Libby Weber's Blog, page 17

September 1st: Tensile Strength

As burdens that begin as bearable

Then painfully dig into tender flesh,

So stress can go from fine to terrible

When in the cycle one becomes enmeshed-

As picayune regrets become hot shame,

Unfinished projects build up, unsurmounted.

Inconsequential failures focus blame,

And with perverse precision they’re recounted.

Resistance comes through suitable distraction,

By stimulation of that perfect place

Within the brain that spurs it into action-

Familiar motions harmful thoughts replace.

When smothered by th...

August 31: Creative Process

Step one: think. Step two: write ideas down.

Step three: outline. Analysis: step four.

Step five, get feedback. Step six: shop around

For comments. Seven: ask for more.

And eight: publish or perish or submit.

That’s it. That’s really all you have to do

Unless it’s deemed your efforts are unfit,

Necessitating scrupulous review.

But if you read and find that what you wrote

Is truth- precisely what you wished to say;

Consider: prescience it may denote-

Its zenith may be reached another day.

Time and fecundi...

August 30: Two-Ton Golden Retriever

Though Ogden Nash called you a homely beast

And intimated you’re preposterous

I do not find you either in the least,

You perfect, ponderous, single-horned rhinocerous.

So fond of praise and petting you endure

With your prehensile upper lip, high fives

By which sweet turnip slices you procure,

Though they are not essential to survive.

Yet thanks to those who think your horn is magic

Though it’s composed of only keratin,

Which makes up hair and fingernails, it’s tragic;

Your numbers dwindle, to the world’...

August 29: Something Like a Star

The beauty of a star is best admired

Through distillation of the atmosphere,

So purest light may grateful eyes inspire

When it in darkened firmament apppears.

Though from a distance it may seem perfection

A star might crush you with its gravity,

Starve you in shadow with its pale reflection,

Or burn you with its light’s intensity.

Scorn not your ideal orbit of the sun

Whose brightness feeds your body, mind, and soul.

Though season pass as revolutions run

Its warmth and light your weary heart consoles.

Re...

August 28: Do You Want to Write a Sonnet?

As every English student has found out,

A sonnet can be writ by anyone-

From rhyming word pairs inspiration sprouts,

Resulting in a bit of scanning fun,

And pride in saying, “Look at what I wrote!”

Enjoying kinship with great wordsmiths past,

Since, thanks to Shakespeare, sonnets form connotes

Refinement, passion, cleverness, and class.

Now, since you know the baics of the craft,

And your successes cannot but impel

You onward, you are competent to draft

Sestinas, ballads, odes, and villanelles.

Don’t be...

August 27: On Villanelles, or, No Villanelles

It was suggested that my daily sonnet

Is insufficient challenge- I should spread

My wings and place a feather in my bonnet

By writing daily villanelles instead.

The form demands two oft-repeated rhymes

To end five three-line stanzas, two refrains,

Each of which is repeated several times

And finally finished off with a quatrain.

To write just five more lines in every day

Might seem a fairly trivial expansion,

But repetitious forms bring me dismay,

As well as fewer rhymes and unclear scansion.

While villan...

August 26: The Yoke is Easy

As one who walks two dogs when one dog balks

And lags behind to seek enticing scents,

The other pulling forward as she stalks

Her feline quarry, such is the suspense

Of living with one foot firmly on earth,

Accepting obligations of that life,

Though dull, because one understands the worth

Of duty when it minimizes strife-

But at such times the striving soul will see

Those who have made a living at their dreams

And disregard pernicious jealousy

Which whispers that it’s perfect as it seems.

To know no life...

August 25: Ad Lib

Through force of Will came sonnets into being,

Deliberately chosen as a form

Requiring glibness, and perhaps foreseeing

The poem’s liberation from the norm-

Instead of celibate and mannered verse,

That rarely touches on libidinous matter,

These sonnets are both liberal and perverse;

A library of flippancy and smatter.

Like Caliban on Sycorax’s isle,

I take great liberties to claim descendence,

With quodlibets, the mantle of Will’s style,

Though fallible to pride and lacking essence.

My caliber’s discerni...

August 15: Ad Lib

Through force of Will came sonnets into being,

Deliberately chosen as a form

Requiring glibness, and perhaps foreseeing

The poem’s liberation from the norm-

Instead of celibate and mannered verse,

That rarely touches on libidinous matter,

These sonnets are both liberal and perverse;

A library of flippancy and smatter.

Like Caliban on Sycorax’s isle,

I take great liberties to claim descendence,

With quodlibets, the mantle of Will’s style,

Though fallible to pride and lacking essence.

My caliber’s discerni...

August 24: A Deep Breath

To breathlessly anticipate new faces

And tales carved out from layers of history

With playfulness in interstitial spaces

While solving a dramatic mystery,

But then receive a quite familiar setting,

Recurring characters, gambits, and tropes,

As well scale issues that could use vetting-

Was it constructed just to dash my hopes?

What cynic put such petty thoughts inside

The womens’ heads and had them fight in leather,

Thus stopping them from walking alongside

The hero? I hope this is no bellwether.

Yet I en...