Sparks of Calliope

[MilesTRanter]

Two poems of mine appear today in Sparks of Calliope.

https://sparksofcalliope.com/2024/10/31 ... -elster-2/

[ton321]

Enjoyed both pieces. I'd read about the Greenland Shark.-strange to think something nearly as old as Shakespeare is still alive

Tony

[Macavity]

Absorbing as always Martin. Particularly like the use of 'slap'.

Congratulations

Phil

[MilesTRanter]

Thanks very much, Tony and Phil! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

Phil - Thanks for liking "slap."

Tony - Yes, it's remarkable how some animals can live so long. The Greenland Shark poem references a quahog clam called "Ming," which was 507 years old when scientists froze it (which unfortunately killed it) to count the rings on its shell. The Sunday Times journalists named it Ming because it was born during the Ming dynasty!

Thanks again, guys.

[Macavity]

Do you write poems without rhyme Martin? What is the value of rhyme for you? I'm asking, not a criticism, but I'm interested, especially because of the musical 'weight' of rhyme in a poem.

[MilesTRanter]

Thanks for asking, Phil. I’ve written non-rhyming poems, but most of my work either has meter or rhyme, or both. I recently co-wrote a book called Dogged: A Verse Novel with my writing partner Joan. She was mostly the storyteller and I was mostly the poet. During our nine-month collaboration, I explored many different kinds of forms, as well as inventing my own stanzaic structures.

I think around 3/4 of the poems have rhyme (accentual-syllabic), but there are also many rhyme-less ones. Some of them are also non-metrical. There are traditional forms like a crown of sonnets and villanelles, but also acrostics (and an alphabet poem) — most without meter or rhyme, but some with rhyme and meter. The book also contains several syllabic poems. Some of the rhyming poems are long lines without a meter (similar to the prose-like rhyming poems of Ogden Nash). There are also poems with very short lines, and I think there is even a palindrome poem in the book somewhere.

Anyway, why do I like rhyme? A couple of reasons come to mind. Rhyme (especially combined with meter) gives me a sort of framework or scaffolding in which I can free up my thoughts. Also, I just like the way rhyme sounds, which (as you said) is a kind of music. Regarding my first reason, I often think of this Igor Stravinsky quote:

The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self. And the arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.

[Macavity]

arbitrariness of the constraint serves only to obtain precision of execution.

Interesting Martin, especially the term 'arbitrariness', though the formal craft does have rhythms and sonics to reinforce meaning to compensate for a reduced vocabulary. The cleverness of craft, the maths of scaffolding as it were, no doubt has parallels in music. I often wonder why that ear for sound avoids less formal settings.