Here are two contrasting sonnets. The first by local Canberra poet Suzanne Edgar looks at the sonnet in traditional form … in the well-dressed format (with rhyming scheme abab cdcd aeae ff) and I must admit I do like the traditional – the well dressed woman with a subtle surprise to her name. We are too often told to think outside the square so it is nice to recognize the delights that are within and I love that first line … a light flavor without being too descriptive.

INSIDE THE SQUARE Suzanne Edgar (see footnote below)

A sonnet is a squarish-looking thing
Steady on its feet and neat, compact,
Not flighty like a bird upon the wing
or stealthy burglar startled in the act.
Sonnets always wear their hats and gloves’ –
conservative is not a tag they shun.
They never flirt about with loose-lipped loves,
avoid the wayward line and careless run,
but still they have their forceful little fling
which often turns assumptions upside down
permitting fourteen lines to dance and sing.
So if you meet one, do hold back a frown.
With even beat to captivate your ear
The sonnet will outlive the sceptic’s jeer.

Of course it is also nice to look outside the square. Paul Hetherington, another local poet, has done exactly that in his definition words below. Perhaps the casual sonnet can be more expressive allowing the street poet to exhibit quite uninhibited music. I guess it all depends upon your own personal taste and whether you think it scores more when a disciplined tune.

CASUAL SONNET Paul Hetherington

The casual sonnet
entrances because
it has the ease
of modernity
and none
of the old strictures.
It is free to embrace
the unknowable music
that the street vendor hums
and has the grace
of an outdoor cat
groomed by sunlight,
its manners
irrelevant.

This is basically two sentences broken into the mandatory requirement and to be a little different the “volta” is after six lines and not eight.

Poets are always trying to create something a little different. Don’t you think they are naturally outside the square sort of people?

Footnotes …
 
INSIDE THE SQUARE was first published in Kevin Brophy & Judith Rodriguez ed,  The 155^th Sonnet by the Melbourne Shakespeare Society/ Hit & Miss Publications, Melb 2010; then in Suzanne Edgar’s The Love Procession 2012.

Paul Hetherington is an associate professor at the Canberra University on the team of the International Poetry Studies Institute.

From an excellent article by Australian poet Judith Beveridge written for the New South Wales Writers Centre …

Throughout history, poetry has always been the most powerful and effective form for addressing and exploring deep spiritual questions.

Partly this is because poetry is connected so intimately with the breath. Poets know that the breath can act as an interpreting spirit, something which will help move, uplift and carry lived experience into rhythms and tones which allow both writer and reader to feel as if they are in communion and intense dialogue with the world around them.

The full article can be read on this link

A poem only comes alive when it is taken down from the book-shelf opened and a reader enters that unique word-world of the poet. The spirit of the read word then breathes into the living now and expands the consciousness of the reader in communion with the consciousness of the poet.

… (some poems could even take your breath away! – well you mustn’t take life too seriously must you).

The following is a selection of religious poems chosen for discussion at a recent U3A meeting in Canberra. I have included the list for interest – quite a variety of work.

Amoretti LXVIII: Most Glorious Lord of Life – Edmund Spenser
On His Blindness – John Milton                                                                                    
At the round earths imagin’d corners – John Dunne
A Song for Simeon – T.S. Eliot
Spring – Gerard Manley Hopkins
Making a Myth – R A Simpson
Extraterrestrial Report – Michael Thwaites
To J S Bach – Michael Thwaites
The Late Passenger – C S Lewis
How to hide Jesus – Steve Turner
Christmas is really for children – Steve Turner
Christ in the Clay-Pit – Jack Clemco

And below is Michael Thwaites’ humorous poem concerning Mary’s desire for something quite different from the gift she received – but it was by royal decree – so I guess she shouldn’t complain.

Extraterrestrial Report
 
Arrived at the heavenly mansions, the blessed Saint
(female on earth) was welcomed by St Peter
enquiring whom she most desired to meet.
Mother Mary? Positively no problem;
Let me conduct you.  Presently, bathed in bliss,
they sat together, in light and joy and fun.
The Saint was charmed.  Mother, how can it be –
you so divine, yet still so down-to-earth?
I don’t forget; and here I have my Son –
As a sword pierced my soul, he from the Cross
gave me in tender care to his dear friend,
my Son, my Son.
Yet there, as you have read,
he learned obedience by the things he suffered:
So did we all …
The Saint took courage, asked,
diffidently bold, Those pictures we so loved –
the Babe and you adoring: did we catch
ever a trace of not-quite-perfect joy?
Mother Mary twinkled – I was young:
I’d really wanted a girl.

Michael Thwaites

It is indeed an extraterrestrial report for it is something quite out of this world – to consider Mary desiring a daughter. We are very much conditioned with Mary and son Jesus. It is a nice twist and emphasizes the humanity of Mary – she comes down to earth so to speak – in fact the poem is grounded on the last pivotal line.

Some details on Michael Thwaites.

Your essential words …

One way at looking at any text … whether a book or books read, an article from the paper, a poem or even a few pages or paragraphs … is to define your own words that give your personal understanding to your reading.

If you work with mind-maps take a blank piece of paper in landscape form and start from the centre of the page. I suggest radiating five key words that reflect your reading. Each of these words could then be explored – this might result in changes to the first level words. These words could then be used in whatever way you wish in your own textual creation, including poetry of course.

The following is an example –

Looking at the philosophy of Teilhard De Chardin here are my five words associated with his thought …

God … providence … control … Christ
Evolution … progression … growth … complexification
Love … spiritual … energy force … connection
Order … physics … … harmony … relationships
Unity … christ in all … inclusive … communion of humanity

Teilhard De Chardin, Pierre (1881-1955), jesuit priest, geologist, palaeontologist, and philosopher-theologian, noted for his evolutionary interpretation of humanity and the universe and his insistence that such a view is compatible with Christianity. He was exiled. He spent time in China and India on scientific work.

Palaeontology is defined as the science of the forms of life existing in former geological periods, as represented by fossil animals and plants.

Scientific evolutionary theory is the key to Teilhard’s thought. Evolution, he wrote, “is a general condition to which all theories, all hypotheses, all systems must bow and which they must satisfy henceforward if they are to be thinkable and true. Evolution is a light illuminating all facts . . .

“. His major work, Le Phénomène humain (The Phenomenon of Man, 1955; trans. 1959), is an attempt to set forth a comprehensive evolutionary vision that speaks to both scientific and religious interests. Matter, argued Teilhard, has always obeyed “that great law of biology . . . the law of ‘complexification’“. He interpreted evolution as a purposive process in which the matter-energy of the universe has continually changed in the direction of increased complexity. With the emergence of humanity, he argued, evolutionary development entered a new dimension. From the biosphere (the layer of living things covering the Earth) has emerged the noosphere (a mind layer surrounding the Earth). This mind layer, or human consciousness, generates increasingly complex social arrangements that in turn give rise to a higher consciousness. Ultimately, the evolutionary process culminates in the convergence of the material and the spiritual into a super-consciousness that Teilhard called the Omega Point. ‘Love’ is the attractive force in a ‘God-Omega development’ and  gives direction to the whole evolutionary process. Such love, for Teilhard, is most clearly evident in a universal Christ.

Re: evolution …consider the evolution of man … the development of the brain … the jump with the development of language … and the attendant jump in social communication associated with language … and now in this age with the development of the Internet there is a quantum leap in communication … the development of social networking … the world-wide physical independence of human communion based on computer technology … and the speed at which a ‘common mental consciousness’ can develop.

Teilhard’s three components … Apologetics (a branch of theology concerned with proving the truth of Christianity)… defended by writing … Mystism … spiritual intuition and truth … Physics … natural laws, matter and energy

Some thoughts …

As a scientist he understood the growth of humanity and the ever-increasing complexity of life especially that of the mind and the deepening of relationships based on his phenomenological approach. Christ is in all life. The emphasis is on an inclusive worldview of humanity unified by the personal presence of Christ within each individual.

Eventually the evolution of humanity will grow to a point where increased consciousness is the key to a new understanding in the relationship between man and God.

God is the destination and the love-force that develops and controls the development of both the collective and the individual.

I think he believed in the individual and the relationship to ‘the whole’ … the individual is not lost … the communion of the universe is seen through personal eyes and each person is defined by their relationship to all life. A person is seen as having no meaning outside their relationship to others, the common and to God.

definition – phenomenology

1. 1.      the science of phenomena, as distinguished from ontology or the science of being.
2. 2.       the school of the German philosopher Edmund Husserl, 1859–1938, which stresses the careful description of phenomena in all domains of experience without regard to traditional epistemological questions.

Poetry is annoying

Well what do we mean by poetry … many answers to this question … what do we mean by beauty … a similar problem … but perhaps it is easier to know when we recognise beauty … but do we know when we recognise poetry …

If there is a formalised definition – for example, we could say poetry must have within it some sort of poetic structure and then define poetic structure ( such as rhyme, rhythm …), so in this way we could filter work according to our agreed definition (I still meet people who say a poem is not a poem unless it rhymes)

But of course what happens then is that a defined poem may not be ‘poetic’ in the eyes of the beholder … just as beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder … so perhaps individual taste has a lot to say on what is poetry and what is not poetry (or at least what is worthy of the name, what is ‘good’)

… today conformity to some form of rigour in the nature of poetic expression is somewhat lacking … an almost anything goes attitude and if the author defines the work as a poem then it is a poem (at least to her or him) … so given this wide approach to what is accepted perhaps individual taste is much more important in defining the nature of poetry and poetic expression

… and perhaps those poems that have ‘agreed common poetic respect’ will survive the ravages of time and like splendid historic homes be frequented by many visitors.

But what does a poem do for you? … what differentiates poetry from other reading? … an elderly lady was asked to give her view … her reply was simple …

… a poem annoys

… elaborating … I have to stop and think and spend time looking at the text … in short I am arrested … and furthermore I might not be rewarded after using time and energy

I like this response … poetry makes you think

… whether you – see an experience in a new light, see life in a different perspective to the extent of changing behaviour – or whether your awareness is stimulated to the extent of widening your understanding and appreciation of life by understanding another – is, of course, another matter.

Please enjoy those annoying times when poetry may arrest you out of the blue – but you are always free to go afterwards.

A friend sent this interesting Website link which contains these words …

“Poetry makes possible the deepest kind of personal possession of the world.”

“True poetic practice implies a mind so miraculously attuned and illuminated that it can form words, by a chain of more-than coincidences, into a living entity,” – words attributed to Edward Hirsch in his directive on how to read a poem.

This begs the question … to what extent does the reader of a poem enter into the mind of the poet? … in a poetic way of course. And secondly if a poet reads his/her poem is this the best read ever for those that listen?

A poem only has life when it is read and what sort of life – well that depends on both the poet and the reader. What are the poems that you like to read time and time again and to what extent do you think you understand the poet from this association with his words. Are you hearing what I am trying to say?

On the birth of the new century in Canberra 13/3/2013

C … Canberra

E … Enjoy

N … Now

T … That

U … You

R … Are

Y … Young

From the ‘Parliamentary Triangle’, the first sunrise reflections on Lake Burley Griffin with the Carillion in the background.

Well today is the first day, the birth of a new journey … you will never be so young again … tomorrow you will always be older than yesterday! … enjoy, but take it easy … for you do have a long way to go  (36,449 more in your daily pilgrimage).

What makes best selling poetry in Australia …

http://richard-outoftheblue.blogspot.com.au/2012/07/best-selling-poetry-in-australia.html