Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Short Love Poems And How To Write Them By Edward Weiss

Edward Weiss

Looking for a way to write short love poems? Look no further than haiku poetry! Haiku may be the shortest living poetry in the world! In just a few words, an entire sentiment can be expressed. But how to write them you ask? It's easy! Look at this short love poem:


Spring breeze --
her hand accidentally
grazes mine


Here we have a scene where we know what time of year it is. We also know the kind of day it is... breezy. Now, the next two lines describe an event that takes place in 'real time.' Because that's what haiku is all about. It's about present moment occurrences. What could be more immediate and suggestive of love than what is taking place as it's taking place?


To write haiku, you have to learn how to rid yourself of western poetic devices like analogy, simile, and metaphor. Haiku seek to describe events in simple and plain language. You have to get good at writing what haiku poet Ray Rasmussen has aptly called 'first-order sense mind impressions.' This somewhat long way of describing how to write haiku simply means you need to look at what's going on now, not what's happening in the past or what may happen in the future.


For example, the phrase 'her hand accidentally grazes mine' describes an event that is taking place. It doesn't ornament it with flowery language. It simple describes what is happening in the present. Many people think writing haiku is easy. That's because they don't understand how to write haiku. Short love poems the haiku way are a unique way of expressing your feeling for another person. To do it, think first of writing a phrase, then, combine it with a sentence fragment and you've just written your first haiku love poem!


Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=76538&ca=Poetry

Monday, October 26, 2009

Five Easy Steps To Reading A Famous Poem By Gray Ward

Gray Ward

Famous poems are everywhere. They appear in places no one could expect – slogans on television, common sayings and phrases, and the titles of just about every artistic film or endeavor at the local video store. Because famous poems are so transcendent, we rarely if ever notice they are there and even less often realize who wrote them. Why not ensure the proper steps are taken when reading a famous poem then to better appreciate the author, the poem, and the time spent reading it.


Step #1 – Selecting a Famous Poem


Easy as pie, right? It might immediately seem so but finding and selecting a specific famous poem or poet to study can be a bit time consuming. Do you really want to read something that does not interest you? You wouldn’t simply buy a book off of a shelf because the woman at the desk told you it was famous. You would want to know what the book is about. The same is true for poetry.


Most of the famous poems in history are available for free online and can be searched for by topic. If you are interested in a war story, Homer’s Iliad has been enthralling readers for millennia while Shakespeare’s sonnets are beautiful love poems. There are numerous resources for finding that ideal poem.


Step #2 – Who Wrote the Famous Poem


Who is the author of your famous poem? The list of potential names is nearly endless. Here are a few of the biggest and brightest stars of the poetry universe to get you started:


Homer
William Shakespeare
Edgar Allen Poe
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Percy Bysshe Shelley
John Keats
William Wordsworth


The list goes on seemingly forever if you let it. The best way to find an incredible, famous poet is to visit the local bookstore or library and ask for recommendations.


Step #3 – Reading the Poem


Read it carefully and slowly. Simply skimming through a famous poem doesn’t do it justice and will only leave you wondering, why is this so famous? You could read a magazine if you simply wanted text to skim over quickly. Poetry is meant to be absorbed and to absorb it you must read it slowly and methodically.


Step #4 – Contextualizing Famous Poems


When was the famous poem written? What was happening in the world? What major events were coloring the life of its author? These are the questions you should ask when reading a famous poem. Every poem has a story behind it and knowing that story can make the entire experience that much more engaging.


Step #5 – Finding More Poetry


Once you find a famous poem that you enjoy, that strikes the perfect cord, you will want to find more of the same. Luckily, many of the poets listed above have enormous bodies of work. Most local bookstores feature large anthologies of work from most of them as well as combined anthologies with famous poems organized by subject or publication date. If you want to find more poetry, there are dozens of resources to do so.


Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=195323&ca=Poetry

Autumn Poems By Joy Cagil

Joy Cagil

Autumn signals change. It is the season for launching a gentler life and the time for harvesting the fruits sown earlier in the year. The variety of colors that are bound to fade and wither and the cooling weather have always inspired poets.


Here are five poems on autumn by Joy Cagil:


Autumn (A haiku chain)


floating from the sky
scarlet leaves of bitterness
soon the harvest moon


some shrill geese in flight
the brook sluggish like the sap
gold turns sepia


horse chestnuts rolling
over vermilion piles
on the rusty lawn


with final farewells
a lonely heart breaking in
the bare arms of oaks


-----------------


Ballad of the Wind


Among autumn leaves
rustling in thick frenzy,
the wind sees the apple
and rises
with a celestial song.


“Rosy lush lips touching fingertips
on emerald green the chosen palette
come gently sway, to mark the moment,
with luxury of weightlessness.”


Shiny, untouched,
a pigment of impetuous joy,
awakening red, delicious,
floating to the wind’s tune,
welcoming,
the conceit of choice.


“Rosy lush lips touching fingertips
on emerald green the chosen palette
you gently fell, to mark the moment;
did you think the wind would catch you?


The color of dreams fading away,
when grass kneels to cushion the fall
to miss the harvest in a rotten mush,
but upon reflection, it’s worth it all.


More vital than life is
the vanity of a kiss,
if beauty is madness
when the wind blows.”


----------------------


Autumn Rain


The autumn Rain
spread nail polish
over the city
to glitter on
the sidewalks,
asking the flat world
to come alive
and shape up without
stocks and bonds.


But the traffic was hectic
and the people were stacked dominoes.


In frizzled kiosks,
tabloids turned
to paper boats
and went a-sailing
in the gutters,
avoiding haphazard
feet in boots.


Because the traffic was hectic
and the people were stacked dominoes.


Then rain imposed authority
over the umbrellas
with the pitter patter feet of
poetry’s thrust
for a little change in
focus
to create a change in
result.


Still the traffic was hectic
and the people were stacked dominoes.


-----------


On Crabapple Beach


Before Crabapple Beach rolls over
in its sleep to dream
of summer people
who’ll desert it again,
I scoop up the sand inside the arches
of my feet and wander
under the rising moon,
unafraid of the beach bums,
the cool water,
or anything else except
drowning
in the ocean between
me and the world.


Accordingly, I peek
for clues of life inside
well-lighted beach-house windows:
soup steaming on a stove,
white flowers in a coffee mug,
two lovers in an embrace,
slender volumes of verse
on a windowsill,
promising an eternity of simple joys
to souls with private pains.


And I recall a delicate moment
when, on a late autumn night,
on Crabapple Beach,
a little girl penned her first line of poetry,
her first newscast to the world,
with a sigh, as if saying, “I do,”
to a lifelong marriage
of clumsily scribbled words from her spirit,
and she felt the earth move
under her feet,
before overnight-gusts barreled through,
inserting icicles inside the sand.


-----------------


Mute Autumn


They met in a dream
where fireflies flicked in quick farewells
and farmers gathered lush harvests
under a fragile sun.


While rusting leaves wavered between color and reflection,
whispering rumors as they fell,
she warmed her hands by her heart’s fire,
watching him walk up the plank over the pond.
He, a migrating bird; she, a deep-rooted willow,
speechless, deliberating the fusion
of two separate species
in a unique world.


In straw-filled terraces,
never enough nerve to talk,
Delicious, Gala, Rome, Winesap,
Cortland, Jonathan, a windfall crop,
she held up the apples one by one
and crushed them into glistening cider,
trying to charm him with her potion.


In that season of colorful shadows,
so adeptly developed was the illusion’s art,
the emotion so strong, it intimidated the psyche.
Maybe, she froze like the darkened pond,
too full of mystery;
maybe, he didn’t hear her silence.
But then, it was just a dream,
a dream that didn't make allowances
for sleeping.


Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=96745&ca=Poetry

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Five Easy Steps To Finding The Right Birthday Poem By Gray Ward

Gray Ward

So, it’s a friend or family member’s birthday and let’s face it, those corny punch lines already printed on birthday cards just are not going to cut it this year. A solid birthday poem can really push a card over the top, but only if you can find the right words to express what you’re hoping to say. No one wants their birthday poem to be too overt. Of course, no one wants to give their friend a dirty limerick for their birthday poem either.


Step #1 – Find the Right Tone


Birthday poems range in all sizes and shapes, just like people. So, it stands to reason that there should be a perfectly suited poem available for nearly anyone you know. Step one then is to find the right tone for your birthday tone. Is it for your mother, your wife, your husband, your son or daughter, or maybe just a good friend or co-worker. Now, what kind of a poem would that person appreciate?


Step #2 – Humor Goes a Long Way


Even for a spouse or family member, a funny birthday poem can be a light and distracting way to enjoy the annual reminder of how old they are. Jonathan Swift, the author Gulliver’s Travels and one of the English language’s first satirists wrote “Stella’s Birthday” for a woman with whom he frequently corresponded. With the light touch of humor that he imbued into everything he wrote, he reminded her of exactly how old she was:


Stella this day is thirty-four,
(We shan't dispute a year or more:)
However, Stella, be not troubled,
Although thy size and years are doubled,
Since first I saw thee at sixteen,
The brightest virgin on the green;
So little is thy form declin'd;
Made up so largely in thy mind.


Step #3 – Being Wary


Of course, some instances of humor are best left untouched. If someone is particularly touchy about their age, finding a poem that outlines the exact age and then makes comment on the advanced decrepit state of that age is not the best idea. Be considerate even as you seek a light and humorous way to celebrate that most important of days.


Step #4 – For that Special Someone


Birthday poems for a spouse or for a loved one can be a chance to really shine and show how much you love them. They can also be a chance to earn a few extra points with just the right lyrics. Christina Rosetti, a 19th century poet who spent a great deal of her life in and out of depressive states, wrote many beautiful lyrics, including “A Birthday”, a poem dedicated not just to a single birthday, but to the sensation and joy of a birthday as a metaphor for being in love:


Raise me a daïs of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
And peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes,
In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
Is come, my love is come to me.


Step #5 – Delivering the Birthday Poem


After choosing the right words, reading them over and over again and knowing that they fit the birthday boy or girl perfectly, it is time to decide how that birthday poem should be given to them. Humorous poems are best delivered in a card. They can be read over and over, shared with friends and hung upon the refrigerator for future laughs. Loving and personal poems are often better delivered in person, adding that intimate touch that can push a birthday poem over the top. However you decide to deliver it though, poetry on a loved one’s birthday is a wonderful gift.


Resource: http://www.isnare.com/?aid=195322&ca=Poetry