 Poetry: October 25, 2023 Issue [#12238] |
This week: Cue Tears ... or Laughter Edited by: Fyn  
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Twelve magicians and two carnies have been shot dead doing the bullet catch. That's cool enough, but every night when we close our show with that trick and the loaded gun gets pointed in my face, it goes so far beyond cool. All I can think is 12 magicians, two carnies.~~Penn Jillette
When I was young, I wanted to run away to the circus. Then one day I realized the circus was life! Are we not the clown, the strongman, the freak, the daredevil? Is there not personal sorrow and the desperate search for pleasure? The flying trapeze man and woman are in love, and every performance, they risk the breaking of their heart. When one almost falls to their death, the audience cries out, and then claps even louder! The freak show is hidden in the back, though its location is well-known to local politicians. Then to play the games on the midway, with its crooked carnies, rigged set ups, and worldly women. The city is 'the big top', its chaotic gyrations and jaded excitements, all part of the show. The grandstands are filled with 'television head' people, buzzing with excitement. See the eye of the tiger, hear the trumpet of that greatest of beasts, cowl at the jungle kings exclamation! Later that night, a young boy lying in bed, wonders if it was just a dream. Then, far off in the distance, a whispering growl was heard!~~Meru Groen
We're all carnies, though some people are in denial. They want to be above it all, above the mayhem of laughter and people and lights and animals and the dark sadness that lurks in the coners and beneath the rides and in the trailers after hours. So they ride teh Ferris wheel, and at the top, they think they've left it all behind They've ascended to a place where they can take things seriously. Where they can be taken seriously.~~N.D. Wilson |
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Step right up, folks! All you need to do is knock over the pyramid and win the grand prize. Three balls for a quarter! Test your strength and your aim! Here, sir! You look like you've got a great arm! (From a few feet farther away) What about you, miss. You look like a great candidate. Three darts for a quarter and all you have to do is pop one balloon to win the giant three-foot teddybear! (Across the aisle) And you, reader. Come on inside this funhouse poem, novel, or short story. Guaranteed to make you cry, smile, laugh, and experience any number of a multitude of different emotions!! Come one, come all to the reader's carnival and fun house! Get your tickets today!!!
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As writers, we play to the audience. We want them to react in certain ways. Whether it is to elicit but a single tear or dissolve someone into a sodden mess, whether it is to have them crack a smile or be helplessly giggling, whether it is to find that frayed wire leading to a long lost remembrance or hardwired into a time when we felt safe or threatened or warm and cozy, we aim to have the reader react the way we want them to react. We are selling the bizarre, the heartstrings, the red buttons, and the shiny prize at the end. In short, there are times when the writer is (pun intended) a well-versed carny.
As writers, we invite the reader into our world. We then use our words to not only tell a story but to garner reactions. We are the magicians pulling the rabbit out of the hat or making the beautiful lady vanish in front of our eyes. We are the ringmaster of our own multi-ringed circus playing on the audience when the tight-rope walker alllmost falls, the tiger gets loose, or the clown tosses a bucket of (either) confetti or water at an unsuspecting person seated in the audience. We play on the anticipated reactions to events, conversations, or metaphors. We, in effect, manipulate our readers to garner a specific set of responses. We are the bright lights, the siren calls, and the side shows all rolled into one!
Regardless if we are writing a 'hang on to the roller bar' action epic or a poem about helplessness in a war zone, our words control that roller coaster ride. We use emotion to catapult the idea forward. Or, I suppose I could say, we should. It keeps the interest because we, as the writer, don't let them go! We pull them, inexorably forward. By our words, we entice them in. By our phrases, we encourage them onward. Using levels of writing, we lure them deeper. With our passion for expression, we hold them tightly. With our guille, we lure them further. Until, with a master swipe of the pen, we have them exactly where we want them to be.
This is what we do: We are The Writers, The Poets, and The Creators.
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Elfin Dragon-finally published  agrees:I completely agree about poetry being all about vulnerability. It's why I published my poetry books as two separate entities. (one dark and one light)
Graham B. writes: How about epic poems like that of Homer, Milton, or Dante? I know you can't put entire works into the newsletter, but perhaps you could talk about how such works were structured, how they treat their themes, the meters and rhymes they used among other characteristics. I would like to hear more about how such long-form poetry was created and subsequently treated in retellings.
Good idea! I'll work on that!
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