 Poetry: November 03, 2010 Issue [#4048] |
  Poetry
This week: The little song ~ ever new and vital Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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"...the writing of poems....
the call of overhearing music that is not yet made."
Mary Kinzie, in A Poet's Guide to Poetry
Poetry is the lyrical rendition of the rhythm of sight, sound, touch, taste; of living, seen through the eyes of a poet and consigned to paper and laptop and keyboard until it can be read aloud. Yes, all poetry needs to be read aloud, to savor the rhythm in the words, and revive the images the poet conscribed to the pages of a book or computer. And reading aloud, one hears the song in the wind, the trees, the stars, the heart and spirit of the singer and adds his/her solo to the chorus.
I am honored to be your guest host for this edition of the WDC Poetry Newsletter. I would like to take this opportunity to sing a little song that's near a millenium old, yet as new today as it was when the first voices gave it breath
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Greetings, fellow lyric wordsmiths.
I say 'wordsmiths' because poetry, the art of its vision and the craft of its expression, I think evolves from the crafting of words in recognizable lyric patterns.
One of the most recognizable and enduring patterns is the 'little song' or sonnet, which has both maintained and evolved from the Shakespearean and Petrarchian and Spencerian models first heard and sung by poets over 800 years ago. Perhaps it's cyclical or perhaps just the lyric presence of this little song that keeps it a vibrant form. And, in our time, there's an apparent resurgence and renewal of the sonnet in the voices we are hearing and reading in publications. We've explored the little song in a past newsletter, if you'd like to check it out visit http://www.writing.com/main/newsletters/action/archives/id/2139.
Although most contemporary poets write free verse, they have the freedom to move back and forth between free verse and traditional forms ~ consider today Billie Collins, among others. Poetry, like music, goes through cyclical changes, and the little song that was once old suddenly becomes new again. Today there's room for both the freestyle dance of free verse and the renewed interest in the formal dance of traditional verse. And poets today both embrace and enhance the tradition by adding their voice while crafting the vivid lyrics of their 'little song.'
One way to do this is to combine traditional forms to yield a metamorphosis that's lyric and somehow familiar to the ear, yet fresh and new. One example I will share, only partly because the 'new' form was envisioned by a fellow Ohioan in our timeand is now a recognized poetic form of its own.
 First, we take the familiar traditional Shakespearean Sonnet, with its 14 lines, composed of three quatrains (4-line stanzas), in iambic pentameter (5 iambs (da-DUM), or 10 syllables per line), a volta near the end, and a rhyme scheme abab cdcd efef gg ... then ...
We blend in the Villanelle, with its six three-line stanzas, and final four-line stanza. The rhyme scheme of aba aba aba aba aba abaa and the first and third lines alternately repeating at the end of the succeeding stanzas, ending with them coupled as a summation, also in iambic pentameter ... combine ... and we have
The Villonnet. a hybrid of the Villanelle and the Sonnet invented by D. Allen Jenkins, a fellow Ohioan. It has the Iambic pentameter of both, holding the four-stanza/line structure of the sonnet, with the two-line rhyme nature of the villanelle. The final stanza replaces the sonnet couplet with a typical villanelle tercet.
Villonet On Love - by D.Allen Jenkins (creator of the Villonet form)
Tranquil and calm as music of the sea,
You are handsome for sure, very mature
Closer closer, I am drawn each new day
In the hope that our love will sweeter be.
We fell in love 'neath the Sycamore tree
Wait for awhile; you'll recall with a smile.
Each whispering caress was always true,
Tranquil and calm as music of the sea.
Love's symphony echoed across the lea
Foliage floated down in shades of gold
I now write poems with delicate air...
In the hope that our love will sweeter be.
Tranquil and calm as music of the sea
We will dance to the moonlight serenade
In the hope that our love will sweeter be.
http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/villonnet.html
Oh, and fellow wordsmiths, note the name for the form shows its evolutionary essence, to wit, villanelle + sonnet = villonet 
Traditional poetry is crafted upon patterns of words, images, syllables, sound that depict what the poet sees, hears, tastes, imagines. That's what makes the 'tradition' dynamic and relevant and vital today as it was yesteryear. As long as we adhere to the one 'rule' in poetry ~ you know what it is ~
Read all poetry aloud.
The resurgence of the Sonnet and other traditional forms in recent poetic expression has created opportunities for fresh voices to take this form and make it their own ~ I've included some submission guidelines if you'd like to add your 'little song' to the lyric symphony.
http://www.rattle.com/submissions.htm
http://fallingstarmagazine.com/writers_guidelines
http://measure.evansville.edu/SonnetContest.htm
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I invite you to read - aloud - a few expressions of the forms we've explored today offered for your reading/listening by members of our Community and invite you further to continue the lyric conversation by sharing your perception of their vision with a comment or perhaps review
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Share your voice here ~ both challenges invite unique voices that craft lyric verse from inspired images and vision
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Have an opinion on what you've read here today? Then send the Editor feedback! Find an item that you think would be perfect for showcasing here? Submit it for consideration in the newsletter!
https://www.Writing.Com/go/nl_form
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As a guest host, I can only say thank you for joining me in this exploration.
Until we next meet, write on ~ why not try a Villonet or combine or combine another couple of forms or take a form and give it your own expression ~ and share the link with your crafting secrets in response to this newsletter ~ let us hear your voice. If you've an idea or inspiration and are seeking tools to craft your own new 'song' check out "Invalid Item" ~
Oh, by the way, I get to come back later this month and would love to feature some of your creative songs ~
Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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