Samantha Beardon's Blog, page 53

Flying…cutting edge design

Cutting edge design?

If so it’s a crime

I get the need to streamline

To make everything compact

To reduce weight, that’s a fact  

I understand that first class gets the whizz

The smaller the space, the more  the design should fizz

So why,in lower classes, on planes

Do you feel a maniac has had the reins?

Paying less, unimportant guest? 

Why are the buttons for recline

On the inside of the arm, is that fine?

Unless stick thin they are hard to reach

Become a contortionist ,balance on one cheek

The remote for the screen, again on the inside is seen

Natty design the table folds away 

Hard to extract and then fold up the tray

Where are the instructions for how it all works?

For us less techno savvy burkes

Even in economy plus, you need to limbo

When leaving your seat, ok if a nimbo

With little space who needs a coat hook 

Something more useful would be better in my book

Cutting edge design?

As you can tell I have flown recently and was not overjoyed by the experience…and thus inspired! 

Flying

Washed up on an island paradise 

Needing to leave,this land of rum and spice

Four thousand miles at least to travel

How to fix, its  a conundrum, to unravel

From the Carib sea so lush and blue

To the grey cold world of the North Sea true

Sailing in a boat would take too long 

 and storms might make the journey wrong

We need to soar and fly like a bird

It’s a possible scenario,so I have heard

A metal contraption fitted with wings 

and engines, flaps plus wheels and things

Will take to the sky with a heavy load

Fly over oceans high in the air in extreme cold

In a shuddering can tricked out for sitting

We find ourselves airborne, it’s only  fitting  

The inside divided into several classes

Strapped into seats by the crew, our masters

They give us drinks they bring us food

To keep us happy to lighten our mood

A screen and headphones for entertainment 

In a vibrating can  there is no abatement

How can one sleep or concentrate 

The plane it bumps, the aircon grates

Those lauding flying might overstate

The virtues and comfort of this real estate

In serried ranks three hundred people squat 

Waiting for landing and a time best forgot.

Last night I flew home from Barbados on a crowded plane, tired, unable to sleep

Mass transportation

Mass transportation has its place

It moves around the human race

Not with comfort style and grace

But with expediency that we can trace

A definate boon, an interface  

Moving us long distances in hours not days

Space and comfort a premium, that money pays 

The juddering jet, held up by spells

The ferry sailing the rolling swells

The train with commuters bulging out

The bus thats missing from along its route

We need the beasts that roar and rock

Some are quiet with any luck

Mass transportation has its place

It moves around the human race

Funchal

​Sunshine on the hillside glinting houses white 

Bouganvillia near the dock glowing ever bright

Cable cars into the sky an orderly procession

Giving stunning views,though safety an obsession

Tobogans flying down the hills, tourists terrify

Flowers in the market, our senses electrify

Maderia wine on offer, plucked from the vine 

So many types to try, free tasting,  so divine

Walking on pictured,cobbled, pavements 

Past Birds of Paradise ,such an amazement

The world is ever bright

 sunshine on the hillside Glinting houses white

Visiting Funchal a veritable delight

The stresses on words and the rythmn of poetry

​The best way to read poetry is aloud. 

The choice of words the amount of syllables and the arrangement of lines will dictate the rhythm

The time taken to say the word will depend on the amount of syllables and where the stress lies. 

Punctuation affects rhythmn .

Line stops or the running of two lines into the other…also in speech the normal pause for a breath will change the way we read the lines.

We always use natural stress but learning and accent sometimes changes where the stresses go.

With writing one needs to stick to where the natural stresses are in words unless writing a poem in dialect

Where is the natural stress for you in the following words?

Credit  credit, controversy, controversy British British ??

Sometimes the stress will change according to the meaning or nature of the word. 

Some times circumstances will change circumstances

 For example if you took the Dr Seuss Poem  Green Eggs and Ham. You might read it so the stresses go like this:

 i DO not EAT green EGGS and HAM  

If you placed the stresses elsewhere, it might change the meaning of the poem:

 I do NOT eat GREEN eggs AND ham.

 This might suggest that the character would eat them separately but not together and it would not go with the rest of the poem. If you translated this stress change into sound it might go like this

 I do NOT eat GREEN eggs AND ham. 

DUM da DUM da DUM da DUM da. 

In terms of inflection in the first example the line ends on a rising tone in the second on a lowering tone. 

American English and British English often put different stresses on words and although there is some commonality there are also distinct differences. 

It needs some thought if writing for an international audience. Does it matter ?

What do you think? 

Happy Valentines Day.

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Poetry

​Poetry 

An imaginative awareness  of experience expressed through meaning  ,rhythmn and language choices to create an emotional experience.

Meaning and emotion through words

Poetry is innate because of the way we learn language which is through sound and repetition before we can read or write…

Its innate because if the natural rythms within our body. 

Poetry greek origin … Closely tied to those roots of our language. 

Poetry is designed to be read out loud

In speech we move air through through muscular activity speech is a whole body experience ….so if you read aloud you read and interprete the words,convert to sounds

So when we express ourselves verbally and we want to create a message we use sounds that we vary in pitch and tone…We emphasise whole words or part of words we also use body language to get our meaning across. 

Poetry is written but is meant to be read aloud…it uses words in a concentrated fashion to enhance and highlight the rhythmns of speech and meaning. 

When reading poetry the brain accesses knowledge of language knowledge of sound and your previous experiences of sensations and feelings. In prose and stories choice of language is important but is used differently to poetry. In a story you will get an ebb and flow of language in  poetry that ebb and flow needs to be managed. In a story you need to move the story on in poetry you want your message to be savoured. 

Attracted

I am attracted to your light

Like a moth to a flame

A shining beacon held tight

That I cant penetrate

I feel your spirit near me

So tantalising close

I let my essence flow free

so we mingle close

As we dance the air dreamy

our essence entwined

We share so deeply

It cant be defined

Our bodies are longing

our souls find a way

To bridge times crossing

For our minds to hold sway

Without ever touching you

I find myself drawn

To the part thats so true

Though it has no form

Though you will never be mine

In a tangible way

My heart is a shrine

Where you can stay

I am attracted to your light

Devices used by poets. 1.

​Poets use a range of musical and figurative devices to achieve their effects. Some of these effects relate to the rhythm and metre ( meter) of the words. In poetry, the meter (or metre) is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse. 

The study of the rhythm, stress, and pitch (or intonation) of speech is called prosody.

 Meter.( Measure)

Meter mimics and heightens the rhythms of our speech, it comes from within the poem, within the words, and is a very powerful tool. Meter is the musical element that involves the stresses of words and the arrangement of those words next to another to create a pattern. This works in the same way that musical composition works. Music is the organisation of sounds and silences – Meter is the organisation of soft and loud sounds (or stressed and unstressed syllables). 

There are different tyoes if recognised meter.

The most typical meter used in classical English poetry is ten beats  or sounds divided into 5 bars (feet).

In this rhythmn the stresses on words go on the second beat. 

di DUM, di DUM ,di DUM, di DUM ,di DUM

Five sets of  sounds repeating like a heart beat 

and  ONE and TWO and THREE and FOUR and FIVE

Here is an example of this rhythmn

He sings a song and makes a dreadful noise

9 words but 10 syllables making 10 stressed sounds as dreadful is a two syllable word.

He sings/a song/and makes/a dread/ful noise.

The syllables of importance are the vowels that  sound, in words some vowels sound some vowels are silent.

An easy trick to find the amount if vowel sounds therefore syllables in a word is to  put your hand under your chin and say the word aloud.Your mouth will open on every stressed vowel sound(syllable).

Try dreadful, vowel, amazing, friendship.

Amazing friendship on the horizon

 Seeing friendship but a life forbidden

Must not look for  more, wishing on a star.

Mystic schemes

​Mystic schemes

Precious dreams

You are there

Buyer beware

Syntillating thoughts 

But a row of noughts

Wishful thinking

Hopes long sinking

You are chasing the new

Leaving me to rue

Mystic schemes

Precious dreams

Maybe really nightmare screams

Smash them all to smithereens

Find a way to recreate

Precious dreams not parlous state.