poetree | I've Got Puns In My Picnic Basket

jjhunter posting in

Sunday, every Sunday, let's have a community picnic. It's probably been a long week, and it's lovely to have a few minutes to sit back and relax and enjoy some good conversation in a less formal space. Feel free to bring something for the Picnic Basket - a poem you liked this week, a thought you had or something you experienced, or even something completely unrelated to poetry whatsoever that you just feel like sharing. Just take a moment to say hello, and maybe have a bite to eat; no one is going anywhere fast, and the shade promises some relief from the everyday heat. Let’s get to know each other a bit better, here under the branches of the poet’s tree.

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From:

jjhunter

For all your favorite stories / jokes / experiences.

From:

jjhunter

If you have something to add to the general news section or the associated posts by members off-comm, comment on this thread with the links &/or summaries.

From:

jjhunter

This article about 6 writing tips from John Steinbeck is well worth reading.

From:

jjhunter

Via

copperbadge.

The Symbolic Poem
by Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese

< > !* ' ' #
^ " ` $$-
!*=@$_
%*< > ~ #4
&[ ]../
|{,,SYSTEM HALTED

This poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit:

Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

From:

jjhunter

If you're doing month-long activities, advertise them in this thread!

From:

jjhunter

I'm hosting a month-long collaborative haikai fest, a repeat of the one I hosted last year. The intro post for this year is up here (my mistress April - includes fest-specific RSS & Atom feeds), as is the first seed (Haikai Fest: Complementary).

From:

snowynight

As April is the month of poetry, I 'll post every day a poem (mainly Chinese poems) on my journal. The first post's up.

From:

snowynight

They're very good writing tips, unfourtunately my brain's blank enough that it right now doesn't work for me.

From:

jjhunter

Cool! I look forward to reading them. :o)

From:

alee_grrl

This is great fun! I love the transliteration for those who, like myself, may have been unsure how to read it out loud. :)

From:

untonuggan

I am so excited about the Haikai fest!

From:

alee_grrl

I haven't written the first post yet, but my goal is to write at least one poem a week for the month of April. I also plan to participate as much as possible in

jjhunter's Haikai a day event as that is always great fun.

From:

untonuggan

Worst/best April Fool's joke played on me ever...we'd had a bazillion snow days in '96 because of a blizzard. My friends were sleeping over on a teacher work day, blissfully enjoying sleeping past the time when we'd normally have to get up. My mom came in at about 7 am and told us all we had to get up for school. They had decided at the last minute to have school after all to make up for all of our snow days. After all three of us had blearily gotten up and brushed our teeth, she collapsed in a fit of giggles and yelled, "April Fool's!"

Funny in retrospect now that I am an adult, but very annoying at the time because I was enjoying sleeping in.

From:

untonuggan

That sounds like a good goal, and one that I might emulate!

From:

alee_grrl

For today's picnic I offer lolcats and poetry:

Lolcats and poetry

Magnet fridge poetry, lolcat style

Writers and kittehs

Kitteh haikus

From:

zirconium

I'm participating in Couplets: a multi-author poetry blog tour hosted by Upper Rubber Boot Books.

From:

zirconium

Marty McConnell's Bring Your Own Water, a sestina published by qarrtsiluni

Edited (I fail at coding) Date: 2012-04-01 05:36 pm (UTC)

From:

ariestess

Ahaha! That's awesome!

From:

ariestess

I'll be doing a month-long response to National Poetry Month by writing a poem a day and posting it in my journal.

From:

bookblather

Month-long Iron Poet challenge. Basically, give me three words and an optional poetry style and get a poem.

From:

jjhunter

As in something like, "spice, strong, eccentricity; sestina"?

*offers it to you, oh iron poet*

From:

syntaxofthings

It has been a long, long two or three weeks, with not enough poetry.

I had an idea to combine roleplay with haiku yesterday. I wonder how that would work out.

From:

jjhunter

It might prove interesting! though difficult to do on the fly. ;o)

As for not enough poetry...*g* Welcome to April!

From:

lilmoka

That's terrific!

I would love if someone recorded it... ;D

From:

lilmoka

Awww *melts*

From:

syntaxofthings

Which will also turn out to be incredibly busy, but I hope to participate in your haikai sometime!

From:

bookblather

Pbbt, I say unto ye. Pbbt.

Your sestina will be ready by the end of the week. :D

From:

jjhunter

\o/

I've written another one myself, albeit on a fannish theme: Bat Sestina.

...I don't know why I do this to myself - sestinas are hard. *has so much respect for you*

From:

jjhunter

Done!

From:

bookblather

They ARE I know. And omg that Bat Sestina makes my heart smile.

I have two lines written in your sestina. I WILL WRITE MORE.

From:

jjhunter

Glad you like it! At first I got absolutely no comments on it, which made me a little twitchy with nerves ("Is it horrible? Oh noes, nobody likes it!" etc.). I very much look forward to your sestina whenever you happen to finish it.

From:

bookblather

Many days later, your sestina!

Spice

The spices taste so strong upon the air
Cinnamon and clove so rich and sweet
On summer's wind, the seller sings his song
Of spices rich and strange to scent your life
Drown out the sorrow, waft away the dark
And lose yourself in sweetness, sharp and spice.

It calls you out into the streets, the spice
It drifts, an invitation on the air
It blows on quiet breezes through the dark
It brings into the sour'st life some sweet
It summons you to wake into your life
It whispers in its own sweet-scented song.

I'd give so much to hear its siren song
To savor in my nose the scent of spice
For mud and woe and stress bedevil life
And all I hear is weeping in the air
There's not a thing to make my mouth taste sweet
And not a spark to mitigate the dark.

On wretched days when all I see is dark
I raise my thoughts in silent inner song
And summon up the memories of sweet
and sharp upon my tongue; the taste of spice
That, pinched between the fingers, tossed in air,
Awakens thoughts of new and brighter life.

A life unhindered, or a dazzled life
A life discovered hiding in the dark
A life spent soaring high upon the air
A life with voices raised in constant song
Perhaps a life devoted to the spice
Of danger leavened with a friendship sweet.

They call me mad, to dream of things so sweet
That drive me hither, from a broken life
Eccentric, if they're kind, or taste the spice
That lingers on my tongue in secret dark
But some of them have heard the siren song
And take their steps, eyes shut, on open air.

There's hidden sweetness deep within the dark;
There's secret life encoded in the song;
There's taste of spices drifting on the air.