Compiling a Book of Poems Post #2

Editing, editing, editing.  I've been editing poems for my book and going back over all my poems multiple times since my last post.  After I made a list of the poems I consider "Complete" I put them into categories to see what kind of material I had to work with.  From this exercise I determined that most of my "Completed" work had to do with the seasons or nature in some way.

This prompted me to look through all my work to see if I could find any other poems about nature or the seasons to bolster my book.  I added a number of unfinished poems to my list and brought my total to 63.  Of these poems, 30 are about nature or the seasons.  Most of these new poems need some editing or rewriting.  This is what I've been doing for the last week or more.

By the way, I'm by no means finished with this part of the process and am still determined to put a book together.  Now I'll be focusing on more poems with nature and the seasons as themes.  I'd like to have approximately 40 poems for this book.

In the process of editing and completing some of my poems, I've come up with some nice pieces and want to share some with you.

Autumn Gusts

Leaves dart across the ground

Like schoolboys chasing a ball

They flip and turn and spin

Like tumbling gymnasts.

Frantically, leaves fly

Like birds rising from a lake

Pushed by Autumn gusts

High into the air.

Color splashed branches dance feverishly

Like teens at a concert

Arms waving in the air

Moving in one rhythm.

I found myself practicing the use of metaphor and simile trying to get this one just right.  This next poem has a very different feel.  This rewrite about a heavy Spring snow is very different from my original, but I do like this version better.  

Spring Snow

Frozen crystals dance easily

Weightless

Swirling

In a dervish.

Thick, like fluff, they fall

Recklessly

Tossed

In a wind.

Landing, they join, cling in close

Layering

Combining

Like a mantle.

Heavy, pressing down, young limbs bend

Sagging

Droopy

Bowing down.

Brightened, the crystals sparkle in sunlight

Glimmering

Melting

Dripping down.

I started this post months ago and have sadly not worked on editing poems since that time.  Life derails me sometimes which is frustrating.  Many things are happening around here.  However, I have been inspired to write about the Sun and Moon today because of the "Great American Eclipse."  

Yes, the eclipse was almost complete for those of us in the greater Denver Metro area.  I'm going to be working on a few new pieces to add to my collection for this book.  I think they'll add something special.  

So, I'll leave this post for now on the editing theme and hope that you enjoy these two re writes.  I promise to have a few new pieces for you soon that highlight the celestial bodies involved in today's spectacle.  

Have a splendid day and keep writing!

Culture in Poetry

Being partly Irish, I am drawn to the overall culture and all things Irish.  I love music so I listen to Irish tunes quite often.  I have an extensive collection of Irish poetry and stories and love to let my eye wander over pictures of the Irish landscape.  Oh, I neglected to mention my love of Irish food!

I’ve been reading some of the Irish poets lately, W.B. Yeats, Thomas Moore, Patrick Kavanaugh and Oscar Wilde to name a few.  In my poetic contemplation over these beautiful works I began to notice a great sense of the Irish culture itself within them.  Each piece gave me a different sense of who the Irish are, what is important to them and how they live, think and believe. 

Some themes I’ve culled from the works I’ve read are the importance of family and relationships, love of the land, the importance of history to everyday life, strength of spiritual belief and a great love of life and living.  The Irish are a very proud and expressive people.  They carry their hearts on their sleeves and live every moment as if it’s their last.  Humor sustains them through thick and thin and their ability to survive is second to none.  All of these qualities of the Irish come through when reading their poetry.  I consider them to be some of the strongest poets our world has produced. 

If you’ve ever wondered why the Irish are so much in love with their homeland, then you’ve never been there or lost yourself in pictures of the beautiful, magical landscapes and architecture of this incredible island. 

In his poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree, W.B. Yeats expresses his desire to return to the peace and beauty of his home from the wild and raucous streets of London. 

 

“And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.”

Poet Patrick Kavanaugh expresses the deep love of a man for his mother in his poem In Memory of My Mother. I love his optimism for seeing her once again when he, himself, passes into heaven and his wonderful memories of her very essence. 

“And I think of you walking along a headland
Of green oats in June,
So full of repose, so rich with life –
And I see us meeting at the end of a town.

On a fair day by accident, after
The bargains are all made and we can walk
Together through the shops and stalls and markets
Free in the oriental streets of thought.”

While these are only a couple of examples of great Irish poetry, you can find many sources for them in your local bookstore or on various websites like the following:

www.irishcultureandcustoms.com

www.poetryfoundation.org

www.poetrysoup.com

Find some beautiful images of Ireland here:

Christian McLeod Photography: www.cmcleod.com

Inishowen Photography – www.inishowenphotography.com

Images of Mayo Landscape Photography of County Mayo, Ireland by Eamonn McCarthy– mayo.photium.com

Irish Dew Landscape Photography – www.irishdew.com

Try an Irish dish from:

www.donalskehan.com

www.yourirish.com

Perhaps you have a favorite culture or are from a particular culture that also has beautiful poets.  Do some reading and see if you also find that the culture of the poets home is carried into the work of the poet.

Reading to Write

Yes, I believe that you must read if you are to write.  You might ask why.  If you did, then my short answer is that there is much to be learned about an art by experiencing how others have produced their version of that art.  If you did not ask, then the previous sentence is of no importance to you.

Moving on, here are a couple things I’ve gleaned about writing by reading.

Style or Voice:

After reading some of my favorite poets, Frost, Whitman, St. Vincent Milay, Sandburg and Dickinson (to name just a few) I discovered that each has a different style, despite writing in the same poetic form.  For instance, if you read one of Shakespeare’s sonnets and then a sonnet by Sir Thomas Marlowe or Ben Jonson, the feel will be different.  They’re different people using the same poetic form.  However, they each write with their own style.

This realization made me want to find out if I have a poetic style and what that is.  My style is my own and I don’t know how to describe it to you.  If you’ve read my blog and the poems interspersed herein, you should be able to discern it.

Phrasing and Rhythm:

There is a rhythm to the way people write.  I see this plainly in Shakespeare's plays.  I can feel the movement and the scene unfolding by listening with my inner senses to the rhythm of the words. The way the words are linked together in phrasing has a certain feel that differs from his contemporaries.

Read with Diversity:

So, reading anything can give you information, inspiration, intoxication and increase your imagination.  Don’t become fixated on reading poems to try to improve your poetry.  Read anything that interests you.  Perhaps you like mysteries or Stephen King novels, but write very lyric poems.  Without judgment, go with the rhythm of the words fluttering around in your brain, heart and soul.  They will come forth in your own special style.  

Write with Diversity:

We are wordsmiths, are we not?  Just as a blacksmith must know how to make various tools and objects, so must a writer.  I dabble in several different forms of writing and differing genres.  Writing poems strengthens my writing skills for other forms and vice versa.  

Stretch your wings and see where reading can take you.  

Regain Inspiration and/or Creative Focus

What can a creative person do when there is little inspiration and even less focus for their craft?

Well, some may go on retreats or hide away.  Some may turn to stimulants or drugs to push away the world, listen to music or steep themselves in a favorite pastime.  What an individual does when inspiration or focus are gone is as individual as the individual.  Some, like me, may turn a bit silly and say or write silly things to get the juices flowing again.

In this regard, I created the following ludicrous poem in an attempt to start typing on the old keyboard for a totally creative purpose.  My endeavor was to make myself rhyme and count syllables.  Neither of these are things I practice when I write poetry.  I tend to let the form and manner of my writing be dictated by what I am attempting to convey in the work.

So take this little ditty as a form of inspiration to inspire you to get past those moments when inspiration is on holiday.

Rhyming Fun Counting Syllables

Kimberly L McClune

April 10, 2015

Home alone,

Alone at home

Never on the telephone (7)

Seeing things that I am shown (7)

High and low

Low is high

Perhaps way up in the sky (7)

Going there where I can fly (7)

Thinking now

Then I think

Knowing that I think I know (7)

Thinking that I know I think (7)

Above below

Below above

Many things that I can show (7)

Showing all the things I know (7)

Truth or lie

Lying truth

Do you think that you are sly? (7)

Lying as you travel by (7) 

Now that you've had a good laugh at my expense, or now believe me to be totally insane, I bet you feel a little better about that lapse in creativity you've been struggling with.  Take heart in knowing that you’re not alone. 

Keep writing, or doing whatever creative activity charges your soul with life energy.  The above poem at least brought a smile to my face and heart through the mere act of creating it.  I could go on writing about this and you could go on reading, or we could both stop right now and get on with it, now that we’re inspired of course! 

Enjoy your creativity! J

PUBLISHED AGAIN!!!

Well, two days after the first publication announcement I received my second publication announcement.  Poetry Quarterly has published a dual issue.  They combined their Winter and Summer issues in what they call their "Tricky" or "Sneaky" Issue.  My other two poems, Passionate and Under a Cloud Speckled Sky are both in this double issue.

http://poetryquarterly.com/?page_id=7
This link is where you can go to check out this issue and see my work.  The issue is only available for free for a short time, but can be purchased as well.  Of course I have a copy of both this and the previous Spring Issue.

I have shared these with my Writers Circle and received a nice response from all of them in congratulations for being published for the first time, even in an online journal.

Personally, I consider it a great honor and opportunity to be published alongside award winning poets and the other wonderful talents that I have read in both of these issues.  I strongly recommend any of the issues from this site to anyone who enjoys poetry.

Unfortunately, my job search, studying my online grant proposal writing course, watching my friends son and working a weekend job are keeping me from doing much writing this summer.  I miss putting my thoughts on paper, or in a Word document.  Every once in a while I will take out a sheet of paper where ever I am and jot down some phrases, but nothing complete has been written for a few months.

I consider myself in a time of living.  So much has been happening and there is so much to write about.  When things have percolated long enough and are ready, the writing will come.  That's kind of how poetry is for me.  When the thoughts/words are there, I write them down.  I find that if I try too hard to find the words for a poem in the first writing, then the poem will never come together for me.  I can go back and re work a poem to get it just right, but it has to be congealed at its first writing.

Enough about my writing style for now.  Suffice it to say that I am extremely proud and excited to be published.  If this year ends and I am still unemployed, I will at least end the year having reached a goal outstanding since childhood, to be published.

Good evening and good writing.

PUBLISHED!!!

Well, the time has come at last.  I'm published!

After submitting a few poems to Poetry Quarterly over a year or so, they chose four of my poems to include in their publications this year.  Two of them are in their Spring Issue.  Check it out on their site.

http://poetryquarterly.com/?page_id=7

My two are together on pages 17 & 18.  Smoke and High Rise Thunder.

This has been such a tumultuous year for me that the news of this and then seeing them in the publication brought me to happy tears.  What a joy to see this culmination of my loving work to knit together words into meaningful, thought provoking phrases that would be read by more than just my friends and family.

Today, for me, a dream has truly come to be.  Right now I feel that if I never had another piece published, I have at least touched some lives with my words.  However, I know that in a few days I will be inspired to submit more material to Poetry Quarterly, and even to other publications.

So I invite you to go to the site for this wonderful digest of poetry and enjoy any of their issues that are still available for free or subscribe to them or purchase any issues.  This is a favorite place for me to go to read current poets.

Hope I can sleep tonight!!!
Big Smiles at my house tonight!!

Revised poem post

Below is the final revision of a recent poem. 

Join a Writer's Circle at a local library.  The ladies in the group are nice, fun and appear to be quite talented.  This is a very good opportunity to share your work, any genre is accepted.  I'm looking forward to the next meeting, the first week of August.  Presenting the following poem for critique.  Hope you enjoy it.

High Rise Thunder

By Kimberly L. McClune

May 24, 2011

Muffled rumbling,

Long and low across the sky,

Resounds.

Sustained drum roll,

Resonant explosive charge

Detonates in the air.

Sepulchral vibrations,

Dampened roars

Linger, echoing into the distance.

Growling barrage

Reverberates, shrouded and soft

As the storm slowly abates.

Hoarse peal of thunder,

Murky and inhibited,

Fades, cloaked in dull clouds.

Restrained whispers,

The stifled booms,

Choked and Distorted,

Remove to the hills

Beyond the soggy,

Sodden landscape.