Thursday, June 28, 2012

Melodramatic Sestina


You never quite know where the Sestina form will take you.  The following over-the-top example shows what happens when you let it take the lead.  



Melodramatic Sestina

First glance she sent him with a sigh,
responded he with cheerful gleam,
she flicked an olive in his lap,
pretended she was sipping wine,
and fluttered lashes black and false
while he blushed high, with pounding heart.

He faniced he had won her heart
with little more than groan and sigh;
he failed to note that she was false
to her table mate, whose eyes a-gleam,
was more than sloshed on mid-priced wine,
while food was dropping in his lap.

Taking the olive from his lap
our hero ate, stared at her false
grey eyes with longing, but like whines
from the throat of a slaughtered goat, his sighs
stopped in their tracks at the sudden gleam
in the lady’s eyes as her table mate’s fals-

etto voice exposed his lady’s false-
hoods (brushing food from off his lap);
they’d dull of any man his gleam,
they’d break of any man his heart
and with a deep and painful sigh
in her face he splashed his dregs of wine.

The lady screamed, began to whine
in notes that diners round knew false.
The two men rose, with each a sigh
(dropping their napkins from their laps)
plunged a steak knife in the heart
of the other; blood soon dulled the gleam

of the steel.  Out of their eyes, the gleam
soon went while plates, forks, chairs, wine
toppled; unfamiliar fear gripped the heart
of the lady, whose wanton, false
deceptive acts fell in her lap.
Appalled, she crumpled with a sigh. 

envoi
Don’t diminish the gleam in living the false,
spilling Life’s wine in Fate’s shallow lap;
to splinter the heart, start with a sigh.

Monday, June 25, 2012

Novelists fear primarily

This 'found' poem started out as an exercise using groups of three words: noun, verb, adjective, in each case.  I played around with another form and then came on the approach I've used here.  The repetitions add to the rhythm and the energy, and even give the piece a hint of drama (!)  The words are in the order as first 'found', though occasional grammar improvements and punctuation have been added.  



Novelists fear primarily
Fear primarily alphabet
Primarily alphabet tests
Alphabet tests private

Tests private media
Private media asks
Media asks, addictive?
Asks addictive?, calm

Addictive; calm suggests
Calm suggests important
Suggests important priority
Important priority manages

Priority manages notice
Manages notice campaign
Notice campaign thinks
Campaign thinks financial

Thinks financial life
Financial life invents
Life invents growing
Invents growing writer

Growing writer speaks
Writer speaks – unruly! -
Speaks, unruly weekend
Unruly weekend source

Weekend source knows
Source knows paragraph
Knows paragraph input
Paragraph input distrust

Input distrusts conference
Distrusts conference easily
Conference easily swollen
Easily swollen novelists. 

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Playing with a Pantoum again

I took a number of lines from Tweets (on Twitter - Tweeters can be surprisingly poetic) and shuffled them around into a Pantoum until I was (fairly) happy.  And then just for fun used the same lines in a slightly more extended poem. 


Meaning?  Up to you, the reader...



Twitter Pantoum 

Kids today are less moronic
Not all heroes enjoy the role
Once the term is activated                                                
Kind words can be short and easy.

Not all heroes enjoy the role
He can only be taken away if he wants to be stolen
Kind words can be short and easy
Buying an island he does it with style.

He can only be taken away if he wants to be stolen
Would someone mind slowing down the world?
Buying an island he does it with style
The roadmap reveals new handsets.

Would someone mind slowing down the world?
Night store heater stores heat overnight
The roadmap reveals new handsets
More fun than you can shake a false eyelash at.

Night store heater stores heat overnight
More fun than you can shake a false eyelash at
Watching pretty little liars like myself.

The bridesmaids’ dresses are equally ugly
Kind words can be short and easy
Watching pretty little liars like myself
Kids today are less moronic.

And another approach, not in the Pantoum style:

Kids today are less moronic
From the time they’re embryonic
Once the term is activated                                                
Fires of life initiated
They can only be taken away if they want to be stolen.

Not all heroes enjoy the role
Some prefer being on the dole,
Kind words can be short and easy
Some kind words are sick and queasy
More fun than you can shake a false eyelash at.

Night store heater stores heat overnight
If they don’t we’ve a morning cold fright
The roadmap reveals new handsets
The broadband reveals new bandwidths
Would someone mind slowing down the world?

Buying an island he does it with style
Buying islands bores after a while,
The bridesmaids’ dresses are equally ugly
The bride, however, is very snugly
Watching pretty little liars like myself
It’s not surprising I’ve been left on the shelf.  

For another example of 'found' phrases check here. 

Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Flash Fiction


Running and Waiting

The rhododendron, paler than white, leans in the heat towards the path which is sunk below the road. The glistening heat has melted the rhododendron petals off the branches; they settle as browning water lilies in the grass. But the grass doesn’t pour down towards the path because it isn’t water.
The path is a deep dip, so that a child can race with her dog down one side and make it up the other before running out of puff.
The child runs down the path, her knots of knees pumping past faster than the eye can grasp. There is a splash, but this isn’t water. The dog pulls on the lead and drags the child, strains to move forward. The child’s grazed knees bleed in rivulets. She pushes herself upwards, stands, sobs for a moment.
Calls to the dog. Calls the dog names.The dog sits on the hot pavement, indifferent. English is not his first language.
The girl dabs at her knees with a tissue: the heat of the sun is already drying the rivulets of blood. The dog waits, as dogs do. The pavement is warm. Waiting isn’t difficult. Boredom is not in his experience, or vocabulary.
The grazes sting in the heat. The child brushes the stings aside in her mind. Self-pity is not in her experience, or vocabulary.
This story first appeared online in the February 2012 Flash Frontier anthology: Heat