders
  Life calls to us partly perniciously

  Whilst reading each life somewhat religiously
  Embraced with wild dancing derision
  Life calls to us partly perniciously
  And with each breath sucks some kind of decision

  Embraced with wild dancing derision
  We are blinded by temporary sanity
  And with each breath sucks some kind of decision
  Overcome by bad rhyme and soft vanity

  We are blinded by temporary sanity
  Insisting this crazed moment shall pass
  Overcome by bad rhyme and soft vanity
  We are frequently kicked by our pasts

  Insisting this crazed moment shall pass
  While another one shoots us with glee
  We are frequently kicked by our pasts
  While life will constantly overwhelm me

  While another one shoots us with glee
  I will lie in my merry moist mindset
  While life will constantly overwhelm me
  No one can say at the end or the outset

  I will lie in my merry moist mindset
  We have seen how sullen strife renders
  No one can say at the end or the outset
  We were alerted to illusory agendas

  The Pantoum - A poem in a fixed form, consisting of a varying number of 4-line stanzas with lines rhyming alternately; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated to form the first and third lines of the succeeding stanza, with the first and third lines of the first stanza forming the second and fourth of the last stanza, but in reverse order, so that the opening and closing lines of the poem are identical. (Try to say THAT in one breath.)

  "Alphabet Soup"
  Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
  Feb. 26, 2008 6:11am pst

  
  Any time the words spill out with passion
  By and by this relegates the fashion
  Crowded thoughts and bouncy bursting bubbles
  Down and dirty diagrams relating troubles

  Every time the words seep out with caution
  Forgetting past ebullient strains I've chosen
  Golden sunsets sink fast in the distance
  Heralding a quick rich thick insistence

  I have written reams of purposed verse
  Joking with the gods I don't do worse
  Kinetic karma shrouds the time with doubt
  Leaving open windows, hear the shout

  Many times the words are in the way
  Nothing can reveal ideas with perfect pain in play
  Over-reaching these receding years
  Partial pulchritude will shine on through the tears

  Queer that solace rests between the words
  Rational relaxing spaces creep onwards
  Style, objective, dictionarial decrees
  The need for expression has me on my knees

  Underneath a flurried sky composed of dreams
  Vibrant meanings can't respond, it sometimes seems
  Whys and wherefores scuttle to the ground
  Xenophobic fears of all the others so profound

  Years collect like words without a definition
  Z'wounds, perhaps spied askance, portend a premonition

  The above poem is an example of an Abecedarian poem - A poem having verses beginning with the successive letters of the alphabet. I did not combine all the lines into one long poem, but broke them up into quatrains with a concluding couplet.

  
  Not at All What Seeming Shadows Predict
  Poetry by Michael F. Nyiri
  Feb. 26th, 2008 6:42am pst

  
  Seething symbolic scythes slice suddenly with deliberation
  Undulating insistence that emotion takes it's toll away
  Seeking through false potions maybe a friendly way station

  One can't sit idly by when faced with capital consternation
  One can't rewrite the histories of romantic rhapsodies in play
  Seething symbolic scythes slice suddenly with deliberation

  Carry your memories on the back of your callow creation
  Stuff the backpacks of brevity with the tide and time of day
  Seeking through false potions maybe a friendly way station

  Always looking around and around for precise substantiation
  Forgetting pallid lifestories and inordinate illogical sway
  Seething symbolic scythes slice suddenly with deliberation

  Breathing full the lungs with the power of creation
  Of the mind's boundries rambling far too often astray
  Seeking through false potions maybe a friendly way station

  Nothing matters insomuch when drunk with bold libation
  Yet sober sarcasm always clouds the day
  Seething symbolic scythes slice suddenly with deliberation
  Seeking through false potions maybe a friendly way station

  The above poem is an example of a Villanelle. A Villanelle is a poem in a fixed form, consisting of five three-line stanzas followed by a quatrain and having only two rhymes. In the stanzas following the first, the first and third lines of the first stanza are repeated alternately as refrains. They are the final two lines of the concluding quatrain. The most famous Villanelle is Dylan Thomas' "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night".

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  All three examples are of structured poetry. I don't usually write structured poetry anymore, but sometimes I like to stretch myself. The first poem was written in 2005 and is one of two pantoums I've written. The last two poems are brand new, written this morning between 6:15 and 7:15 a.m. It is said that the Villanelle is one of the more difficult poetic styles to write. The two interlaced thoughts, from the first and third lines of the first three line verse, and repeated throughout the piece, have to dovetail perfectly, or else the poem becomes a mess. The definitions of poetic styles are from Gymart.com. with some editorial content. MFN/ppf

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