26 LETTERS: d’Verse Fractal Prompt

A. B. C. D.
You know the rest
26 letters
That have stood the test
Of time
Forming a fractal
Fraction of the alphabet
Alpha and Beta
Help you narrate a
Tale or two
Tell poeple who
you are
For
These individual letters,
When placed together,
Form words
(Which make our lives better)
These words form sentences
To describe a time or a place
Bring your emotions to life
Help you retrace
Your soul
Challenge you and console
These sentences merge together
And slowly evolve
Into fully fledged stories
Around which
Communication revolves
Poetry or prose
Fiction or not
These words can explode
Inform and entertain
Our very own language
That we use to absolve
Resolve and explain
Express our deepest desires
Ignite revolutions and fires
Just 26 letters
Can unshackle those fetters
Change our point of view Bring order to our world
And change it too

Written for dVerse poetics. Yesterday’s host, Lisa, says: Now that I have hopefully acquainted you with the concept and examples of fractals and connected them to poetry by subject and application, your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is:

1) Use any of the definitions, examples, images, or application of fractals to inspire you to write whatever strikes your fancy.

OR

2) Think about something/someone in your world that you have, up to this point, only given a superficial consideration of and decide to look a little closer at it/them. Use what you discover as fodder for a poem.

The poem above titled 26 LETTERS is the result. Hope you’ve enjoyed reading it! 🙏🤞😁

MUSICAL LOVE NOTES #SADJE’S #WDYS #WHATDOYOUSEE #POETRYPROMPT #143

For the visually challenged reader, the image above shows a person making some notes on a piece of paper, placed on top of some sheet music.

MUSICAL LOVE NOTES

Musical love notes
Trying to compose…
Myself
Placing my hand on the paper
To steady it
I look for the envelope
Where I already wrote
Your place of abode
As I seek to address
My feelings for you
Through song
As I seek to confess
My love for you
Which grows strong
Despite the distance
And your insistence
That we don’t meet
Yet.
I start to fret
And pray it’s not unrequited
That you will not fight it
That these musical chords
And ink stained words
(It’s all I can afford)
Will tie us closer together
Across the ocean
Stamped with a lyrical potion.
And all my devotion
Hopeful of a melodic reply
Not another reason why
Our song will fall flat
That our notes are whole
Sharp and in tune
And all that.
You’d come to expect
From musical love notes
And the emotion they reflect.

If you’d like to participate in the prompt then you can access it through the following link:

https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2022/07/18/what-do-you-see-143-july-18-2022/

POETRY: Autobiographical & Thoughtful reflection on Feelings and Frailties

As I was browsing through some poetry quotes this week, I was stopped in my tracks by these 2 quotes. There couldn’t be more accurate description of a poet and their art form than this! You want to know everything about a poet?! Then look no further than his/her poetry. You’ll find everything that you need to know about them within the lines & confines of their poems.

There’s no need to look anywhere else as, in their writing, a poet wears his/her heart on their sleeves and pours all their thoughts onto paper. All their ups and downs; their joys and sorrows; their observations & reflections; their strengths & frailties; their thoughts & feelings along their life’s journey are right there on a piece of paper for all to see.

Which brings us nicely onto Anne Stevenson’s quote concerning poetry being “about human feelings and frailties.” I know a lot of my poems deal or have dealt with these 2 characteristics. Want to see the human heart; weaknesses; emotions and condition in it’s rawest form?! Then look at poet baring his/her soul on the subject of loss or heartbreak or calling out themselves or humanity as a whole on it’s deficiencies.

Anything else is merely a “footnote” in our literary life as Mr. Yevgeny Yevtushenko points out; gloss on top of the picture already painted. It’s why poetry is a calling not a profession as it requires all of you and not just a part.

POETRY: EMOTIONAL WORD-PLAY

Today, we return to our poetry quotes blog where we take some favourite poetry quotes of mine; break them down; analyse them and apply the quotes to our lives as poets and readers alike.

This week we examine quotes from: Khalil Gibran.

“Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.”

and William Wordsworth

“Poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings: it takes its origin from emotion recollected in tranquillity.”

In other words, poetry is the natural; unforced result of all those diverse and powerful emotions that we experience every day that stir your heart and mind. They can be joyful & happy; painful and sad; heartbreaking and heartwarming; confusing & decisive; traumatic & peaceful. There’s so many

Throw in some of that natural wonder and curiosity at the world around us. Then add a healthy dose of the dictionary and some word puzzles if you’re so inclined (to help you find the right words for those emotions you can’t quite describe) into the mix.

Finally, a little quiet time or tranquillity as Mr. Wordsworth describes it, to help you make sense of it all and write it down. And you have the origins; the beginnings of a poem, you’re own little emotional word-play if you will.

POETIC REVELATIONS OF THE INNER SELF

“Poetry is the revelation of a feeling that the poet believes to be interior and personal which the reader recognizes as his own.” Salvatore Quasimodo

In my own experience I’ve often found the experience of writing poetry to be intensely personal whilst at the same time being very cathartic and therapeutic. You’re writing down thoughts; observations and experiences that, you think, are unique to you, that nobody else could possibly understand.

You find that process brings relief & healing and that’s a wonderful feeling in it’s own way. 😁👍 But what we don’t often realise is just how much our poems impact on folk who are reading them; how relatable they turn out to be. Or how much a person can identify with what we are writing: sharing or talking about. This can simply be down to you being honest with your feelings and struggles, a rarity still in these so called enlightened times. Or it could be the way you wrote it or the words you used that pulls the reader in as they’ve suddenly found a word for the emotions or problems they’ve been dealing with. 🤗😊

For someone to read what they are feeling or dealing with written out by someone else (who they may not even know) in front of them can be eye opening and comforting for the reader whilst wonderfully satisfying and humbling for the poet. It can connect you both intimately in a way that nothing else can achieve. Words are powerful; noble; funny and beautiful folks especially when used honestly; with good intentions and carefully chosen. They can shine a light on the dark; hidden places in people’s souls to reveal things they never knew about themselves; bring about hope: growth & purpose and change their lives forever.