Poetry and Brass

When I was in 4th Grade, I took a test at my elementary school to see if I qualified to take music lessons. The instrument I said I wanted to play was the trumpet.

I didn't qualify to be given a trumpet by the school; but was told that if I owned an instrument, I could still take lessons. My sister had taken violin lessons so....

My career as a violinist ended after three years, but my love of brass
instruments continues today. Last Friday night, I had the opportunity to go to the Blue Room and hear Delfeayo Marsalis on trombone, Sean Jones on trumpet and Bobby Watson on saxophone. Engulfed in some of the most beautiful sounds I'll ever hear come out of those instruments, I had to write something.

Love Notes

Take to the air

propelled by breath

blowing horns

released by fingers

plucking strings

created by sticks

hitting drums.

Circle the globe

spreading the message:

Jazz is a love note

to the soul.

 

 

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Poetry to the Moon

Night Visitor

Search for that
first glimpse of you.
Where will you appear?
High in the sky or
along the horizon?
Will you be full
and bright or
a shimmering slice?
Height and form
don't matter.
There is comfort
in seeing you
shine each night.

Related post-Eclipsed

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Writer's Retreat

I spent this past weekend on a writer's retreat in Arrow Rock, Missouri, that was offered through The Writers Place. The topic was ekphrastic writing.

Ekphrastic writing is defined as writing inspired by visual art. We pushed the envelope a little bit by using a play as our inspiration. We saw a wonderful production of "To Kill A Mockingbird" at the Lyceum Theatre. Congratulations to the cast and crew for a job well done.

Before the show, we discussed ekphrastic writing and our experiences with it. Afterwards, we were filled with ideas. Some shared work that evening or the next day. Others will wait until we gather again.

We had other inspiration during the weekend. We walked to the river and were immersed in history and nature. We ate at a tavern that is more than 170 years old.  Of course, we were inspired by each others works, talents and support.

Thanks to Sharon Eiker for putting this great weekend together. This is the second retreat that Sharon has hosted. I thought I would show you a couple of comparisons from last year and this year via photographs.

Log by the Missouri River 2011

 

Log by the river 2012

Face in the rock 2011

Face in the rock 2012

 

 

 

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Writing to the Nines

I'm not quite ready to give up writing about poetry forms. I'm going to go back a little more than a month when Robert Lee Brewer put out a call for Nonet Poems on his Poetic Asides blog.

The Nonet begins with a line that contains nine syllables. The following lines each decrease by one syllable so that the ninth and final line only contains one.

At the time this blog post appeared, I was in Canada visiting my brother and sister-in-law. They took me to see the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. We saw many works by Canadian artists know as The Group of Seven. One of my favorites from the group is Lawren S. Harris. I chose to write my Nonet about my reaction to one of his paintings.

Artistry

The painting turns liquid before me.
Suddenly, the water seems real.
I want to dip my finger
into the clear blue pool.
Let the fluid chill
me to the bone
while sunlight
filters
down.


See Robert Lee Brewer's latest challenge-The Haibun

Another poem from my summer vacation


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Jazz Haiku Ensembles

This is the ninth, and final, week of Khara House's Our Lost Jungle Poetry Form Challenge. Thank you, Khara, for helping us learn about both poetry forms and our own writing.

Being the wonderful teacher that she is, Khara had us review all we had studied during the first eight weeks in order to complete this week's challenge. The final challenge is to create a form of our own.

This year, I have found myself reminding people that haiku is an important segment of jazz poetry. To that end, my form is the jazz haiku ensemble. Following are the guidelines:

1. The subject of the poem will be something related to jazz (person, place or thing) or contain elements of jazz.

2.  Each stanza will be haiku and the minimum number of stanzas is two (a jazz haiku duet).

3. I won't hold you to the common 5-7-5 line length, but each haiku may have only 17 syllables.

4. The last stanza must be an American Sentence, which we had to write as part of last week's challenge.

Since August 29 is Charlie Parker's birthday, I wrote the following jazz haiku trio in his honor:

Bird’s Song

I hear Bird’s songs play.

He has been gone a long time,

but never left us.

Silky saxophone.

Bird could make it swing or moan.

Made Bebop the rage.

I wish he had been with us longer in body as well as in soul.

 

 

Related Posts-Jazz Haiku

See all the forms created for this week's challenge

 

 

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Poetry One-Liners

This week, Khara House's Our Lost Jungle Poetry Form Challenge focuses on what I would call poetry one-liners. The challenge is to write several monostiches and American Sentences.

The monostich consists of a single line that should be self contained. Following are a few of my attempts:

Life is the ultimate improvisation.

Creativity has a mind of its own.

The notes played at 18th and Vine drift through the world.

The American Sentence is a variation of haiku invented by Allen Ginsburg. It is a one-sentence poem consisting of 17 syllables. Here are two I wrote:

The soul speaks in words and images even when we do not listen.

Sound may soothe or shock whether it is made by symphonies or cymbals.

While working on this week's challenge, I learned that simple does not mean easy. Give these forms a try! I think they are made for the Twitter generation.


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A Prose Poem Made From Stone

We're in week 7 of the Our Lost Jungle Poetry Form Challenge. This week's form is the Prose Poem. It's a poem written in prose or prose written poetically. I'm leaving the explanation to Khara House at OLJ.

For inspiration for this week's challenge, I decided to look through some of my photographs. (I'm sorry. I just can't help myself.) I chose one that I took in Arrow Rock, MO, last fall. The poem tells you what I see in the photograph.  What do you see?

Made of Flint

The stone visage looks out from the rock. It’s features have been chiseled over time. Perhaps a piece of one eye helped guide an arrow to its mark. Was a splinter from the cheek large enough to spark a fire to keep travelers warm? Did the chin split when a father collected a souvenir for his son? The face shows that life leaves scars and it wears them with dignity.