[stylist] A poem that I'm sure needs much work to look likeitssubject matter

[Lynda Lambert]

I think you accomplished what you wanted to do in  this poem, Barbara. I 
really like it very much.  You word choices work well with the theme. I also 
like your notion of collecting words you like. I have been doing that as 
well. There are some particular words that really hit me in a sweet spot 
when  I think of them or hear them.  - I like how they look on the page, how 
the letters in a word work together , and where the word takes me in my 
mind.  On the reverse of that, I also have words that I cannot stand to hear 
when they are spoken, or when I even think of them.  I am making a list of 
those words, too. One day, I will work with my two lists when I can spend 
some time on it.  There are some words that are used all the time that just 
give me a shudder.  Your list of poets at the end has made me stop to think 
awhile on the ones you selected, and why those particular ones, and I am 
still thinking on that.  So you left me with a little bit of a puzzle to 
think about for another time. Lynda

-----Original Message----- 
From: Applebutter Hill via stylist
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2014 2:40 PM
To: 'Barbara Hammel' ; 'Writer's Division Mailing List'
Subject: Re: [stylist] A poem that I'm sure needs much work to look 
likeitssubject matter

Barbara,
Again, I'm no critic of poetry, but I love this. The words themselves have
so much power; what a great idea to keep a list and then feather them out
through a single poem.
Donna

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Barbara
Hammel via stylist
Sent: Monday, October 06, 2014 9:42 AM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] A poem that I'm sure needs much work to look like
itssubject matter

Here's a poem that I have incorporated most of my favorite words from a word
list I've had for years been keeping.

   WOULD THAT I
    By Barbara Hammel

Would that I could write a rhyme
With language that of olden time,
I'd write of fragrant roses blown
And violets by a mossy stone,

I'd write of gentian's bluest eye --
A smallest bit of cerulean sky --
Of columbines all purple dressed
And how the lilacs are the best,

Of hyacinths purple and white and blue,
And how they're kissed by the morning dew.
I'd write of the zephyr that gently blows And how the rainbow brightly
glows,

Would that I could write as they,
The poets of an earlier day.
The words they chose are flowers fair,
They are the spice of mountain air,

They are the fire in precious stones,
And the melodies within twelve tones,
They are the star's eternal flame,
They are Beauty by every name.

A freshly-fallen coat of snow,
The calm of ocean's ebb and flow,
They're constant as a running stream
And faithful as the soft moonbeam.

Would that I were gifted so,
As Bryant, Shelley, Longfellow,
As Riley, Whittier, Dunbar, Keats
As Emerson, Lowell, Guest and Yeats.




Writing free verse is like playing tennis with the net down.--Robert Frost
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