Memories of Snow

NaNoWriMo Day27: My Poetry and Its Inspiration (WC:1697)

Jamál (Beauty), 7 Qawl (Speechr), 173 BE - Sunday, November 27, 2016 AD about 8:00 AM Pacific Standard Time

exceeded my NaNoWriMo word count goal on Saturday, November 26, 2016, by 1,036 words. I could stop now and claim my award; however since (including today) there are four more days left in November I am going to continue writing in this journal. There are several things I need to put into this journal. Yesterday morning I start discussing some of the poems I've written and what inspired them or what I thought inspired them. Therefore for the rest of November I'm going to focus on the poems.

Wildflowers in Bloom was inspired by a documentary on the Las Vegas PBS station channel ten sometime in 1995. I don't remember the name of the documentary or anything else except the beautiful wildflowers that were filmed for that documentary. After looking at the poem, I think it should be a haiku rather than just a straight free verse poem.

Wildflowers In Bloom

Yellow daisies
Waltz in the breeze
White flowers sway

Morning dew kisses
Blue cactus blossoms

Ruby blossomed cactus bloom
The red dawn reflected
In red flowers and dew

Winter in Las Vegas is one of three poems I've written about winter in this area of the country. I'm not sure, but I think this was the first one. The other two are posted in my writing.com port. I'm not sure when I wrote this so I don't know where I was living at the time I wrote it.

Winter in Las Vegas

Cold air awakens a longing for summer
As the night wind echoes the cries of lost souls.

The wind is a knife cutting through your thoughts
Severing any hope for warm happiness.

The wind's cold laughter sends joy flying;
No snow;
No rain;
No sleet;
Only the glacial wind of night.

Winter's Child is one of three poems I wrote on this subject. I don't know what year I wrote this poem, but I do know it was written as a part of a longer poem that focused on the four seasons. The other three poems were title "Autumn's Child", "Spring's Child", and "Summer's Child". The forms of those poems are similar to this form.

Winter's Child

Winter's child sets
In the frozen meadow of lost hope
Composing eulogies
To dead dreams.

I found numerous poems in the bottom left-hand drawer of my computer desk. Several of the poems I'm posting in this document because they are important to the way inspiration strikes me, as well as showing what poets influenced me. Most of the poems are free verse or experimental forms while others are specific poetry forms. Because I'm posting some of them in my port, I'll have to do a little port housekeeping in December to make room for more items. I don't quite have enough GPs to purchase a 12-month premium plus membership.

Juxapositional Poetry: To Jean Valintine was written sometime in 1992. I was inspired by the poems of Jean Valintine and the names of the poems that inspired it are underlined. This is an experimental form and I haven't decided whether I'm going to rewrite it or leave it as is. I may use this as one of the poems in my autobiography that demonstrates where my inspiration begins and, if that's the case, I doubt that I will rewrite it.

Juxapositional Poetry:
To Jean Valintine

                   Air-raid alarms sound
                   Children move in slow motion
                   Images in The Second Dream
                   Tell me
                   The past is an illusion
                   To those who didn't witness it

The world moves at such speed
Present can't reconcile past and future
Much less the poet illusion and reality

                   Death and the underworld
                   Darkness that is named light
                   Images in Oepheus and Eurydice
                   Tell me
                   It is our illusions
                   Which form our reality

It is the language of silence
Which reconciles
The unreconcilable

                   Little ones smoke or burn in water
                   Questioning the purpose of life
                   Images in Pilgrims
                   Tell me
                   We are unwilling to accept
                   Our destiny

Notational strategies help poets
Cope with the language of silence

                   Sleeping in a kitchen
                   Asleep on a bus
                   Images in After Elegies
                   Tell me
                   That we live in our dreams

Notational strategies confuse
The reader unwilling to let go

                   Thoughts formed into word pictures
                   Live in a well known room
                   Images in Knife
                   Tell me
                   Appearances deceive

Notational strategies aid
The conscientious reader to participate

                   The shame forgiven
                   A ghost bestows pardon
                   Images in The Forgiveness Dream:
                   Man From The Warsaw Ghetto
                   Tell me
                   Our choices effect
                   The space-time continuum

Notational strategies allow
Poets to compare opposing concepts

                   Preserved in peat
                   The physical body is immortal
                   Images in The Field
                   Tell me
                   Our reality
                   Isn't found in material existence

Notational strategies allow
Poets to contrast complimentary concepts

                   The father who is dead
                   The messenger a half-brother
                   The hill is climbed
                   Images in The Messenger
                   Tell me
                   Memories are kept
                   But remembered differently
                   By each person

The master of notational strategies
Allows her reader to use intuition

                   The eye speaks in silence
                   The day glides by
                   Images in Silence: A Dream Of Governments
                   Tell me
                   Each of us
                   Determines our own view of reality

The master of notational strategies
Uses intention and implication

                   Emmanuel
                   Christ a star
                   Images in December 21st
                   Tell me
                   Each of us
                   Must have our own relationship
                   With the Deity

OK, I think this does need a bit of rewriting because of the redundancy and repetition. A little bit of repetition in poetry is alright, but I think there is too much in this poem. I'm not sure how to rewrite or edit this poem without changing its meaning. Perhaps changing its meaning is a good thing; I'm not sure about that right now.

About 1:08 PM Pacific Standard Time

Jamal: To Táhirih is one of the poems I've written about Táhirih, the Pure One, was inspired by the history of the Baha'I Faith. I wrote this poem sometime in 1993. The English translation of Jamal is Beauty. I intended to write a series of poems about historic figures in the Baha'I faith with titles that reflected the names of the Baha'I months. I have a lot more poems to write. I also have to consider whether I want or need to rewrite this poem.

Jamal:
To Táhirih

The wind of God blows
Across the Garden of Paradise
Carrying to the lover's nostrils
Attar of rose

Blessed is the Pure One
Who inhales the scent of faith

Solace of the eyes
Who sees the Beauty of God

The Living Letter
Who hears the Lord of the Age
And enters through God's Gate

Joyous Laughter is another poem inspired by the Baha'I Faith. I think this poem needs rewritten, but I'm not sure what else I want. Maybe this poem is complete because I don't think I intended for it to say anything else. I wanted to emphasize that God created the universe.

Joyous Laughter

When God created the universe,
                   The earth,
                   And all there is,
There was joyous laughter throughout the celestial sphere.

Kamál (Perfection), 8 Qawl (Speech), 173 BE - Sunday, November 27, 2016 AD about 6:44 PM Pacific Standard Time

Evening Thoughts

I was doing some reviewing this afternoon and I realized that I haven't been writing many poem about the Baha'I Faith, Baha'u'llah, or the Baha'I Holy Days. I've written some poems, but not many. I think I also need to write something about why I don't celebrate Christmas anymore. I need to determine how I feel about Christmas because I haven't had that many good experiences with that particular holiday. I think that's due to some experiences from my childhood.

After Mom became a Baha'I we stopped celebrating Christmas. I give away the Christmas tree and most of the decorations. I found a place for them at one of the Community College Campuses. I don't know how long they kept the artificial tree or the decorations. I really don't care what they did with them after they took them down the year I gave the decorations to them. It was a relief to get rid of the times and let someone else enjoy them.

I kept a tree top angel for a while, but then got rid of her. I don't remember who I gave her to. It doesn't matter because I'm sure whoever got her enjoyed her. The angel didn't cost very much when we bought her. In fact the only reason I purchased her was because Mama wanted her. I think we might have purchased the angel at Walmart or someplace like that.

So now how do I write an essay about Christmas? Do I write an essay about Christmas? I think I'd rather write something about one of the Baha'I Holy Days instead of Christmas. I've written Christmas related stories and poems in December, but this year I'm not sure if that's what I want to do. I think I would rather write something about Baha'u'llah or The Bab. Maybe I should research what Baha'u'llah and 'Abdu'le-Baha had to say about Christ and write something about that.

For some reason I think I need to start focusing on themes that have more to do with unity or Baha'I themes. I've been thinking about this for a couple of three weeks now. The closer to December I come the more I think I want to focus more on themes that reflect my spiritual beliefs now instead that represented my childhood beliefs.

Today I managed to get the newsletter finished before 7:00 PM, but now I have to decide what I want to write for next month. My next edition of the fantasy newsletter is due on Monday, December 28, for a publication day of Wednesday, December 26, which is about five days before New Year's Eve. Then the January newsletter is due on, Monday, January 23. My last scheduled newsletter is on Monday, February 20. I need to decided before then if I'm going to continue the newsletter after that. I've been writing it a long time and I think I'm running out of ideas or perhaps I'm just getting tired of editing it.