A Tale of Love (and Woe) – Lovers' Song #2

Knight #2

Princess #2

---

A note on form and inspiration for this piece:  As stated in my previous post, each of these is a katauta.  Steaming from a ballad I wrote some time ago, the first is a note from the knight and the second is the response from the princess.  While the first pairing utilized the syllable count 5 / 7 / 5 (similar to a haiku–though this form predates the haiku), this pairing is offered up in (from what I've read) the more traditional 5 / 7 / 7.

A Tale of Love (and Woe) – Lovers' Song #1

Princess #1

Knight #1

---

Inspiration for this piece:  I'm not sure what possessed me last night, but I decided to refresh my memory (by reading) of a ballad that I wrote quite some time ago.  What had started out as a simple prompt from One Stop Poetry's Form Monday, turned into quite an ordeal.  I wrote my first ever ballad on February 7, 2011 called A Tale of Love and Woe:  The Knight.  Crazy me, who doesn't much care for rhyme or strict meter, wrote a piece that was - in effect - unfinished.  During February, I added an additional two acts; March saw Act IV; May unearthed Act V; June and July both sprouted two more acts a piece; with everything coming to a head in the September with the last two acts...and I might add a very pathetic ending...by that time, I was quite exhausted of writing in ballad form (seriously don't read the end...you'll only be disappointed).

Anyway...the two pieces above are a branch off of my ballad, A Tale of Love and Woe.  In this (potential series) collection, the two main characters, dubbed knight and princess, correspond with one another in short notes back and forth.  This particular pairing speaks to the twos first meeting during Act III, where the knight lost in a state of defeat (which unknown to him was caused by the princess - Act II) meets the princess by the side of pond where he is skipping stones.


A note on form:  I chose to explore a form that really has little (or sporadic) history.  Part of a long line of ancient Japanese forms from which come the sedōka, choka, and tanka is the katauta.  From what I have read this poem (also known as a half-poem or half-song), is either 17 (5 / 7 / 5)or 19 (5 / 7 / 7) syllables long.  The feeling I get is that this form is meant to be one half of a conversation...perhaps two lovers conversing back and forth.  There is also note of this form consisting of a question-and-answer feel; the first poem posing the question, while the second poem answers it.  As there is little really out there about this form, I start to get into muddy waters where it links up with the sedōka, which is basically two 5 / 7 / 7 katauta together.  (I have explored this form in the past.)

For this first installment (assuming there will be others), I chose 5 / 7 / 5 - which is similar to the haiku but does not have the same elemental restraints.  My thoughts were that a pair initiated by the princess would follow the 17 syllable pattern (to which the knight would reply in kind) and when initiated by the knight would follow the 19 syllable pattern (to which the princess wold reply in kind).  I suppose only time will tell if this turns out to be something more than what it is.


Resources on katauta and other ancient Japanese forms:

• Shadow Poetry
• Waka (poetry) on Wikipedia
• Encyclopaedia Britannica
• Poet's Corner blog - Matt Wollacott - Katauta: Getting Witty with Half-Songs

Poets Anonymous

Hi.  I'm RMP

  &
        I'm a Poet 
                            (((Hi RMP!)))
I'm not sure when
                                or how
it started - but
I have pieces dating back to 1990.
so...
        10...
                20...
                         twenty-four years.

*sigh*  I can't say when
                        precisely
I got (air quotes) hooked,
but it was a (de)vice
I could call upon when the words failed me
  &
words
            often failed me.

I was/am
what I like to call a bottler

and poetry has allowed me
to take those poisons & expel them
lay them bare at my feet
so I might step over them and
move on for a month...
                                      a week...
                                                     a day...

Eventually, like any drug,
the effects wore off
quicker & quicker

and each time the storm threatened to
shake my nerves to the core
I'd (air quotes) write up

& poetry has always been my
          drug of choice
providing an escape from this world
stilling the caos

          a multifaceted drug
purifying the toxins within

         (pure oxygen reminding me to breathe)

every once in awhile I'd quit
go long spans of time with nothing

                    nothing

the voices in my head buzzing too
loud for me to make sense of
    or
too overwhelming to the point of not
                                                                 caring.

I've been dry now for too long & I'm jonesing
for a fix.

That's why I'm here
           to
                listen
as your words permeate the air
infusing images
               scents
               tastes
              desires
throughout the room
gathering in the rafters
where I can
                     draw them to me
                     fill my lungs
                     awaken my senses
                         &
                     smother the voices so I might

breathe...
                just
                        breathe

& maybe, if I'm lucky, unleash the build up
of impurities running through my veins & threatening
my being.

---

A bit of ramblings:  I began this piece sometime after about a month into a "break" in my writing.  It didn't really get very far...the piece not the "break."  While I have technically written a handful of pieces (I've dubbed poetics due to the app I use to create them), from the start of August to mid-February I have been silent.  As I mention in the piece this is not all that unusual.  I have often gone through phases, but each time I find my way back.  The difference is in the past I was never so conscience of the silence.  I'm not 100% sure what brought me back, but it did begin with visiting and reading a variety of voices...silently sitting at the Sidewalk Cafe just absorbing.  Eventually, I found myself stepping back through the doors...opening up my notebook & writing.  Since, I have been making a conscience effort to write and (even more so) visit & read what others have to offered.

But back to this piece...while I started this past July, I (after finding my way back) decided it was time to finish it up.  I had thought to have it up for last weeks OLN, but time got away from me and while I had added quite a bit more to it, I only managed to finish it today.  Maybe it's better this way...I probably would have help off until I could almost guarantee that I'd be the last one in the door (less people around then) and ended holding my breath instead of doing as the poem says and "breathe...  just breathe..."

Yet another hurdle in my poetic journey to added to the list.

Buried Deep (& Yet to Break the Surface)

---

A bit of rambling:  This is all I have.  I started a piece...more than started really...but I can't bring myself to finish it, let alone post it.  And so this is all I can offer up at the moment in response to the Poetics prompt for this week over at dVerse Poets Pub.  And maybe this is enough.  I tweeted this approximately a year after starting my previous (and first) blog, ...don't open...don't throw away... after reflecting on the my first year actively posting my poetry (and other ramblings) on the blogosphere.  In many ways, that year I stepped outside of myself.  I would say that makes this a pertinent revelation in my poetic evolution.

Sevenling (She believes in...)

She believes in happily ever after, in
monsters under the bed, & objects imbued
with magic ("Mirror, Mirror on the wall...)

She fears falling in love, the monster
buried deep within, & looking at her own
reflection ("Who is the fairest of them all?")

She only lets her heart roam free when the full moon graces the evening sky.

---

A note on form:  This, as the title so eloquently states, is a sevenling.  From the moment I first came across this form to the several times I've been exposed to it since, I still don't feel like I really have a handle on this form.  The guidelines seem to vague to me and no matter how many times I read about the form or see examples I still feel at a loss.  Of course, that doesn't stop me form making it my own nunetheless.

(in)Visible

There is a line between
you & me

we play hopscotch across it

entering
each other's worlds
yet
never crossing paths

You glimpse a side of me
hidden from the world at large –
those who can touch & see me
or rather the hologram
I project out
so in truth they cannot
see or touch
not really
not more than I will allow

but you & I
connected by + separated by
this line between us

or maybe it's these lines
(perpendicular lines)
allowing me to be – to you –
the opposite reciprocal that
perpendicular lines exist upon

for these lines that lay between
you & me
allow me to be in-tangible

and yet
touched & seen as no one
here
standing beside me can claim

---

Behind the math:  When I first pictured the line in lay across separating like cutting a room in half, then it switched creating a conduit between us.  Together the lines form perpendicular lines.  The interesting thing about perpendicular lines is that their slopes are opposite (one positive, one negative) reciprocals (3/4 vs 4/3).  And somehow this idea just felt fitting to the idea that in one case the touchable was untouchable, the seen was unseen vs. the untouchable being touchable and the unseen being seen.  Anyway, it made sense in my head.  Originally, the way I had fit it in felt wrong...threw off the flow.  And so I was about to get rid of it completely before I managed to find a way for it to fit better within the flow of the piece.

Inspiration for this piece (part 1):  This began with the inkling of a prompt that would be presented at dVerse Poets Pub for their Poetics prompt about invisible.  At first, I thought of the line as the invisible entity, but as the piece moved forward, it took on a new meaning.

Inspiration for this piece (part 2):  This is for all of the insane people (and I mean insane with all the love and affection possible) that visit here.

Flowery Flight

I can connect the dots 'cross the bridge
of her nose just to hear her sweet giggle
bubble around us. 
                               I know she'll shake
her face and scrunch up her nose,
pull back from my reach and twirl
her pink lace layered skirt flaring out
about her as though at any moment
it'll lift her into the air -
                                            a flying petal
propeller spiriting her up as her arms
reach out toward the sky above.

She'll stop mid-twirl, quickly regain her legs
and run back towards me.

"Again!  Again!  Do it again!"

and...

          she'll squirm and giggle as
I count...

"1, 2, 3...over the mountain...4, 5, 6, 7"

before she escapes my grasp once again
soaring in carefree giggly delight.

---

A bit of rambling and Inspiration for this piece:  There is a reason I write poetry.  I don't much care for the detail that goes along with writing lengthy prose.  Building a scene or developing a character is wordy and poetry well I admit it has its moments, but for the most part siphons of most of the unnecessary.  I've managed lengthy prose, but that's mainly because I quite enjoy the dialogue and the moments and emotions I can conjure up with dialogue.

The reason I mention any of this is because I find it hard enough to develop a character when faced with lengthy prose, the idea of doing so within the confines of poem seems crazy.  Not that it can't be done.  I have read some amazing pieces where a character can seamlessly be brought to life through poetry.  I think the underlying problem is that I just don't "look" at people...fear tied to social anxiety; I have a unwritten piece entitle "Selective Blindness" that speaks to this, but that's besides the point.  Anyway...

With the prompt over at dVerse Poets Pub for this week's Meeting the Bar, being about creating a character through a poem...this here is my feeble attempt at capturing a character through poetry.