Pass the Coffeepot

Poetic Advice....a Reminder for Novices + Pros Alike

feeds@yuku.com (Karla) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 05:37:29 GMT

The November newsletter of Just Poets, the Rochester-based organization to which I proudly belong, was released yesterday. It included a short article by JP member and former president, Donna Marbach. I thought it would be worthwhile to share it with SA poet-readers. While targeted primarily to neophytes, I found it a useful reminder of my duties as a poet. Hope you do too.

Poetic Advice -- Hints and Reminders to Help Strengthen Your Poetry

by Donna...

Life + Form = Poetry

feeds@yuku.com (Karla) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:45:58 GMT

Greetings, poets!

I missed my usual Sunday meander around the pages of SA so am here on a Monday morning (and a cold one! Brr! not ready for this!), musing over a column I read in Northwest Poetry. The editor of five years of this fine journal, David Biespiel, makes his goodbyes in "the article, "A Sense of Form and a Sense of Life." Having ducked the question for years as to the kind of poetry he likes…what led him to publish the poems in...

Poetic Aerobics

feeds@yuku.com (Karla) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 06:04:05 GMT

As I've been prepping another workshop for our local writers center, I've stumbled across a few resources for poets that invite us to play in the poetic sandbox…and learn as we go. So I thought I'd share them with SA reader-poets.

I'm usually not a fan of poetry handbooks, but this one is a winner: The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry by Kim Addonizio and Dorianne...

Found Poems

feeds@yuku.com (Karla) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 07:39:49 GMT

Yesterday I ran across a short poem in an email exchange I had with a poet-friend.

It went like this:

Email E-change

Forgot to add - I don't have text messaging service. Maybe next decade.

Neither do I. And I never plan to!!!!!!!

K!

***

And finding that little guy got me thinking about found poems in general....

Line Breaks

feeds@yuku.com (Nephologia) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:04:46 GMT

I don't care how many times this topic has been approached -- in poetry, the single most thing of importance, in my opinion, is the art of breaking lines. As an editor, I get to see poems of all forms, and lots of free verse. And what I can compare in the quality of craft, most readily, is how well or poorly poets handle their lines. It seems apparent that the majority of amateur poets don't have a clue how to break lines. In general, their...

trite versus original language

feeds@yuku.com (Timarete) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 21:46:46 GMT

We have been through this before.

To start with we use the very trite alphabet. If we were great originators we should use a new alphabet for each poem or at least a private alphabet. This gross argument not only shows that triteness can be spoofed to the extreme, but that the language used in literary writing is a context for the content.The same holds for notes in music and colours for painting.

This does not mean that the context is irrelevant in poetry. It can play a...

on obscurity in poetry

feeds@yuku.com (Timarete) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 21:19:07 GMT

If the glass is completely opaque, there is no view.
If the glass is completely transparent, interest might not be engendered.
In my opinion, there is a happy medium, which is part of the poetry tools. Spelling out everything is boring, even in beautiful language, being too cryptic gives rise to dismissal.

This type of workshops, where the audience is critical but friendly can be of true service as a sounding board .
If poetry is like birdsong, rising naturally...

The Death of Poetry

feeds@yuku.com (Andrew Dickinson) — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 11:10:15 GMT

I'm very disturbed about where poetry is going and many are saying it, too. I'm one of the few to speak out about the decline of poetry and possibly a death. In the mainstream, poetry is dead, that I know. Underground, it's probably will be confined to the internet and other free sources, due to failing sales in magazines and other publishers, having to resort to cheaper means...

Favorite Forms?

feeds@yuku.com (Nephologia) — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:54:10 GMT

Ok, so most of here like writing and reading Free Verse, but some of us also like traditional forms. What's your favorite form, if you have one. Yes, you can also mention your 2nd and 3rd!

Neph:
1. Sestina
2. Terzanelle
3. Blank Verse

7 Editing Tips from Kurt Vonnegut

feeds@yuku.com (Gyrafalcon) — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 13:35:30 GMT

Good advice for editing prose, and can often be applied to poetry, as well:

1. Find a subject you care about

2. Do not ramble, though

3. Keep it simple

4. Have guts to cut

5. Sound like yourself

...

Revisioning -- How long between your visions?

feeds@yuku.com (Nephologia) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 01:18:23 GMT

Did you know that the Roman poet Horace thought one should wait nine years before revising a written draft?!

What are your thoughts on ideal waits between editing or revising drafts? Are you quick to revise, or does it take you awhile before you can stand the thought of revising a particular piece of work? How long do you believe it takes before you can view your latest works with an objective eye?

To tell or not to tell

feeds@yuku.com (Heath Thompson) — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 13:41:36 GMT

Since being a member of SA I have come to realise that I have a problem in defining the level of how much information I give the reader and how much I hold back.

In wanting to create mystery in poetry I often write in ways that must leave the reader with a blank expression. Yet, I feel that to 'tell them' what it is about ruins the depth of the poem.

As fellow writers, how do you make the decision of whether to give clues to something in the hope that the reader will try to...

Questions about meter?

feeds@yuku.com (AndrewCDickinson) — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 21:21:35 GMT

I'm not clear about what I'm asking, but I'll try nonetheless.

When writing feet in sequence, does there have to be a specific pattern, but when it's a specific form such as "iambic pentameter," it has a pattern? And because it is called that, it has 5 iambs for 5 feet. Say I replace 1 trochee in the mix for an iamb so there would be a 4iamb/1trochee ratio...what would you call that line if possible? Does each line have to have a pattern of stressed and unstressed...

Short Forms - Got Milk?

feeds@yuku.com (Nephologia) — Sun, 09 Jul 2006 17:16:54 GMT

Besides Haiku, does anyone know much about other types of short forms? Which ones have you tried, and which do you like the best?

N.

*** "Hot Moon Poetry at Smothered Air" ***

Etymology sites

feeds@yuku.com (Ocalive) — Sun, 21 May 2006 18:22:53 GMT

There was an old thread in the Coffeepot about etymology, but the links didn't work anymore. I've started a new post with a new URL for the Online Etymology Dictionary, and added two sites which explore the etymology of names in different languages:

The Online Etymology Dictionary

Behind the NameHeath, Gram and I have opened a discussion in another thread that has taken on a life of its own. I thought it would be good to let it be its own topic, rather than an offshoot from commentary on a poem.

Is there structure underlying all poems? Not just in the formal patterns, but in free verse...

A problem with plot

feeds@yuku.com (Gram Davies) — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 16:09:25 GMT

I love novels, but several years ago I gave up trying to write stories. I have a problem with plot.

Characterisation, dialogue, description, atmosphere, all these I feel I have built up a certain level of skill in, but when it comes to actually telling a worthwhile story, I just pull blanks or spiral off into meaningless indifference.

It's the same when I try to write music. Rhythm, melody, dynamics between the two, subtle sound effects, balance/panning, space, bass,...

Links for Spelling help

feeds@yuku.com (Nephologia) — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 22:10:16 GMT

Below are a few links of both free and subscription sites designed to help with English spelling! You might find them fun to poke around, anyway.

Freebies:

Spellcheck at Funbrain
Owl Online Writing Labs, sample

Hooray for subtlety

feeds@yuku.com (Gyrafalcon) — Sun, 19 Feb 2006 22:00:15 GMT

I found this quote from Bold Type's Poetry Editor Ernest Hilbert while researching Stephen Spender:

"The subtlety with which [Spender] recounts particular episodes is of a kind almost entirely unknown to contemporary writers, whose apparent reluctance to withhold any information, however embarrassing or unentertaining, has gone some way in dulling their readers' capacity to discern nuances altogether."

I...

Johnathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

feeds@yuku.com (Gram Davies) — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 15:47:50 GMT

Set in the 1800s, this novel reads like the fiction of that age, complete with oddities of spelling and circuitous foot-notes, but drew me in with all the glamour and pace of modern fiction.

In a story of English magic, Susana Clarke weaves elements of alternative history with familiar themes of dingy London streets and wild Yorkshire moors. In a land where sorcery is all but forgotten, the domain of gentleman scholars and dusty, hoarded anecdotes, a prophecy survives that tells of...