A Prompt Assignment or To Pen a Villanelle

Other than the pantoum, the villanelle is my favorite poetic form. There is something about the form and rhyme scheme that stretches my ability at word play and phrase construction to get my point across.
The form is an old Italian folk song, usually sung by the people who lived in the countryside. It has maintained its poetic structure since the 17th century. Now that's something. Dylan Thomas's "Do not go gentle into that good night," is one of the most popular villanelles you'll find.

The villanelle as a basic aba rhyme scheme with three lines per stanza and five stanzas. The sixth stanza has four lines with an abaa pattern. It takes a little work to write something that conforms to the structure, especially the rhyming. But with a subject that feels right for you, everything should fall into place.

After having so much fun with the Merry Sisters of Fate prompt contest, I wanted to recapture that energy with a picture of my own choosing. Below is "The Unicorn and the Maiden" by Boris Vallejo and my villanelle.

Huntress

Evil infuses every step that I take,
Though I try to keep my thoughts pure.
Entering these woods is a damning mistake.

Salvation is not for those who forsake;
those who capture unicorns with virginity lures.
Evil infuses every step that I take.

I am not alone on this trek I make.
The hunters follow, wanting a horn to procure.
Entering these woods is a damning mistake.

Selling my soul for a pocket of coin, makes my stomach ache.
Every capture unravels the realm of magic, I am sure.
evil infuses every step that I take.

The unicorn appears and my confidence shakes,
my touch is a disease from which there is no cure.
Entering these woods is a damning mistake.

There is more than this innocent life at stake;
waiting for me is eternal perdition to endure.
Evil infuses every step that I take.
Entering these woods is a damning mistake.

Fun and Fancy Free Verse or Exploring My Softer Side

Aha, you say, a free verse poem is not a rarity like the other poems you’ve presented, Nicki. Yes, you are right, but for the beginner poet, free verse can be the easiest form to write.

There is no rhyme scheme, no meter, no sense of a rigid mold into which you must cram your work of art.

The popular practice of free verse poems date back to 19^th Europe, in

particular, France. Free verse is a very organic poem based on natural breaks in speech, the intensity of your mood, or just how you want the words to appear on the page.

This form can start out as an exercise in prose that is broken up to create poetic lines and phrasing. Free verse, for me, is like writing in a diary. A place to cleanse my soul…or whatever. To read an excellent example of free verse poems, check out Hilda Doolittle, Allen Ginsberg, John Ashberry, Sylvia Plath, and Frank O'Hara, just to name a few. There are many more poets worthy of mention, but you'd be here all day. Not that I mind.

While I am a dark poet, I do have a romantic, sensitive side. Here is a poem I wrote in college, exploring that cautious adventure of falling in love.

Secret Serenade

They breathed softly in the words you nervously stuttered

   In the longing glance that your eye shyly gave

   In the touch that made m tremble

The whispers of your buried secrets

Singing the lyric that your heart once guarded

The tender song that you wished to keep still

Melodies of sun-soaked laughter transition

Into moon-laced walks of harmony

A sweet chorus that danced freely through your kiss.

Embedded in silken ruby leaves

Lay a symphony of secrets

Revealing that you are  


 falling


                                                    falling


                                                                                                     falling 
    
       deep within your heart’s embrace
       deeper inside the music of your soul
       deeply in love

And since I can't keep well enough alone, here a bonus poem for your reading pleasure.

Admirer

would you believe me if the words never came?
if they trembled on my slippery tongue
hoping that the thread of my breath
would pass them
and leave them untouched

naked
                           and
                                             petrified

of the abduction: a painful seizure
that would transport to your ear
the components of unrequited adoration. 

Triolet: A Poem of Three or A Rare Form of Expression

Triolet

A triolet (tree-o-lay) is an eight line, French poem from the 13^th century. Medieval poets such as Jean Froissart and Eustace Deschamps nurtured this short and sweet poetic form. It is one of the rarer forms you'll find out in the world.

 

Triolet means "three" as in the first line repeats three times. There are also 2 rhymes and 2 repeating lines.

While most triolets are playful and cheerful, often celebrating love, I have taken a darker path with mine. I apparently have a gift for dark and broody, though, I'm no Sylvia Plath. And yes, I was also having a rough day.

Rhyming pattern

Line 1 repeats in the 1^st, 4^th, and 7^th line.

Line 2 repeats in the 2^nd and 8^th line.

Lines 1, 3, 4, 5 have the same rhyme scheme, while lines 2, 6, 8 echo each other.

To add a twist to your own poem try,

1)   using a slant rhyme instead of a perfect rhyme. Slant rhymes echo similar sounds, such as “time and fine.” A perfect rhyme is well, perfect, like “fell and tell.”

2)   Varying some of the words in the repeating lines. For example, the line in my poem “treading a fine line” can be altered into “treading a silk line.”

This form is too short to stress about, so have fun!

daybreak

treading a fine line

between saving myself or slaying my dream

faithless existence for wishes of mine

treading a fine line

over chasms of prayers waiting to align

a criss-cross of fingers over jagged seams

treading a fine line

between saving myself or slaying my dream

Exercising Your God-Complex or Becoming your Own Puppet Master

If only you had control over the world.

Depending on your personality, diseases could be eradicated, singles would be coupled, and the fashions of the 80’s never would have existed.

Never fear. If you have a fairly active God-complex, you too can be in command of your own world. All you need is a little imagination and the ability to type 50 wpm.

You get to play the role of the Almighty when you write fiction. Yes, it sounds like work, but hang with me. When else can you create others in your own image, dictate the events of their lives and coerce them into doing questionable things? No wonder the Greek gods had so much fun.

Here is a world where you have power over everything —every person’s name, every character trait and flaw, every wonderful and devastating thing that happens to them. Instead of cursing your sister out for not taking your advice and calling that hottie from work, take your frustrations out on the fictional version of her. In your world, not only will she hook up with him, he’s so totally into her.

But like the true Master of the Cosmic Design, just when you think you have everything in place and are ready to enjoy what you’ve created, your people rebel. They build a tower into your sanctuary and steal the reins from your hands.

“What?” you say. “That can happen?” Oh, but it can and it will, if you’ve done your job correctly. You’d think that the people you created would do exactly as you say, but something happened that moment you breathed life into them. They started to live.

Now who’s controlling who?

I wonder what kind of conversations God has with the angels about the crazy things we’re doing down here. Is he laughing? Crying? Shaking his head and wishing he would have taken an extra day off instead of working six days straight?

Writing has been a great way to work through some issues, test out improbably solutions, and dream of things just beyond my reach. I often hear the voices of my characters (sometimes praying for me to get back to their stories) and must remind myself it is a symptom of my imagination and not a genuine psychosis. See, crazy or creative genius.

If you descend from your god-like throne and mingle with the characters, you’ll only find that you haven’t really left the real world at all. They are dealing with the same stuff you and I are, except you’re solely responsible for helping your “children” out of it.

So the next time you’d like to strike down the neighbor, who lets his dog crap in your yard, remember it can be done*. In fiction.

*While you might have more time to write from prison, the trade off isn’t quite worth the homicide.

** I intend no offense by this divine analogy. There is no need to pray for the safety of my soul. 

I love the Food Network or How Cooking Compares to Writing

I am going through withdrawls.

My husband and I are of the frugal sort and have recently decided to disconnect our cable. So that means no Food Network for me. And no ESPN for him. We're even.

I have ADD when it comes to food. I get bored with it quickly and so I spend a disgusting amount of time watching cooking shows and searching recipes on the Internet. The Food Network puts all the good stuff on one channel and so I park it on the couch, make like a sponge and absorb.

I especially love the competition cooking shows like Iron Chef, Cupcake Wars, and Food Network: Challenge. I'm mostly obsessed with the ability of these chefs to create beautiful works of art (and yes, food is art) within crazy time constraints or even crazier ingredients. While I'll never be the next great chef, I can apply the same principles to writing. Promise I won't eat the paper.

Chopped is a competitive cooking show on the Food Network. Four chefs are each given a basket with mystery ingredients. Then they must use said ingredients to make an appetizer. After judging, one chef is chopped and must leave the competition. The three remaining chefs receive another mystery basket and must make an entree. The final two battle over dessert and then the winner is takes home a cool $10,000.

Despite what anyone tells you, writing is a competitive activity. You have your basket of ingredients: compelling characters, gripping plot, goals, motivation, conflict. You have your skill set: voice, world building, scene setting, realistic dialogue. What differs in each author's basket is talent, experience, and ingenuity.

Writing, like cooking a mastery of skills using the ingredients in your basket. Take four writers of the same genre, have them write the first chapter of a novel given the prompt: David wants to surprise his girlfriend for their anniversary. He sneaks into her apartment and finds the place overturned. There is blood splattered on the carpet. His girlfriend is missing.

I guarantee there will be four completely different starts to the story and four different styles of storytelling. This is where talent, ingenuity, and experience will set the four apart. And that's even before their creations reach the judges (or agents).

While Judge #1 may not like the Asian cuisine you prepared, he thinks it was well made. Judge #2 may hate what you made, but admires your creative use of "thinking outside the box." Judge #3 wanted a little something more, but enjoys what you have presented.

It is the subjective nature of the beast. Even though you have created a masterpiece, you may still receive rejection letters. It may take time to find that agent who digs your cuisine.

But until then, stay in your happy place and write. Use your basket of the greatest ingredients on earth (or in your head). Master your skills to create a tasty, can't put down, pièce de résistance.
Tasty dish or delicious reading, there's a palate for that.
Bon appetit!