Thoughtful Thursdays: A Poetic Column

Modern Poetry has a different meaning depending on who you ask. But relevant poetry is very time specific. That would change almost daily. Today I'd like to talk about where art, poetry, and reality collide. I am going to give you a poem relevant to our times.

Thoughtful Thursdays: A Poetic Column

Since I was seven years old, I have loved the musical tonality of poetry. 

When I was nine years old, I started studying the flute in orchestra after school. If memory serves me correctly, it was that following summer that I began to fuse my love of poetry and writing. Naturally, I became a lyrical poet.

So now here I am over thirty years later in college; reading and writing the Poetry I have always adored. 

What is lyrical poetry?

Lyrical poetry is any poetry that has a musical sound when it is read aloud. Generally, this means that the poems themselves have some kind of timing you hear while it is read, but you can create this very easily for yourself in your own poems. All you have to do is create lines with about the same amount of syllables, and the use of rhyme can also help the listener hear the rhyme scheme embedded within the poem. (Sorry, Dr. Cox: I know you find rhyming an irritating device.)

According to Webster's Dictionary, the word lyrical means the author is expressing feelings or emotions in an imaginative and beautiful way.

Process: Part of the process of poetry borders on obsessive. You first create a poem, and then you are happy with yourself. However, the next day, the self loathing side of the author comes out, and you begin to meditate over your words as if it is your new mantra. You obsess.

Hours later, you may have very little difference in your actual poem itself. You've stared at it all day only to take out a comma. The next day, you stare at it, and put the comma back in. A poet's words are very concise and deliberate. The poet is refining the few lines to the finest detail. Often I have wondered if great poets like Edgar Allan Poe, Sylvia Plath, Robert Frost, or Lord Byron knew at the time how beautiful there words were to us. Did they know what a legacy they were leaving for us?

Eventually, you will have the final product, even if you don't know it at the time. There are many poets who spend the first half of their life writing a poem, and the second revising them. I know that not only can I be classified as a confessional poet, I can also be accused of being a lyrical poet.
That is just how it comes out, and resonates from me.

Enough chatter, time for my own work to be unleashed on the virtual world. The following poem I wrote in 1984. I was sixteen years old, and it resonates my inner self.

Thoughtful Thursdays: A Poetic Column

What defines a lyric poem?

Lyric poetry is when the writer is using first person to express thoughts and feelings of the poet. This term is coined by the use of the lyrical, or melody-like sound of the notes the various words sing out when the poem is recited. Examples of a lyrical poem would also include Sonnets (Feb. 2013 Columns) or Ode's (not covered yet)

Thoughtful Thursdays: A Poetic Column

There are many different types of Sonnets, but the most common type of Sonnet is the English Sonnet, or the Shakespearean Sonnet. Last week we talked about rhyme scheme and iambic pentameter. How to know if the sounds, or notes resonated are the right tonality. But today, we will talk about creating that for yourself, and show you a truly modern day Sonnet from Kenneth O'Shaunnessey. Buckle up, this week will be a lot of fun.

Thoughtful Thursdays

The hardest part about writing a sonnet is true also true of writing about anything. You must begin to write something to have a tangible piece of work to manipulate words much like a sculptor manipulates clay. Armed with a basic knowledge of the criteria will have you writing sonnets like a pro in no time.

Writing Sonnets

Happy Valentines Day! The most famous type of love poem is the sonnet. So today, I'd like to talk to you about what makes a poem a sonnet, and next week we will begin to talk about how to write a sonnet, and share some local authors contributions to the sonnet. This is not your Hallmark type greeting, instead it is an art form with a very different musical sound to it that resonates sentiment.

What is a sonnet? 
Sonnets were made popular by William Shakespeare. Generally speaking, most sonnets have 14 lines and four quatrains.

• Sonnets have a very definite rhyme scheme. (Example: ABAB, CDCD, EFEF, GG)
• Sonnets are written in iambic pentameter. This means that each lines contains ten beats (syllables). What makes it iambic is that they alternate stressed and unstressed syllables.

Four Quatrains:

1. First Quatrain: This should establish the topic of your sonnet. Rhyme scheme: ABAB (4 lines)

2. Second Quatrain: This should establish the theme of your sonnet. Rhyme scheme: CDCD (4 lines)

3.Third Quatrain: This should round of the theme of your overall sonnet. Rhyme scheme: EFEF (4 lines)

4. Fourth Quatrain: The soul purpose of the fourth quatrain is to act as a conclusion to the sonnet. Rhyme scheme: GG (2 lines)

So give it a whirl, and you'll be writing sonnets in no time. Next week, you'll learn how to write sonnets and there will be a poet showcased. For now, give it up to the guy that started it all. 

Writing Love Poems

Love Poems
With Valentines Day on the horizon, I thought it would be a cinch to teach you and your kids to write love poems like a pro. After many painful hours of research, I can tell you, that love poems, as famous as they are, aren't actually a separate form of poetry. But I can share with you some tips to get your poem going in the right direction.