Quote of the Week
"We are men of action. Lies do not become us."
The Dread Pirate Roberts, a.k.a. Wesley
The creative process, to many people, remains a mystery. My wife and I were blessed to see and hear Arlo Guthrie in concert. He said, "Writing a song is kinda' like fishin'. It's mostly just about being there. And, if you have a pencil when one swims by, you can catch it."
Here are a few of the catches from this week:
Sestina
ses·ti·na[se-stee-nuh]a poem of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy, originally without rhyme, in which each stanza repeats the end words of the lines of the first stanza, but in different order, the envoy using the six words again, three in the middle of the lines and three at the end.
dictionary.com
We also discussed the journey poem.
The six Components of the Journey
from The Practice of Creative Writing (see below)
Ordinary World
Call to Adventure
Mentor
Tests and Ordeals
Reward
Return
Masking the Truth
Two resources I highly recommend to anyone interested in the craft of writing are:
The Practice of Creative Writing
by Heather Sellers
Rumors of Water
by L.L. Barkat
Words of the Week
(click on the word to read a definition)
Parergon
Flounce
Homologate
Braird
Pleonasm
The creative process, to many people, remains a mystery. My wife and I were blessed to see and hear Arlo Guthrie in concert. He said, "Writing a song is kinda' like fishin'. It's mostly just about being there. And, if you have a pencil when one swims by, you can catch it."
Here are a few of the catches from this week:
Sestina
By Katie Metz
Does anyone know where my insurance has gone?
It has yet to return from a flight
I have searched too long for a job to call mine
It would be madness to wait for a fowl
So with my occupational tools in hand
The day begins without a cheap from my canary
Trying to remember the importance of a canary
I shout down the tunnels “Has anyone seen where my plumaged pal has gone?”
With no reply I trudge onwards a sturdy shovel in hand
Watching carefully for any signs of flight
I decide not to care about the lost fowl
Instead I focus on earning what is mine
No one else seems to be working down here in the mine
Could it possibly be due to my missing canary?
Why have the birds here at all when the only look pretty but smell foul?
Maybe the other workers finished early and have gone...
I look down at my feet and pick up a yellow feather the kind used in flight
A trickle of unease tinges my thoughts all from the feather clutched by my hand
Throwing it to the dusty ground I instead grasp the shovel close at hand
I move on before another ominous sign taints this mine
Wondering why in the first place a bird would be forced into these dark tunnels by flight
I suddenly remembered that something within here was tested by my canary
He had never failed yet... where could he have gone?
The test must not be that important anyway if it was trusted to fowl
Farther down the path the air took on a quality that came close to foul
Soon I am dragging my shovel in my nearly limp hand
All the sprightly energy of my youth is now gone
My thoughts are clinging to lucidity no longer acting as if they are mine
And then it occurs to me the use of a canary
If they glide in and soar out all is well however not so if a bird fails to return from its flight
I am painfully reminded that my bird never flew home from flight
Where oh where is my fowl?
Stumbling I fall to the ground and land nose to beak with my dead canary
With a burst of adrenaline I right myself with both shovel and hand
As though with wings I escape the wretched mine
Gasping fresh air I realize how close I was to gone
Never again did I underestimate the worth of a canary and its risky flight
I would be gone if not for the daring golden fowl
They lend a much needed wing towards protecting a mine
ses·ti·na[se-stee-nuh]a poem of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy, originally without rhyme, in which each stanza repeats the end words of the lines of the first stanza, but in different order, the envoy using the six words again, three in the middle of the lines and three at the end.
dictionary.com
We also discussed the journey poem.
The six Components of the Journey
from The Practice of Creative Writing (see below)
Ordinary World
Call to Adventure
Mentor
Tests and Ordeals
Reward
Return
Masking the Truth
by Zach Cassady
The mask that hides your true face
We can't always know why it's there
Or even when we have them on
Masks can be used as walls for your heart
They can also break though them
Make no mistake the mask exists
Can that mask truly hide your face
We like to believe it can
The mask is like a band aid on a scar
The band aid doesn't cure the scar
It only covers it from view
The mask is only the cover in your life story
The mask that your face hides
When you use your mask on some
Then, there becomes confusion to who you are
But use it too often and
It becomes who you are
The mask is a tool for your destruction so
Face the mask that hides the true you
Two resources I highly recommend to anyone interested in the craft of writing are:
The Practice of Creative Writing
by Heather Sellers
Rumors of Water
by L.L. Barkat
Words of the Week
(click on the word to read a definition)
Parergon
Flounce
Homologate
Braird
Pleonasm
