Saturday, August 31, 2013

Friday, August 30, 2013

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Monday, August 26, 2013

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Friday, August 23, 2013

daily haiku, August 24th

Ha! Just after midnight, so this counts for the 24th

A friend of mine issued a challenge. He asked me to write a haiku in "pilish", which is an unusual restriction, where the number of letters in each word follows the digits of Pi, so 3 letters in the first word, 1 in the 2nd, 4 in the 3rd etc... (to a few decimal places, this is the pattern: 3.1415926538979323...)

My friend got the idea from the short story Cadaeic Cadenza, which is all written in "pilish". Cadaeic Cadenze is an amazing piece of work, using crazy restrictions, and reads quite well. The story is long enough to reproduce 3835 digits of Pi. His section mimicking Poe's style of "the Raven" has to be read to be believed.

My humble haiku:

ink a line, a group.
seventeen to create verse.
the haiku appeared.

Thursday, August 22, 2013

daily haiku, August 23rd

a cover letter
seems like such a simple thing
sorry, no job here

A sonnet - lazy voters

From Stephen Fry's "The Ode Less Travelled", a poetry exercise in the latter stages of the book asked for a Petrarchan Sonnet about the laziness of the voting public, but with a volta (twist, usually in the last 6 lines) where you come around to their point of view in the end.

NOTE: the Petrarchan/Italian sonnet has 14 lines, written in iambic pentameter (ta-TUM, ta-TUM...) with a rhyming scheme of: abba abba cdecde (the last 6 lines is more flexible than that, but I picked the default).

average voters are a lazy lot
they simply blind themselves to politics
they watch their tv; watch their silly flicks
while drinking wine and beer and smoking pot

while living lives of blood and piss and snot
a remote control one lazily clicks
to watch some porno, T&A and hanging dicks
it’s every day the same, their lives a knot

but think a little on this voting thing
most voters would mostly likely drink more beer
than float the useless political boat

so bring another voter under wing
no voting today, make it very clear
there’s pointless, then there’s voting; don’t vote!

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

daily haiku - August 21st

today's quote: "However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?" ~Buddha

love to read and speak
but critically - remember
you are your actions



Monday, August 19, 2013

daily haiku - August 20th

Today's quote: “Show me a man with both feet on the ground, and I’ll show you a man who can’t put his pants on.” ~ Arthur K. Watson


both feet are needed
in order to put on pants
don't ever forget

Sunday, August 18, 2013

daily haiku, August 19th

I think I'll have to change the name from "Daily haiku" to "frequent haiku" or something. While I intend to write every day, I somehow don't always get around to it.

Today's quote: "The mind is everything. What you think you become." ~Buddha

ask, "What do you want?"
take council in the answers,
resolve the conflicts


Friday, August 16, 2013

dialy haiku - August 17th

today's quote: "An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind." ~Buddha

the tiger can bite
a friend can injure my mind
she can make me sad

Thursday, August 15, 2013

daily haiku - August 16th

I've been away in Fiji for a couple of weeks.

Today's quote: "Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment." ~Buddha

"live in the present"
much easier said than done
the past is longer


Sunday, August 11, 2013

Poems while you wait

I love this story. Jacqueline Suskin is now one of my heroes.

http://eeditionmobile.latimes.com/Olive/Tablet/LATimes/SharedArticle.aspx?href=LAT%2F2013%2F08%2F09&id=Ar00105

Oh, and this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrJVC3lgNAw

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Stephen Fry's "The Ode Less Travelled"

I was perusing the library the other day when I came across this gem, "The Ode Less Travelled" by Stephen Fry. Fry is a wit, brilliant, knowledgable and easy to read. This is a superb introduction to poetic form.

Interestingly, I know lots of poets, slam poets and page poets and poets who don't share their material, to poets who share almost everything they write. I have not really, to my knowledge, discussed poetic form beyond haiku and limerick forms. Of course, I've heard of sonnets and even had a go at writing one, but they just seem like an archaic, dusty old form that most people don't bother learning about.

Fry, on the other hand, digs in right away, into different types of meter. The iamb and trochee, spondee and phyric meters, as well as the longer, like anapaest, dactyl etc...

While these aren't really commonly used with purpose, even for most poets I know, Fry makes them accessible and interesting and fun and he is so very excited about all of it that it's infectious. I can't help but be interested in his many examples of pure form and the small variations employed by the masters.

If you want to be a better poet, then knowing these things and how to use them can only help.

I'm about half way through and am loving this book. I will certainly buy a copy in the near future, since I only have the library's copy.

I am sure there are friends of mine who are reading this who say, "Awww... that's adorable, Travis doesn't know about meter.", but as I said, I've not really discussed these things before.

The joy of understanding iambic pentameter to the point where I can actually compose it (badly, I must say) cannot be overstated. I feel like I've learned quite a lot in the last week or so. 2013 is my year of learning poetry.

Some examples of my iambic pentameter:

if we were likely to affect our lives
in such a simple way, then never can
it be again except perhaps today
and strictly speaking can't be worth a lot

some homemade seafood chowder hits the spot
a piece of pumpkin pie for dessert please

Miramar peninsula sitting there,
a house or three under our window too.

with only breath I fill my life with song
so less a self and more a beat, we shout
a tune to fill the air with sounds so loud
the air will shake and move and litter notes.

Haha... those are so awful, but fun to write. As Fry states, they are more like doing scales on the piano. It's not real poetry, but gives the feeling of what it must be like. It is fun and finishing a line or couplet in iambic pentameter is satisfying.

daily haiku august 9th

I've been in Fiji for a while. This is from the free wifi in my room:

I feel a deep shame
a deep and soul wrenching shame.
Beiber sing-along.


Friday, August 2, 2013

haiku, August 3rd

today's quote 'the privilege of a lifetime is being who you are', joseph campbell.

my haiku

be who you are, a
lesson that bears repeating
and still often lost

Thursday, August 1, 2013

daily haiku, August 2nd

Today's quote: "Your life is the fruit of your own doing. You have no one to blame but yourself." ~Joseph Campbell

for your history
you have only you to blame
this is injustice