Hello my poetic posse, it is time again for a new Word List! Way back in July, when the sun was high and the sidewalk hot, our source was a volume by poet A. E. Stallings called Like. This week we return to Ms. Stallings but switch to another volume called Hapax (Hapax: once, once only, once and for all.)
I love how she expresses both prosaic and weighty ideas in a most appealing and usually rhyming style. Rhyme seems to have somehow become the red-headed stepchild of modern poetry. Free verse, blank verse, prose poetry, and the dreaded imposter that calls itself poetry but is actually just journaling have taken over, it seems to me. Do I write free verse, blank verse, and prose poetry? You bet I do, but I also love rhyme and form, all the more as I grow older. And so, A.E. Stallings delights me, much as A. E. Housman always has. All these A.E.'s!
Last time, I didn't give you any examples of Stallings' work, but this time i am going to provide two. The first is one called "Apotropaic." The title means "power to ward off evil."
Pity Evil his quaintness and old-fangled
Manners, his age, his nerves so raw that bells
And firecrackers leave him spooked and jangled.
Shy of onion, garlic, pungent smells,
His stomach thrown off by a pinch of salt,
He hankers for blandness like an invalid.
He stands on ceremony. He will halt
When not invited in. You can be rid
Of his presence by vulgarity--eschew
His curious eye by spitting, and offend
His queer aesthetics with the color blue.
Beauty attracts him. He's quick to befriend
The lucky, the talented, the heaven-sent--
At your service if not your command--
Courtly, brought close by compliment,
Bowing, with his black hat in his hand.
___
And, "Another Lullaby For Insomniacs"
Sleep, she will not linger:
She turns her moon-cold shoulder.
With no ring on her finger,
You cannot hope to hold her.
She turns her moon-cold shoulder
And tosses off the cover.
You cannot hope to hold her:
She has another lover.
She tosses off the cover
And lays the darkness bare.
She has another lover,
Her heart is otherwhere.
She lays the darkness bare.
You slowly realize
Her heart is otherwhere.
There's distance in her eyes.
You slowly realize
That she will never linger,
With distance in her eyes
And no ring on her finger.
I have tried to suss out what form the latter example is, but failed. It is similar to, but not a Kyrielle or a villanelle. In any event, I love both its depth and its workmanship. You too?
What we do here is to use at least 3 of the 20 words provided in a new, original poem of our own. It need not rhyme or use form, that is merely what I personally like about the work of A.E.Stallings. Then just link up, visit others, and then try to get some sleep, despite the Black Hat Man! This prompt remains active through Sunday.
And now, your List:
ambulance
butterfly
cradle
chrysanthemums
ferric
flags
fogging
funeral
groggy
guess
idiocy
kinder
kites
mint
phantom
scatter
torch
tunes
wise
zero
I love that second poem, especially "Her heart is otherwhere." I will challenge myself to rhyme this week.
ReplyDeleteThat would be awesome!
DeleteThat is indeed a very cool form in the second example. She is using the second line of the previous stanza as first line of the next, and the last line as the third line of the next. It reminds me a little of the cascade form, but that's not it. Maybe she invented it! Anyway, love your choice this week, and perhaps the impossible will happen and I'll even be able to join in.
ReplyDeleteYes, I thought maybe cascade too, but as you say, it isn't. I would be tickled pink if you wrote something, as always my BFF.
DeleteMaybe it is the glue or toothpaste form - you squeeze more and more and the rhymes come out of the tube!
DeleteI worry about you at times like this, qbit.
DeleteThank you for the words and for the introduction to another interesting poet - Jae
ReplyDeleteMy pleasure, Jae.
DeleteThis introduction to A.E. Stallings is wonderful. Thank you, Shay. It's tough yet liberating to write according to form (rhythm, rhyme scheme) and I admire all those who pull it off with flair and beauty (like you!)
ReplyDeleteI love that second poem too. That kind of rhyme is always hard to pull off and amazing when it does. So glad to have made it here this week!
ReplyDeleteI love that you call journalling "that dreaded impostor that calls itself poetry."! That cracked me up. I also love the two poems you've shared here, and funny coincidence but I actually wrote a piece of flash fiction recently called "Apotropaic."!!
ReplyDelete