The sea is wild today,
swept up by the winds,
and I can't really see
if it's low tide or high.
It doesn't matter,
the regularly irregular
sound of water crashing
onto sand calms me,
puts me in a trance almost
while the wind sweeps
the dusty debris from
the corners of my head.
And from that emptiness I
find the seeds of new ideas.
A sonnet of sorts, this is. Ever since I found And Now, A Sonnet, I’ve been experimenting with the American sonnet form. I’m not sure I fully grasped it yet, but trying it out is fun. Learning by doing. Even if I never will master the art of writing American sonnets, the experimenting, the trying, the playing; it all will help me improve as a poet.
The same goes for other parts of life. Whether it’s your profession or your hobby or any other part of what makes you you, experimenting with new or different ways of doing the things you love to do helps you to understand what works for you, and what doesn’t.
So, what will you be trying out next?
Read on for Something to listen to and Poetry elsewhere!
Something to listen to
Our podcast is growing to be a wonderful collection of short conversations with poets about their work and the world in general. So many wonderful poets have spoken with me already. With one of them, Raffaella Ferretti, I spoke about a poet we lost. Michael. Listen to the episode here:
I like transport by rail. Whether it’s the grand stations or riding the métro in Paris, it all inspires an urge to travel. Or enjoy it as travel. Here’s a poem I wrote inspired by travelling underground:
And of course, there is our eclectic playlist for August, foraged by hand for you:
For those of you who can’t wait for their next travel adventure, here’s a collection of 27 poems that takes you all across Europe. You can buy if for only $9:
Poetry elsewhere
The fun thing about syllabic poems is that you can string them together to create a longer one. An expert in this is Bob Metivier, his poem Clearly just one example.
When you write haiku, you will sooner or later run into someone who tells you yours is not a true haiku, because x, y or z. This tired me so much, that I created my own poetic form. Others simply show they are great poets by playing with the ‘rules’ to fit the poem they want to create. Just like The Bard did. In this case, Amy writes about the moon, the sun and a dove. The poem about the dove is special. Read Sunburst & Moon-sleep:
Imagine what the other side sees or thinks when they look at you. Now imagine that the other side is a squirrel. The multi-talented David Cohen, AKA Doodleslice, has imagined precisely that meeting between a human and a squirrel. The result: a beautiful poem (with wonderful illustration) titled Squirrel Eyed. You can even collect it if you have some Tezos left.
Thank you for mentioning Clearly here! This is a fun blog to follow!
Great post as always - loved the sonnet!