Poetry School - Lesson 4 The Villanelle

Today’s lesson will be very simple. I am going to demonstrate the Villanelle. It is a simple pattern and best explained by illustration.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

By Dylan Thomas

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Okay what we’re noting here is the repetition of the lines and the rhyming scheme.  The first and third lines of the original stanzas are used alternatively as the last lines in the next four stanzas. In the final stanza the last two lines are the first and third line of the first stanza. Finally the first and third lines of the stanzas all rhyme while the second lines of the stanzas rhyme as well.

Here is one I wrote.

True Love’s Call

By John Kaniecki

I hear at night my true love call

I know not any more precious sound

The sweetest of angels sometimes fall

My beauty, my soul, my passion, my all

I look to you for in you I’m found

I hear at night my true love call

I beg of you a kiss if but small

Let me help you to where you are bound

The sweetest of angels sometimes fall

You are a dream so fondly I recall

I perceive a whisper I chase round and round

I hear at night my true love call

Heaven without you stands not so tall

The essence of love now walks the ground

The sweetest of angels sometimes fall

On the cross for water they gave you gall

Why have you forsaken me, the words resound

I hear at night my true love call

The sweetest of angels sometimes fall

Please send your Villanelles to peacepoems@mail.com

Also check out my poetry books.

Click Here

Click Here

Click Here

Click Here

Click Here

Click Here

Click Here

Poetry School Lesson 3 - The "List" Poem, the easiest rhyming poem to write.

The List Poem- The Easiest Rhyming Poem To Write

Okay so writing a rhyming poetry might be intimidating. The question is where to begin. Poetry, like any other art, comes in steps. Once you start writing and reading other poetry, your writing will improve. Hopefully, one day your poetry will have a unique character all of its own. That somebody would read it and know who the author was.

So what is a list poem? It is a phrase I coined. Basically what you do is create a list and then put down rhyming lines. It is good to pay attention to meter in the task as well. Generally what one is looking for is a consistent rhythm unless you have some reason to deviate like to place emphasis.

The best way to show a list poem is to demonstrate.

Deep Thoughts

by John Kaniecki

Quasars

Jimi Hendrix licking electric guitars

Einstein tripping on acid

The ocean eternally placid

A rhyming poet raging in fun

Being born before time begun

The Words of the great I Am

Who would buy from a cable TV scam?

How you are miserably caught

In a dark, devious, deep thought

What was there before light

What you'll have for dinner tonight

The crucifixion was insane

Acid in the rain

Why a God of Love let's baby starve

A piece of wood you want to carve

The abundance of pornography

What you really mean to me

Bob Dylan singing in tune

How the cow jumped over the moon

When the sun refuses to rise

How we're all confused by lies

How mistress money is only paper

And we can't escape her

How when old we repeat our parents' ways

The passing of the Rubix Cube phase

How three Beatles were born in Liverpool

Why I am the perfect fool

All the things they don't teach in school

Why learning is fun

How to decide the poem is done

I think this poem came out well. All it is are examples or a list. You see how you can get very creative. Also to come up with rhymes is relatively easy.

Here’s another one with a couple of added lines, it's from my book “Poet To The Poor, Poems Of Hope For The Bottom One Percent.”

The Land of Plenty

By John Kaniecki

We live in the land of plenty

Yes we do

We live in the land of plenty

Dear God it’s true

Plenty of suffering and pain

Plenty of dark skies and rain

Plenty of people living a lie

Plenty of people getting high

Plenty of people hungry

Plenty of people not free

Plenty of people doing time

Plenty of people making crime

Plenty of ill will and hate

Plenty of useless idle debate

Plenty of people with no job

Plenty of people following the mob

Plenty of people who don’t care

Plenty of people who just won’t share

Plenty of people sick with greed

Plenty of people in dire need

Plenty of people killing and dying in war

Plenty of people wanting more

There’s plenty of plenty

But don’t give none of it to me

Once again the poem is basically a list of things. The first four lines serve as an introduction, while the last two are a conclusion. You see how you can develop a "list" poem. 

Of course in this last poem, you can always embed the list deep in the poem.

Uncle Sam’s Racket

By John Kaniecki

There’s a mafia boss running a scam

Ruthless and cruel he don’t give a damn

You know the criminal as Uncle Sam

His gangster colors are red, white and blue

And his sweetest line is “I want you”

“I want you to kill in war”

“I want you to sacrifice more”

“I want you filled with hate”

“I want you as slave of the state”

“I want you to stay in line”
”I want you to be all mine”

“I want you to pay, pay, pay”

“I want you to do just as I say”

“I want you to believe my lie”

“Above all I want you to never ask me why”

‘Sam, what about the Bill of Rights?’ I inquire

Those are the American Ideals I desire

Sam growled his face aflame with fury

“It’s only a piece of paper, don’t worry”

‘Sam,’ I said ‘millions fought and died for our constitution’

‘We Love the dream but hate your institution’

Sam was extremely mad, he don’t like citizens to talk back

But friends and enemies a facts a fact

I am loyal to our country’s highest call

You arrogant aristocrats soon you will fall

I’ve witnessed you slide green into the government’s pocket

I know all about Uncle Sam’s Racket

You see the “I want you to …..” parts. Once again it is a list.

At a final note if you can’t create a rhyming poem like this your in trouble.

Please send me some rhyming ‘list poems’ to peacepoems@mail.com

Also, share this post so we can get some attention and more students.  At this point I don't know where we are going next but if you have suggestions. I'm thinking of a Haiku, something I have little skill at. 

Please click here to check out "Poet To The Poor" 

Poetry School Lesson #2 The Sonnet

Poetry School Lesson #2 The Sonnet

So the question to be asked is ‘why to begin with a sonnet?’

First of all, a sonnet naturally leads to two essential elements of poetry rhyme and rhythm. Secondly, it takes skill and talent to write a sonnet. Poetry is an art like any other art.

Let’s compare poetry to painting. In painting one does not jump into the abstract. Rather they prove their control of the medium by simple paintings, such as a fruit bowl or a portrait. When I went to Manhattan and saw Picasso’s collection I was amazed. I first saw his early paintings. They were incredible and lifelike. I saw many paintings that I could tell, without a doubt what they were. They were painted excellent.

Then I saw other paintings by Picasso.  They didn’t make sense to me. They were abstract. Still, I could appreciate these distorted depictions of life. Why? Because I knew, by his work, that Picasso was in control of his medium, that every brush stroke was done exactly as he wanted.

Now in poetry, there is some creature called free verse. Free verse in poetry is like an abstract to a painter. If I as a painter can’t even paint a decent fruit bowl or portrait why should you respect my abstracts?

The same holds in poetry. Today all rules are out of whack. Under the ambiguous cover of free verse, anything goes. Poems lack substance and meaning. Poets think they are sophisticated but they haven’t proven themselves. Where is their demonstration of mastering the art?

William Shakespeare is considered one of the greatest writers in the English language if not the greatest writer ever. Outside of his plays Shakespeare wrote sonnets. In fact, he created his own sonnet.

Sonnet 18

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm'd;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

   So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

So what is going on here?

Okay, so there are two main features.

The first is the meter. There are ten beats to every line. In practical application, many authors violate this ten beat rule. Usually, the discrepancy is adding beats to the line. The reason this is done is to create a complete thought. It is much easier to add a beat than to remove one.

Also there is the rhyming scheme of

A

B

A

C

D

C

D

E

F

E

F

G

G

The last pair is called a couplet.

Here are a couple of my sonnets.

This first one comes from my book “Sunset Sonnets”

Sunset Sonnet 1

Black petals shriveled akin to leper’s skin

I dare not touch what I once held in my hands

Death decays outside, life vibrant within

Love is for fools only folly understands

Seasons commit treasons to everyone

In Spring we joyfully sing youth’s sweet song

Never to realize death’s hold has begun

We mock the reaper confident and strong

My spectacle covered eyes behold you

You sleep foreshadowing eternal rest

Inept in all the world, nothing to do

I shall walk alone to complete my quest

Ah my sweet rose you shall never truly part

In unending youth you reside in my heart

This second one I bend the rules of a sonnet changing the rhyming structure. This sonnet is maybe thirty years old.

Sonnet #3

Since we first met you have been on mind

In nightly dreams and in my fantasy

What kind of spell have you put over me?

Your light shines brightly making my eyes blind

There’s a sense of awe but I find you kind

In life I desire to make you happy

Your lips are tender I kiss you with glee

If I searched nothing better I could find

For you are special totally unique

Inside of you love is real with such power

Your words sing like an angel’s holy choir

I have truly found what the poets seek

In your eyes I see the beautiful flower

You take me to a place that is higher

Please participate by writing a sonnet and mailing it to peacepoems@mail.com

Next we will look at the simplest rhyming poem to write, something I call a list poem.

Please investigate my book of sonnets called “Sunset Sonnets.” It is a positive and spiritual look at death and dying. “As Love slips away, what does one say?”

Click here to check out Sunset Sonnets. 

Click Here 

Poetry School Lesson One - What Is A Poem?

What is a Poem?

While this seems like a simple question the answer is very complex, especially today. It seems that everything and anything these days passes for poetry, from Haikus, to prose poems, to sonnets to things undefined.

This is the beginning of a book that is going to teach people how to write poetry. In particular, it is an effort to reign in the wildness of poetry and bring it back to more traditional grounds. Today the world of poetry is simply out of control, wilder than a Grateful Dead instrumental when tripping on LSD.

I have very little respect for modern poetry as I see it portrayed, where at best I relegate it to associated words. I read so many poems and after I am done I asked the befuddled question ‘What?’

So to answer the question, “A poem is a piece of literature that communicates something in the brevity of words.”

What is communicated depends solely on the poet. It could be simply words that tantalize the ears as in this tongue twister.  “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” Everybody when they hear those words spoken recognizes something audibly.

Poetry is an art. If a picture is a thousand words than a poem is a thousand pictures. Poetry can be both simple and complex and sometimes both. When poetry is done best it communicates a lot in a limited amount of space, as in my favorite poem, “Ozymandias.”

Ozymandias

By Percy Bysshe Sheley

I met a traveller from an antique land,

Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal, these words appear:

My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;

Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

The poem uses the elements of structure, rhythm, rhyme, imagery, and symbolism. The poet paints an unforgettable picture in your mind and delivers a clear and obvious message. Contrast this poetry with the majority of what passes as poetry today. To write poetry like Sheley takes talent.

There was a time when poetry was far too structured and Walt Whitman blew the doors open. The agents of Chaos have reigned supreme and it is time, for the sake of the art, to gain control. There is a very simple method in recapturing the world of poetry for the better and that is by success. Today the number of poets cannot be counted. Yet how many poets of today are household names? Where are the modern Robert Frost’s or Langston Hughes?

A great poet can be appreciated by everybody who is willing to take time to read their poem. Simplicity in poetry is something desired. Poetry is designed for the masses, not simply other poets. Shakespeare wrote in the common language of the day his art accessible and enjoyed by all. Today poetry, in the form of song lyrics, still attract tremendous attention.

At age twenty when I dropped out of engineering school, I began to pursue writing. I lost much of my very early stuff but a collection called “A Day’s Weather” survived. Almost thirty years later I self-published this book of poetry and it is available today. I would like to share a couple of pieces. The premise of the book is to go through a day’s weather and express each aspect poetically.

Refreshing

Hey will you be my friend

We’ll be loyal to the end

We can share our toys

Laughs innocent boys

They are guiltless when they

Forget their father’s way

Colt arise

Open your eyes

Life has just begun

Soon you will run

Nuzzled by mother’s nose

How graceful a horse grows

Walking in but a day

Soon galloping on his way

Gittup, gittup and run

Life has just begun

These two poems are collected under the category Refreshing, as in a refreshing wind. While it is far from Sheley there is innocence to it.

This next poem of mine I wrote for a young lady at church. She wasn’t even a teenager yet but now I believe she has children of their own. It was a fun thing to do because I sketched a couple of funny pictures illustrating the events of the poem.

Mischief

By John Kaniecki

The imp’s eye shined like a diamond green

He came to the fariee with thoughts so mean

Perhaps I’ll play a little game he thought

The Fariee Queen will never know she’s caught

So Oliver the imp took out a harmonica blue

And in the sky with wings dark he flew

He flew to a cloud in the heights on high

That was the imp with the green diamond eye

The Fariee Queen she gazed at the little brat

Wondered what he was up to and all that

The imp oblivious to the gaze of the queen

Thought quite cleverly that he was unseen

Oliver took out his magic box full of dust

The color of red when metal does rust

Well he shook his hand and let the dust fly

And it filled all the highest reaches of the sky

The queen, Jackie was her name (such a beaut)

Took out her horn and began to toot

The imp confused at the magical mystery sound

Flew in circles certainly not heavenly bound

The more of the story if one does exist

Is that the imp felt he could not resist

Mischief is like that my beautiful friend

I’m afraid that’s all but it’s not the end

So I ask you, do these poems work?  Is there something communicated? When you read the poems out loud does it have an effect?

If you would like to participate I would ask you to share a poem that you wrote that clearly communicates something.  Next up we are going to look at sonnets.

If you would like to purchase “A Day’s Weather” click on this.