About Poetry

About Poetry

BLOG SESSION

April 23rd, 2018

Welcome Poets and Poetry Lovers!

Today's Session will be about our favorite subject matter for all Writers who have been following along here on the Blog with our Sessions this month.  In addition to taking Journal notes about our writing projects and current Novels that we are working on in Camp NaNoWriMo, we are going to dive into another area that many of the Writers here are focused on, and that is something near and dear to those who have the "gift" of a Poet's Pen.  When it comes to writing many of you zone in on the genre of poetry.

About Poetry:  Poetry is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.

I'd like to mention that many of us here started writing poetry at a young age because we learned about the likes of Edgar Allan Poe, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Langston Hughes, Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, William Wordsworth, Oscar Wilde, and many others who captured our interest with their fascinating poetics.

Young Poet 

As a child, your mind absorbs literary works with a sense of wonder at play.  Visual images come to mind and help the young writer to see exactly what the poet is trying to relay with his or her poetic words.

It is very easy for children to learn to write poetry because they have been indoctrinated with Nursery Rhymes from an infant. 

Everyone of us can identify with the Nursery Rhymes, "Row, row, row your boat...." and "Mary had a little lamb..." and "A Tisket, A Tasket"... and "Baa Baa Black Sheep"..., and the famous "ABC Song".  Nursery Rhymes are in our memory banks.

We must also keep in mind that Music is a rhythmatic vessel awaiting poetic words to be applied ~ also known as Lyrics.

As you grab your Journal today to take notes on our Session . . .

Journal Notes

Please take a moment to think about some of your favorite Lyrics.  If you simply read the lyrics without the music, does a poem appear?  Do you hear the music playing in your head as you read the words to the song?  Do the words (lyrics) inspire you to write poetry?

On the other hand, when you read poetry, does a rhythm form and begin to take motion like wings on a butterfly?  Do you hear the sound of the poem?  Does the beat of the poem become louder or softer as you read?  When reading poetry, does your spirit tap in and meet the poet on the paper and in the air?  Does your spirit "feel" the poet's meaning?  Can you grab a hold of the emotions that are within the poetic words?

What exactly does poetry do for you as far as inspiration and motivation when it comes to the literary world?  Does poetry touch your soul?

Do you consider yourself a Poet?

The Young Poet

(Thinks, feels, expresses)  

Thought-provoking poetry is always inspiring.  Take a Read...

Dream Deferred - Poem by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--
And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.

Or does it explode? 

By Langston Hughes

Still I Rise by Maya Angelou

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

By Maya Angelou

To all the Poets ~ You too shall rise.

Write your poetry and feel blessed as you do!

OUR NEXT BLOG SESSION:

Making Your Poetry Journal

Peace, Love & Light

By René Allen

©Copyright - René Allen - 2014-2018 - All Rights Reserved

Frieda Hughes ~ English Poet & Painter

Frieda Hughes

English Poet & Painter

BLOG SESSION

December 18th, 2017

Welcome back Poets, Poetry Lovers, Authors, Artists, Blog Followers & Visitors ~  Get ready for another exciting Blog Session today!

Today we are going to be discussing Frieda Hughes, English Poet & Painter, and daughter of the famous Poet Sylvia Plath.  If you were here for our last Blog Session, then you were able to read the background of both Frieda's mother, Sylvia Plath, and her father, Ted Hughes.  [You may scroll down to see our previous Blog Session, or you may check out our right-hand column under our "Blog Archive" to see any previous Sessions that you may have missed].

At this point, please pull out your Journal to take notes on today's Blog Session...

Journal Notes

Frieda Hughes

English Poet & Painter

Born April 1st, 1960

Frieda Rebecca Hughes was born on April 1st, 1960.  She is an English Poet & Painter.  Frieda has published seven (7) children's books and four poetry collections.  She also has had many Exhibitions.

Frieda Hughes is the daughter of poets sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes.  Frieda's mother was one of the most influential poets of the century, and her father was the British poet laureate from 1984 until his death in 1998.  Frieda's mother died by suicide when Frieda was almost three.  Frieda's father died of a heart attack.  Frieda's brother, Nicholas Hughes, died by suicide on March 16th, 2009.

Nicholas Hughes, Frieda Hughes and Ted Hughes

Frieda Hughes was born in London.  Through their father's mother, Frieda and Nicholas are descendants of Nicholas Ferrar (1592 - 1637).  Their father's mother moved to Perth, Western Australia in 1988, and later settled in Wooroloo, a small hamlet north of Perth, in 1991.  There the Australian landscape became the basis of much of Frieda's painting.  Frieda became an Australian citizen in 1992.  Frieda has dual citizenship ~ British - Australian.

Frieda Hughes was married to farmworker Desmond Dawe from 1979 to 1982.  Her second husband was real estate agent Clive Anderson.  Her third marriage in 1996 was to Hungarian Artist Laszio Lukacs.  The two divorced in 2010 after a year-long separation.

EDUCATION

Frieda Hughes graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design - London, with a BA (Hons.) in 1988.

CAREER BACKGROUND

From 2006 to 2008 Frieda wrote a weekly poetry column for The Times newspaper and in 2008 was chair judge for the Forward Prizes for Poetry and a judge for the National Poetry Competition.

In February 2010, Frieda was a guest on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3.

In October 2015, Frieda spoke for the first time about her father as part of the BBC Two documentary, Ted Hughes:  Stronger Than Death.

CHILDREN'S BOOKS

   Tall Story

By Frieda Hughes

Genre:  Fiction ~ Children's Literature

Published:  1997

Mickey is always telling lies.  Not just small ones, but great BIG enormous ones, too.  Then he goes to stay with Grandma and an awful thing happens.  Mickey's lies stop being lies, and start to come true.  When he says there are frogs in his soup, they really do appear.  And what was a totally made-up allergy to soap--and washing in general--is now an allergy for real Poor Mickey, he's sorry for ever telling lies in the first place, however fun it was.  Will he really learn his lesson, though?

The Thing in the Sink

(Colour Storybook)

By Frieda Hughes

Genre:  Fiction ~ Children's Literature

Published:  1992

There's a strange thing lurking in Peter's bathroom.  It looks a bit like a frog--but then again, perhaps it's a pig?  Maybe even a dragon?  It is green and slimy, and frankly it's getting in Peter's way.  No one else seems bothered by it--but it's getting on Peter's nerves.  He's always wanted a pet of his own, but really The thing will have to go.  Trouble is, will it want to?

Find out more about Frieda Hughes Poetry Collections and Children's Books by visiting her website here.

Find out more about Frieda Hughes beautiful oil paintings by visiting her website here.

Enjoy your day dear friends, and we'll meet again back here on the Blog for another exciting Session tomorrow!

Peace, Love & Light

By René Allen

©Copyright - René Allen - 2014-2017 - All Rights Reserved

FAMOUS POETS

FAMOUS POETS

BLOG SESSION

December 11th, 2017

Good Afternoon Blog Readers, Followers, Poets, Poetry Lovers & Visitors ~ We are back for another great Blog Session about Famous Poets!

Today's Blog Session will shed light on some Famous Poets.  If you are a Poet, or a poetry lover, you'll need to grab your Journal to take notes.

Can you imagine a time back in the day when there was a certain Poet that amazed poetry readers with his poetics, and still does to this day?  Take a look at who this man is . . .

Edgar Allan Poe

January 19, 1809 - October 07, 1849

(Died at age 40)

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, editor, and literary critic.  Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre.  He is widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, and he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction.  He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

FAMOUS LITERARY WORKS:

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe (published 1845) Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. [Excerpt]

Alfred Lord Tennyson

1809 - 1892

Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson, FRS was Poet Laureate of Great Britain and Ireland during much of Queen Victoria's reign and remains one of the most popular British poets.

A number of phrases from Tennyson's work have become commonplaces of the English language, including "Nature, red in tooth and claw" (In Memoriam A.H.H.), "Tis better to have loved and lost/Than never to have loved at all", "Theirs is not to reason why,/Theirs but to do and die", "My strength is as the strength of ten,/Because my heart is pure", "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield", "Knowledge comes, but Wisdom lingers", and "The old order changeth, yielding place to new".

Alfred Lord Tennyson is the ninth most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.

Oscar Wilde

Born October 16, 1854 in Dublin, Ireland

Died November 30, 1900 in Paris, France

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright.  After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s.  He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, as well as the circumstances of his imprisonment and early death.

Oscar Wilde was a Poet and a Dramatist whose reputation rests on his only Novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891),  and on his comic masterpieces Lady Windermere's Fan (1892) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895).  He was a spokesman for the late 19th-century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art's sake, and he was the object of celebrated civil and criminal suits involving homosexuality and ending in his imprisonment (1895-97).

Wilde was born of professional and literary parents.  His father, Sir William Wilde, was Ireland's leading ear and eye surgeon, who also published books on archaeology, folklore, and the satirist Jonathan Swift.  His mother, who wrote under the name Speranza, was a revolutionary poet and an authority on Celtic myth and folklore.

In the final decade of his life, Wilde wrote and published nearly all of his major work.  In his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (published in Lippincott’s Magazine, 1890, and in book form, revised and expanded by six chapters, 1891), Wilde combined the supernatural elements of the Gothic novel with the unspeakable sins of French decadent fiction.  Critics charged immorality despite Dorian’s self-destruction; Wilde, however, insisted on the amoral nature of art regardless of an apparently moral ending.  Intentions (1891), consisting of previously published essays, restated his aesthetic attitude toward art by borrowing ideas from the French poets Theophile Gautier and Charles Baudelaire and the American painter James McNeill Whistler.  In the same year, two volumes of stories and fairy tales also appeared, testifying to his extraordinary creative inventiveness: Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime, and Other Stories and A House of Pomegranates.

T. S. Eliot

Born September 26,1888

Died January 4, 1965

(Died at age 76)

Thomas Stearns Eliot, OM was a British essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, and "one of the twentieth century's major poets".  He moved from his native United States to England in 1914 at the age of 25, settling, working, and marrying there.  He eventually became a British subject in 1927 at the age of 39, renouncing his American citizenship.

• Awards:  Nobel Prize in Literature (1948); Tony Award for Best Play (1950); Tony Award for Best Original Score (1983); Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (1983); Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Musical (1981); Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Broadway Musical (1983); Outer Critics Award for Best Play (1950)

Movies:  Cats ~ Murder in the Cathedral ~ The Waste Land

OUR NEXT BLOG SESSION:

MORE FAMOUS POETS!

When we come back,

get ready to learn more

inspirational information

for the Poet in you!

Peace, Love & Light

By René Allen

©Copyright - René Allen - 2014-2017 - All Rights Reserved 

Let's talk about POETRY!

Welcome to another fabulous day dear Blog Readers.  Let us turn our attention to the topic of "Poetry".

Many of you either read Poetry, Write Poetry, or would like to know more about the art of writing Poetry. Since we had been discussing Short Story Writing on our previous Blog posts, we may as well include the uplifting topic of Poetry.

If you are a Poet, you can understand it when I say your goal is not just to write poetry, but to write poetry that makes a statement. You'd like to touch the Readers of your poetic works right?

The most exciting writing begins with the first draft, or the first "write". That includes writing "poetry".

Let us keep in mind that not all people get into poetry the way that you do. But chances are they do know about the Famous Poets of the world. Poets like Maya Angelou, Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, William Shakespeare, Langston Hughes, William Wordsworth, Lord Alfred Tennyson -- are just a few recognizable names when it comes to Poetry. Of course, there are many others.

Writing poems just to express yourself is fine, and writing poems to express the sentiments of others is even better. When you can speak to the heart of other people, then your poetry is felt within the soul of the Reader. You must love what you do, and do what you love.

Poet Maya Angelou

(Poet Laureate)

"Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope." ~ Maya Angelou

Poetry can and does change the way you and your Readers see the world and the people in it. Your poetry has the possibility of breaking new ground when you are able to have your poetry translated into different languages. Various cultures around the world can relate to your sentiments when expressed in a language in which they understand you.

Your poetry can become a concert of voices and resonate with sound by the flow of your words. Putting your poetry to music is another way of bringing across the spirit of your poetic message.

Learning just how certain tools of poetic composition can be used (or mis-used) gives you an angle toward writing poetry that is effective for your audience and an expanded audience that can appreciate what your poetic words express.

If you are a Poet, then you know about the joy of writing a poetic piece, and then later being surprised at just how wonderful it is when your poetic words inspire and motivate not only you, but also your Readers.

In our next Blog post, we will talk a little about how poetry orchestrates its music, arguments, tensions, and environment via arrangements of language into lines and stanzas. The importance of line break is a topic that every poet should be familiar with.

The question for every Poet is this: Do you break more for sound, for sense, for visual effect, for shape, or for a mix of several of those reasons?

We'll be back to address the above question, and discuss two other meaningful topics on the next Blog post relating to Poets and Poetry.

Think about these two terms, "Abstractions" and "Images". What do those terms mean to you Poet? Come back here to find out more!

I'm looking forward to having your presence here online for our next continuing segment on the topic of "Poetry".

Peace, Love & Light,

 René

©Copyright - René Allen - APRIL 2017 - All Rights Reserved