 Poetry: December 13, 2011 Issue [#4768] |
  Poetry
This week: A Poem is Said not Read Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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"...the writing of poems....
the call of overhearing music that is not yet made."
Mary Kinzie, in A Poet's Guide to Poetry
Poetry is the lyrical rendition of the rhythm of sight, sound, touch, taste; of living, seen through the eyes of a poet and consigned to paper and laptop and keyboard until it can be read aloud. Yes, all poetry needs to be read aloud, to savor the rhythm in the words, and revive the images the poet conscribed to the pages of a book or computer.
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Greetings, fellow lyric wordsmiths.
I say 'wordsmiths' because poetry, the art of its vision and the craft of its expression, I think evolves from the crafting of words in recognizable lyric patterns. These patterns can be obvious or subtle, weaving a tapestry of words that tells a story in vivid lyric images.
Your story in verse can be historical or fictional, inciting or insightful, tragic or comedic, an epic or a snapshot. Your story in verse will have a precipitating event as well as a plot that flows through the spoken words with transition(s) and pacing to a believable resolution. Your listener will hear the words and see the story unfold.
The art of storytelling in verse is neither new nor archaic. Consider the epics of Homer, the lyrical odes of Medieval Minstrels, Shakespeare's Sonnets, Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass. Epics and odes were historically a means of conveying news both momentous and trivial. The rhythm and pacing of the oral presentation could incite fervor or induce a sense of calm security. The minstrels and storytellers could regale their lordly host with lyric tales of heroism or trivialize those in power, yet unpopular, with subtle sarcasm and lyric wit. Or perhaps a sonnet weaves a surface image of pastoral calm before the volta reveals a visceral reality. Leaves of Grass I believe grew from the art of oral storytelling, with rhythm and internal rhyme schemes moving the story through transitions to its resolution.
Consider as well the shorter, vivid haiku and tanka. The lyric images convey in one breath a precipitating event (snapshot of an image) and a related resolution or statement. Or, consider the renga as a means of communicating among two or more speakers where one poses a subtle lyric question or statement and the next responds in kind.
Today we enjoy reading in prose stories of varied length, be they novels, novellas, short stories, flash, or ficlets. Each has a story arc with a precipitating event, plot and transition(s) and a resolution. Each is accepted as a means of telling a story factual or fictitious.
Likewise, stories in verse can be epic (in length and timeline) or brief yet full. They can be historical or whimsical, provocative or reflective, tragic or roll-on-the-floor comedic. And, regardless of their length, each also has the elements of a story, i.e., a precipitating event (or image), plot and resolution. More so than in prose, I think, each combination of words becomes a sensual vehicle for moving the story forward. By sensual I mean evoking sight or sound or taste or touch.
Meter is paramount in pacing of the story in verse. For example, if a battle ensues, or a storm (literal or metaphoric), iambs (da DUM da DUM da DUM) set a faster lyric pace. During a transition or to slow the pace, trochees (DUM da DUM da DUM da) would give the speaker/listener a breath to pause and reflect. Once you have the image in your mind, taste the words and see how they move the story forward, each couplet or stanza as a chapter perhaps, with a crafted transition in meter to shift focus. Note the reference to crafting. We are compelled by the art or poetry to write what we see, hear and imagine, and to craft it in lyric form for others to likewise see, hear, taste and feel.
Also consider the use of rhyming for its focus and transitioning. Yes, here come the traditional forms which provide recognizable patterns. Consider a couplet or stanza as a scene or chapter, with rhythm and rhyming schemes crafted to focus or distract, to incite or inspire, to excite or resolve. The sonnet (little song), for example, offers a compelling lyric pattern with its rhythmic pace, the rhyming couplets conversing, the stanzas completing, the volta transitioning to the vivid lyric resolution. And we know the sonnet is not static, in its varied permutations available to guide the poet's art with lyric craftsmanship.
Now, rhyming need not be end-rhyme only, but within lines to emphasize a moment in time or the genesis of an idea, or to effect a transition, or to connect facts of the plot. Consider alliteration and assonance, for example, two forms of repetition that serve to focus the ear by linking consonant and vowel sounds repectively. Can you hear the sibilant symphony as airborn arias alight with dawn's first light?
Repetition in its most obvious is repeating whole lines or phrases, as in the villanelle. But sound can be repeated, and images or ideas or feelings be reinforced in more subtle variations.
Rhyming is a form of repetition. And one find rhyming in fixed and free verse. It's a poetic device that's versatile and creative; affording the poet myrad options for blending repetition and variation.
 End rhyme is what we most often think of when we consider rhyming poetry - where the last syllable(s) of lines rhyme, i.e, vast, cast, repast.
Internal rhyme, or middle rhyme is another device where the rhyme occurs within a line of verse - for example, Hear the sibilant symphony of sunset's twilight serenade - Here's I've use assonance and alliteration (matching vowel and consonant sounds) to create a lyric rhyme within a line. Reading aloud, you will find that internal rhyme is well met in free verse poetry.
Near rhyme or slanted rhyme is the use of words that sound nearly the same. For example, the hammock was taut; until on it he sat
Sight rhyme or visual rhyme is the use of words that look, but don't sound, alike. For example, flood - good.
To augment the lyric sense of poetry, listen for the sound of the letters and syllables of the words; that they convey the image soft or firm that you are seeing and sensing when you write. For example, where but in a poem will you see "starlit cerulean skies" to describe twilight's first blush? Note that I've used assonance and alliteration in not only the quoted phrase but the question itself.
The poet seeks a balance, when embracing the words he/she is using to convey an image, idea, story, in verse, between repetition and variation, so as not to evoke somnambulism in the the listener, but to convey the image so that the listener can hear the sounds the poet does, and see, smell and taste the words being used to impart the image.
Read poetry classic and new aloud and you will feel the rhythm and hear the varied rhyme schemes evoked by the images the poet is sharing. Write your verse while speaking the words aloud and you will convey the lyric quality of your vision to pencil and paper for others also to see and hear, that they join your lyric journey.
Until we next meet, embrace the journey poetic, and read and write stories in verse crafted for your listening pleasure. Note, I say listening pleasure, as I hold there is
One Fixed Rule of Poetry =
Read All Poetry Aloud 
Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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I'd like to share first some poems penned by members of our Community ~please take a few momentsto read aloud and share in the lyric voice with your comment or review
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After reading and listening to and engaging these lyric images, how about giving it a try ~ share your vision in verse here:
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Read aloud (creative entry "fee," and pen the poetic muse creative here
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Thank you for sharing this exploration with me ~
I offer glad lyric holiday tidings ~
Yuletide Blessings
Merry Christmas,
Happy Hanukkah,
Joyous Kwanzaa
May you each enjoy the company of loving family, dearest friends, and ever stalwart muse as you ring in the
Bright New Year 
Write On!!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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