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Weekly Poetry Stuffage
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Week 144 (November 9-16). Poems. Topic: Guitar Strings
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Wow! All the poems this week are really beautifully written. I'm glad I'm dropped by just right in time for the polls. Not sure which I liked best though. I like them all! But since I love play of words, I think I know which one I'd go for... :)
Great work, everyone!
Paula Tohline wrote: "Got here late, so this is not an entry, just a "toss in" because it came to me of a sudden, courtesy of my muse, "Poly."Loss and Gain
Paula, that's beautiful. The first two stanzas are so wistful and I love the repeating words. Then the third stanza causes a breath to hitch when I realize why the earlier tone was wistful. The last stanza just got me teary! Loved it.
My favorite line:
It plays on, still
callousing my fingertips with memories.
M wrote: "The Acorns of Past SeasonsHe fell from the cedar beside the stone lodge,
his mouldering pages stacked in the garage
M.--wow! I loved everything about this poem. So much imagery! And a sad nostalgia...I wish I knew more about them.
Shayma wrote: "Homeless and luckyI found these guitar strings laying about.
I wondered who would throw them out.
Another poem to tug my heartstrings! I love that the poem ends on a positive note.
These are my favorite lines:
When I was six we were thrown out from our loving warm house that we cared not about.
No family to love us or talk about,
For our parents are dead and we are without, a loving warm house to walk about.
Ahh! So sad and sing-songy...
Thomas (Marimbapanda) wrote: "So... I don't play guitar (Unless Guitar Hero counts...) so I really do not know what to write. I will try my best.Just a Few Strings
I have been pounded
And struck.
Flicked violently with
A pluck..."
Thomas, that rocked! The first stanza is my favorite. It reminds me of song lyrics--actually the whole poem did. It left me thinking. Loved the structure, too.
Ajay wrote: "*Rock Baby
Strewn:
Heaps of
shackled lyrics...."
Ajay, your poem is so full of imagery and just feels good in my mouth. I love the word play and the repeating sounds throughout. Loved it!
Ryan wrote: "Rose StreetSitting on that balcony
with guitars on our laps
and beer by our feet, ..."
Ryan, so nostalgic! I loved this poem and the structure of it, especially with the two ending lines standing alone to remind us that everything's fleeting.
This is my favorite stanza:
A world away
from the pain of today
and the melancholy
that remains
as slowly but surely, each dream fades.
Wow!
Alex (Al) wrote: "Though he was coldBy Al
His hands were cold but yet he played somehow
the guitar's strings worn out and old..."
Al, I can see why you were tearing up in a public place after posting this. I cried! That's it, right there. You wrought that emotion out of me. I loved it.
Thank you Kate! I probably wouldn’t have come up with anything for this week, if it hadn’t been for an exercise someone posted in another group I’m in. You make a list of ten names of people. They don’t have to be people you know or who are currently living, merely real people. Then, for each name, you write something about it. For instance, the first name in my list was Mike Ryba, a baseball player who was killed when he fell while cutting a tree limb on an old estate he owned, where there was a house made of stone. The fourth name in list was Jeanette Jurado, a singer in a group called Expose, popular in the late 1980’s. Jurado sang the lead in “Seasons Change,” so in Line 4, I came up with a reference to seasons.
M wrote: "Thank you Kate! I probably wouldn’t have come up with anything for this week, if it hadn’t been for an exercise someone posted in another group I’m in. You make a list of ten names of people. They ..."That is such a neat exercise, and look what it inspired you to write. Wow. If you don't mind my asking, what group? I'm trying to discipline myself into writing on a daily basis. I'm not there yet, but these groups on Goodreads have really been helping me. I'm writing a novel, and the shorter forms are great to get my juices flowing and just--fun.
It’s a splinter group that came into being a couple of years ago when there was an upheaval of sorts in the Poetry group. It’s very private and serious! I’m the group’s misfit. I don’t participate much and am surprised they haven’t thrown me out.It might be interesting to do one of the W.S.S.’s weekly poetry contests using a formula, like the one with ten names.
I like the W.S.S. better than any other writing group I’ve ever been in. My biggest problem is motivation. Interaction here has motivated me to write a lot of stuff! It’s the opposite effect, it seems to me, of a workshop approach, the purpose of which is to strip writing of its individuality, to make writing uniform.
M, again you have described the difference between the two groups perfectly, and in a way I hadn't thought of before. (I am also a misfit and largely quiet member of that group.)I do WAY more writing here in the WSS than the other one (or any other one). And it is because in the WSS I am with a group of people for whom creative expression is the most important thing, and publication less so or not even a consideration. Hmmm. I hadn't fully made that association in my mind, that I am not really motivated in my creative expression by thoughts of being published. Interesting.
Thank you, M, for helping me to that insight.
While everyone is saying thank you, Kate, I'll say "Thank you, Kate," too, but add, "Thank you all!" You are wonderful to bounce my trivia off of, and to offer encouragement when needed. Glad I found you. I grew tired of playing the "show and tell" game elsewhere.
M wrote: "It’s a splinter group that came into being a couple of years ago when there was an upheaval of sorts in the Poetry group. It’s very private and serious! I’m the group’s misfit. I don’t participate ..."M--LOL! How could they toss you when you write like that?
Anyway, I gotcha. Yeah, I'm not too "serious" about it, but maybe one day I will be again. I used to be really into poetry, but that haiku I wrote for the morgue contest a half hour before the midnight deadline was the first poem I've written in, oh, I don't know, 15 or more years. I do love to write poetry, so I'm hoping to use it more as a creative exercise to get my writing-self flowing.
Guy raises a point about this group and creative expression that I think is really key. I remember reading about an author who said he finally started getting published after he found a critique partner that agreed to only exchange positive feedback on each other's work for a long period of time. That just caused the two to do more of the good writing and less of the bad and they evolved organically into great writers and, subsequently, started getting published. I think that would work great for people who can only focus on criticism that discourages them. This group is kind of like that. You can ask for critique, but you can also just post your writing in the contests and only get the positive feedback. How awesome!
I just read through the collection of poems. And again I find myself feeling better about being alive and a member of the human species. The sad poems, the playful ones, all are unique and creative and inspiring.Thank you everyone for creating another great week of creative writing. And for making the choice a difficult one.
Thank you everyone for participating!Ajay came in first place, Kate came in second, M arrived at third, Thomas and Al tied at fourth, and Ryan, Paula Tohline, and Shayma came in fifth.
No problem. I figured I should do something mod-like since I've been busy and MIA for so long.
Yes, thank you Stephanie, for updating all the various threads with the results. Something I am definitely lax about doing.
Oh, it was really no problem. I wasn't doing much so I thought I'd go and do that. I'll probably do more tomorrow.
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