Workshops and Mentors Update

Workshops
We’ve been busy creating and running new workshops. Since the last newsletter we’ve run, Olympic Pool "Cliches", Olympic Pool "Writing With Emotions", Shark Pool "Critique Quickie", Splash Pool "Brainstorming Poetry", Shark Pool, Plunge Pool "Meter for everyone!", Splash Pool "Expanding Your Perspective" and Shark Pool / Plunge Pool "Rhyme- use, variations and forms." 
 

Our team is:

Director: Jess (weirdelf) 

Co-Director: Guy (Geezer) 

Assistant Director: Wesley (WesleySnow)
"Splash Pool" Leader: Barbara (Barbara Writes) 

"Olympic Pool" Leader: Wesley 

 

Workshops currently underway:

Working With Titles led by Barbara

Storytelling in Verse led by Wesley

More Meter led by Jess

 

We’ve had great feedback from participants in all workshops. 

Be sure to contact Jess (weirdelf) or any of the leaders if you have an idea or request for a workshop you would like. 

Mentors
We have a great team of Mentors poised and ready to go for the relaunch 

An invitation
We will need more Mentors. You don’t have to be an expert in all forms and techniques of poetry, you just need to always aim to offer the very best you can by making a time commitment to your proteges and offering respectful and honest critique. You will need flexibility, a sense of teamwork and the ability to encourage and empathize with your protege. 

Mentoring has been one of my most rewarding experiences on Neopoet, 
 

Cheers, 

Jess (weirdelf) Mentor/Workshops Program Director 

Guy (geezer) Mentor/Workshops Program Co-director 

Wesley Snow Mentor/Workshops Program Asst. Director
 

So you are thinking about joining a workshop? But before you actually do, there are a few things to consider before you start so that you get the most out of experience. 

The first thing to consider is the amount of commitment asked by the workshop leader. Typical workshops are run for 14 days. This is very important, as the leader, moderators, and other participants will have put a lot of work into creating the workshop and keeping it running. 

Make sure you read the syllabus carefully, and make sure it really is something you wish to be part of. Talk to the workshop leader or co-leader if you are not sure. 

We recommend take only one workshop at a time so that you do not become overwhelmed with work.

 

 

1. When and why did you become a poet?
I was inspired by one of the four axioms of perfection I read from an ancient manuscript in 1981, which states: ‘In the intellectual order – In the realization of dream of poetry’. I started longing for poetry of my own. With few scribbles in my first year in the university, I joined a group of students to post my own pieces on a notice board called ‘Flash Point’ commissioned by the group in 1985/86 academic year. This is where I adopted the pen name t. reflexion to depict my thought reflections.

2. When and why did you join Neopoet?
I joined Neopoet on the 3 July, 2008. It was an opportunity for me when I stumbled upon Neopoet site. With my desire to become a poet and the need for improvement on my rather unqualified efforts, I registered immediately. The benefits became clear, the privilege of reading pieces from other poets, the need to write continuously, the feedback and honest relationship with good and respectable people on the site. Neopoet is one beautiful thing in my life. I thank all those who have put in their energy, time and money to keep this site running.

3. What is your preferred style of poetry?
I feel at home with free style. It allows me to say what I consider the messages embedded in my feelings and thoughts and as dictated by the muse, Gabriel. For me, the message is important, but poetry being a form of art should not lose its aesthetic value. Sadly, my scribbles come out of a man limited in vocabulary and use of words. I crave to write pieces using meter and rhyme scheme, partly because it is what most people see as good poetry. I suffer a lot in an attempt conform to rules; sometime I derail from the original idea and end up with something else. This is not what I want. I crave for mastery in the art, I am not there yet, I hope, some day. Neopoet is helping in this direction. Therefore, I call my parchments, "my style."

4. What style of poetry do you dislike?
I had no formal training in poetry, like most students, I participated in a few class works, so I do not know much about style. I like experimenting and do not have a preferred style. I consider every attempt at poetry as a great effort that needs to be encouraged and appreciated. The word ‘criticism’ in poetry is sometime misunderstood; this makes some people, I think, try to rubbish a piece of work and even extends the attack on the author; I prefer the word ‘appreciation’. I respect every work of art, be it in writing, visual, craft or performance. Some people are gifted than others. I admire great works. I hope to write great pieces one day. 

5. Who are your favorite authors?
The word favorite does not come to mind, given my limited exposure, people are gifted in different ways. I pick a piece of work and say, this is fantastic, only to see that another, even from obscured background, is equally good. A few authors have made strong impressions on me, not because they are my favorites, but because of my early association with their works, amongst them are John Donne, Andrew Marvell, William Shakespeare, Chaucer, J. P. Clark, Wole Soyinka, Ola Rotimi, Niyi Osindare, Christopher Okigbo, Thomas Hardy, D. H. Lawrence, Bertol Brecht, Moliere, John Milton, etc.

When I took a course in literature in 1984, the lecturer opted for metaphysical poems. John Donne’s ‘Sun Rising’ and Andrew Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’ captivated me among others. I like metaphysical poems, because they are my first love. I also admire Shakespearean plays and sonnets, Chaucer, for his story telling, Wole Soyinka, for his seemingly difficult pieces, Niyi Osindare, for being down to earth, J. P. Clark, a professor of English, for his simplicity. Ola Rotimi, a playwright and my professor in Theatre Arts for his techniques as demonstrated in Hopes of the Living Dead, If… and Akassa You Mi.

6. Why do you write and what effect do you want your writing to have on the reader?
I write primarily because the urge is there. I also write to share some of my experiences and by this, I hope that they will be published in books. I write for posterity, as a very good friend on the site stated, some of my pieces are historical and will be appreciated by future generations. I want the readers to understand and interpret my writings in his or her perspective, the effect, I leave it to their sensibilities.

7. Who is your favorite poet and what is your favorite poem?
I don’t have favorites, like people, I try to see the beautiful side and downplay the bad or ugly side. I haven’t come across many poets except on this site. Two poets that come close to being my favorites are Jess – Weirdelf and Ian T. – Yenti, for their writings in general and their impact on me. I must use this medium to thank them for their mentoring and support.

8. Which of your poems is your favorite poem?
I try to detach myself from my writings, though I see them, in a way, as my children, I love them all. Some intrigue me, like ‘A Cold Anniversary’ because it addresses a very sensitive issue in my life.

 

The earth was once thought to be flat
My grandpa never wandered far away
Lest he tumbled at the edge and fall
So it was with rising and setting sun
After a daily heavenly crossing at noon
Men also thought the earth was fixed
And everything else revolved around it
They were wrong, we know better now

Fallacy of thought, the seed of superstition
Like a Friday which falls on a thirteenth
A black cat on our path brings ill luck
Man- made creeds directed to control
With apprehension of fire and brimstone
To those who don’t conform to its canon
Superstition grows, invalid views swell
Gripping men and limiting their knacks

Reflect on the mistakes we have made
As a consequence of the error in thinking
Call it a condition of real mental slavery
For no one is actually free from false belief
Teach man to think and to realize his link
To strive towards the potent and the latent
Not clash of ideologies and false beliefs
That confines man to fear of the unknown

 

 

Interview by Lou

 

The Flowers of Evil is a collection of poems written by Charles Baudelaire, who was born in Paris in 1871 and is considered the forefather of modern art. The book which was first published in 1857, employed themes that challenged society’s views on morality. One of the ways he did this was through erotic imagery. Women were used as a tool to symbolize strong emotions. 

Baudelaire had a theory and that involved two opposites "the spleen" and the "ideal." The Spleen refers to death, despair, disease. The ideal refers to pleasure, which could be gained through sex, drugs, and alcohol, for example. He applied these ideas to his poetry. There is more than a hint of evidence of the inspiration he gained through his fascination with Edgar Allen Poe’s dark side and the drama of Wagner and his music.   Throughout, Baudelaire attempted to find beauty in the aesthetically unattractive.

He began by depicting the world as a hellish creation, filled with ugliness, debauchery, and the human race as a tool of Hades. He believed the reader would seek fantasy and he as the author would give them the reality of the modern world. As the book progresses the poems are also rich with description of Parisian life, wine, and the beggars on the streets. The central theme is dark side of life. 

The Flowers of Evil received high praise from the critics, and gained a small readership, but the authorities did not approve of his work and a number of his poems were removed from the collection. Over time, ’The Flowers of Evil,’ became a catalyst for change in art and poetry.

A Carcass
My love, do you recall the object which we saw, 
That fair, sweet, summer morn!
At a turn in the path a foul carcass
On a gravel strewn bed,

Its legs raised in the air, like a lustful woman, 
Burning and dripping with poisons,
Displayed in a shameless, nonchalant way 
Its belly, swollen with gases.

The sun shone down upon that putrescence, 
As if to roast it to a turn,
And to give back a hundredfold to great Nature 
The elements she had combined;

And the sky was watching that superb cadaver 
Blossom like a flower.
So frightful was the stench that you believed 
You'd faint away upon the grass.

The blow-flies were buzzing round that putrid belly,
From which came forth black battalions
Of maggots, which oozed out like a heavy liquid 
All along those living tatters.

All this was descending and rising like a wave, 
Or poured out with a crackling sound;
One would have said the body, swollen with a vague breath, 
Lived by multiplication.

And this world gave forth singular music, 
Like running water or the wind,
Or the grain that winnowers with a rhythmic motion 
Shake in their winnowing baskets.

The forms disappeared and were no more than a dream, 
A sketch that slowly falls
Upon the forgotten canvas, that the artist 
Completes from memory alone.

Crouched behind the boulders, an anxious dog 
Watched us with angry eye,
Waiting for the moment to take back from the carcass 
The morsel he had left.

— And yet you will be like this corruption,
Like this horrible infection,
Star of my eyes, sunlight of my being, 
You, my angel and my passion!

Yes! thus will you be, queen of the Graces,
After the last sacraments,
When you go beneath grass and luxuriant flowers, 
To moulder among the bones of the dead.

Then, O my beauty! say to the worms who will
Devour you with kisses,
That I have kept the form and the divine essence 
Of my decomposed love!

 

by Lou
Sources: William Aggeler. The Flowers of Evil (Fresno, CA: Academy Library Guild, 1954), Wikipedia, Sparknotes.com
 

Analyze This
Rupert Brooke’s First World War poem, The Soldier, was written in 1914 and deals with the heroism of those involved. Why not use the questions below to analyze one of his most famous poems ‘The Soldier’?

 

The Soldier by Rupert Brooke
If I should die, think only this of me:

That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed;
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,
Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.
And think, this heart, all evil shed away,
A pulse in the eternal mind, no less
Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;
And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.

From "The Collected Works of Rupert Brooke"

 

The Chat Program would like all members to know that we are taking applications at [email protected] for moderators. Thank you one and all for helping us get where we are. We hope each of you will find some time to drop in on a few of the chat events displayed in the event calendar on the main page.

by Richard  (Themoonman)

 

In all forms of writing, it is important to be efficient with your words (you should express your thoughts in as few words as possible). That way, your message will stick with your reader because the words that are present will be more potent.

A poem will be easier to read and easier to commit to memory when unnecessary words are omitted. Even epic poetry is concise. No detail is spared in weaving those tales, but words aren’t wasted; each one is meaningful. Japanese forms such as the haiku, senryu, and tanka are all very short forms that rely on lines consisting of five or seven syllables. The haiku and senyru are only three lines each, and the tanka is the longest with five lines. With seventeen syllables each, the haiku and senryu are barely half as long as a limerick, a relatively short form of western poetry.

This got me wondering. Japanese forms often rely on word omissions to meet syllable or sound-unit counts. They are not typically made up of ‘complete sentences’, so at what point is the meaning of a line lost when words are taken away? How can other styles of poetry like free form benefit from being viewed with Japanese styles in mind? What words are most necessary in a poem? What kinds of words do you look for first when eliminating wordiness?

For me, I try to eliminate articles, prepositions and transitional phrases first; words like “a”, “the”, “but” and “of” are usually the easiest to omit without losing the meaning of a line. Next I look for ways of rewriting images and with fewer words. If I can whittle a description down to one or two less words than I originally had, then I will.

My challenge to you, poets of Neopoet, is to look at your poetry with Japanese forms in mind. Test your abilities to shorten lines and work under word or syllable-count restrictions. Learn to maintain beauty and depth in your writing while using fewer words. If you prefer structured forms, brevity is less of an option, but conciseness is not. Ask yourself if you’re making the most of every word.

 

by Kelsey