Forgive me poets for I have sinned…
It’s been weeks since my last poem
I confess to having had poetic thoughts on occasion and yes, I’ve dabbled with my pen but to no avail.
But now I’m back from that dark poetry-less place, full of chewed pencils and screwed up bits of paper.
Great to read your April entries, well done all the mirror poem writers!
Just to let you know, if you don’t already, Gladstones’ Library is a great place to sit and work in peace, or gaze out of the window at the naked Sophia, or eat scones and cream, or just sit at your desk and watch the dust motes float by in the grand vaulted library. I joined as a reader, for free. It’s an inspiring place – nice cakes too.
The people at the library say that having readers is good for them, it helps them get funding, shows that the library is used, etc.
They have occasional poetry workshops and readings too.
Wendy Cope will be there in July.
So good for the soul to fess up.
Erm… I’ve not been checking the website as often as I should and missed out on some great poems… am willing to do penance … maybe when … erm…
Twenty lashings with a vowel-soaked manuscript. I was so disappointed Sarah as when I started to read your post I thought it was going to be a poem. I think the website is great to dip in and out of without feeling any pressure to post or comment. I guess for some people it just isn’t their thing. I am a bit erratic so I like to come back to things when I have the time and inclination. Gladstone Library sounds interesting. Maybe we could invite ourselves there one time to do a workshop? Although I know there is a lot of stuff at the moment with Erddig.
and not knowing where to post this – but wondering if any of you are an expert on this???? form – I have been having a look at poetic form in the Bible (not because I am religious but because I am interested in the sound) – I hadn’t realised that it was so technical
Poetic form in the Bible – not something I’ve heard of… poetry in the Bible, yes (Proverbs, Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon), but not form. There’d be the added complication of translating from Hebrew or Greek too. Having said that, Psalms are clearly songs / poems. And every chapter of every book is split into ‘verses’. Hmm..
What technicalities have you found, Sarah?
are you ready for this? “poetic elements such as assonance, alliteration and rhyme occur rarely in Hebrew poetry … instead the essential formal characteristic of Hebrew poetry is parallelism … the content of one line is repeated, contrasted, or advanced by the content of the next … three types are synonymous, antithetic, and synthetic …”
http;//www.angelfire.com/sc3/we_dig_montana/Poetry.html
and another site is http://www.westminster.edu/staff/nak/courses/BibPoetry.htm
and it talks about the same ideas and some others too – some in the original Hebrew which are lost on us when it has been translated – but interesting nevertheless.
Blimey, we’ve gone all biblical, sounds like an episode of Melvin Bragg’s In Our Time on Radio 4! I’ll take the twenty lashings with a vowel soaked manuscript!!
Incidentally Sarah, I may make my initial confessional comments into a poem – not a bad idea!
On reading ‘all above’ very interesting!
Maureen xx