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Stag Night

The nights are long, and the days are short now
While winter winds echo across the land
Tonight the king will return as is planned
With a frosty touch on a silent bough
There by the fire I chant the sacred words
Amid inky sigils and corvine birds
And the gods of Sun return to my heart
If winter should bring yet more ice and snow
In their blessed warmth and love I will stand
A warrior touched by the ancient hand
To see their magic in the arcane glow
That carries the soul as the long nights drag
The Sun’s return the sweetest counterpart
On this path of mine, the path of the stag

© JG Farmer 2018

Style / type: 
Structured: Western
Last few words: 
Form: Alternating Sonnet
Editing stage: 

Comments

rather than me critting it. The only spiritual things I ever do are acknowledge the Solstices and Equinoxes, and the path of the the stag is clear.

This is the bit that will sound rude but I promise I am not meaning to be, just blunt.
Why did you write it?

ps, love what you say on your profile. One slight disagreement, to "let the feel and sound of words take over" is precisely what a formal knowledge of poetry teaches us to do.
Glad to meet you. I anticipate some interesting discussions.

cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry

Why did I write it, well that's not rude at all. I am a Celtic Witch and a Welshman so often run with the legends of my tradition in my poetry.

Ok, I do agree with you on formal poetry but I also disagree because I know if I am being uber strict with structure, form, meter etc I am not letting too much of me into the write. When I release myself from sticking too strictly to given parameters or write free verse I let me into the piece, in fact, with free verse it is often 100% guts. I hope that makes sense.

Regards

Jez

author comment

and I have been through the same process myself.

I am not pro-structure or pro-freeform I a pro poetry- whatever works. I've written haiku, sonnet, villanelle (they're a bugger) with and without censorship (I fucking love strong language). One thing I am sure of is that learning poetic forms only increases our craft's workshop tools and vocabulary, it in no way limits it.

That is why some regard me as a structural traditionalist, which is patently untrue if you read my work. I just believe in learning all the forms to expand our creative toolbox. Fair enough? Please consider all that when I say that this sonnet, whilst being 14 lines and rhyming structure, is not very poetic. Bottom line for all poetry, little realised, is meter, not rhyme. Apart from some Scandinavian alliteration based work.

So read it aloud to yourself. Then please get back to me with what you hear. Then I will offer possible critique. Why am I going on like this? Well, instinctually, whether it be poetry or spirituality, I feel I'm about to enter more a learning than a teaching mode. Probably synchronistically.

Oh, yes, I am/was a shaman.
cheers

cheers,
Jess
A new workshop on the most important element of poetry-
'Rhythm and Meter in Poetry'
https://www.neopoet.com/workshop/rhythm-and-meter-poetry

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