[Stylist] a poem

Thu Dec 22 15:10:17 UTC 2022

I can't add to what Annie said about form and meter and rhyme because, as was said, "them's the fac's." And, she also makes a great point that you not only need to read lots of kinds of poetry but you need to read about how to write different kinds of poetry. For instance, I didn't learn until recently that at least a number of the early free verse writers were well-steeped in traditional forms. I'm a strchctured rhymer myself. I flee free verse mostly, although Annie and Lynda keep daring me to touch and good for them because I need to challenge. But I also can go contryar to today's wisdom because all the "how to" writer's say writer like you would speak and I love the wordplay of the older writers who didn't do that. I not only look for the imagery of the pictures the words paint but for the beauty in how the words fit together.

 Hammel
We are all but characters in the books of God’s library. — Chris Colfer

On Dec 21, 2022, at 07:47, Richard R. Thomas via Stylist <stylist at nfbnet.org> wrote:

I liked it.
I like the use of the image of shifting, wind blown sand crystals.
They form shapes and go in only 1 direction as does time.
And, as I think she is musing on,  time is the conductor of all things and events as we watch, listen with appreciation, to the music of the spheres as it were.
Again, prettyinteresting use of imagery.
I have wondered about technical breakdowns of some of these poems as to meter.
How do the various authors count various syllabols and various linguistic helper words.
Is it even  important in todays free-wheeling poetry environment?
I really don’t know and have been writing my lyrics as a sort of rhyming prose to avoid the complexities of formal structure but do want to do things quite well so am asking.
I don’t mean any criticism, just interested in what you pros do or appreciate when reading a poem so I can apply current norms to my song lyrics.
Thanks Ann and other writers:
Richard R. Thomas (Rick USA)

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From: Ann Chiappetta via Stylist<mailto:stylist at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2022 4:20 PM
To: Writers' Division Mailing List<mailto:stylist at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Ann Chiappetta<mailto:anniecms64 at gmail.com>
Subject: [Stylist] a poem

Origin of Planets
Jennifer Foerster
In this version, the valley
lime green after rain
rolls its tides before us.

A coyote bush shivers with seed.

We hold out our palms as if catching snow—
our villages of circular tracts
overcast with stars.

We have been moving together in sequence
for thousands of years, paralyzed
only by the question of time.

But now it is autumn under bishop pines—
the young blown down by wind feed
their lichens to the understory.

We follow the deer-path
past the ferns, to the flooded
upper reaches of the estuary.

The channel snakes through horsetails
and hemlock as the forest deepens, rises
behind us and the blue heron,
frozen in the shallows.

The shadow of her long neck ripples.

Somewhere in the rustling tulle reeds
spider is casting her threads to the light

and we spot a crimson-hooded fly agaric,
her toadstool’s gills white
as teeth as the sun
                bleeds into the Pacific.

We will walk the trail
until it turns to sand
and wait at the spit’s edge, listening
to the breakers, the seagulls
as they chatter their twilight preparations.

What we won’t understand
about the sound of the sea is no different
than the origin of planets

or the wind’s crystalline structures
irreversibly changing.

The albatross drags her parachute
over the earth’s gaping mouth.

We turn back only for the instant
the four dimensions fold
into a sandcastle—before its towers
are collapsed by waves.

The face that turns
toward the end of its world
dissolves into space—

despite us, the continuum
remains.

Ann M. Chiappetta, M.S.
Making Meaningful ConnectionsThrough Media
914.393.6605 USA
Anniecms64 at gmail.com<mailto:Anniecms64 at gmail.com>
All things Annie: www.annchiappetta.com<http://www.annchiappetta.com>

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