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S
Skumpfsklub
Apr 16, 2008 ⭐ View statistics (Premium feature)

Catch of the day (granny couplets)

 Let a poet's eye astutely fix

Where the real and mysterious mix,

Where the shadows grey as ashes

Pretend at form as each one passes

Past feeble sense and weaker wit

That tries and fails to make words fit.

Wait and watch 'til some whirling facet

Reflects a beam that cannot pass it;

Off rare aspect that caroming spark

Increases the real, brings light into dark;

Brings old understandings up for review

As the poet reports, "Aha! Something new!"

 

The method wants patience, an ill-ordered mind

A pen, some paper, and something to find.

See fountaining chaos, then see the bounds

Of its shapelessness, for the thing that surrounds

That boil of confusion is its native intimate

And in some degree knows or is its limit.

 

Why, this is like science, I hear someone think

Not quite, but I, too, see the obvious link

A difference lies in conceptual scope:

The poet might have to document 'hope,'

That a white-coat can't measure with any machines

(Though the heart 'neath that coat knows full well what hope means).

 

The scientist totes up the length and the girth.

The poet, perhaps, assists in the birth

Of this what-could-it-be or that vaporous wonder

By making of whispers a great drumming thunder

That everyone hears, a commonplace knowing;

Today's harvest comes of a poet's sowing

The seeds of conception, the parts of the scaffold

That poets lay up for the use of the baffled:

The many, the most of us, caught in today,

Harnessed in hardness, with no chance to play

The power of question on the stuff of maybe.

It's hard to think while you change the baby.

 

More alike than they wish

The poet and sage

Stare into the mist

And each builds a cage

Each captures mystery in his own way

The poet at night, the scientist by day

 


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L

Lenny of Cohen

18 years ago

Totally

absorbed me from start to finish ! Brilliant & magical ! LoC "smile with each heartbeat"
Candlewitch

Candlewitch

18 years ago

Very clever poem, and I

Very clever poem, and I marvel at both your wit and vocabulary! But could you please tell me what a granny couplet is? Thanks, Cat
S

Skumpfsklub

18 years ago

On 'granny couplets'

At another poetry site, I noticed that there was a large group of poets who published in a style that consisted in rhyming couplets of highly variable length; a couplet might comprise a line of eight syllables and a line of eleven; one couplet of twenty total syllables might be followed by another couplet with thirty syllables. There were other characteristics: The poems were usually saccharine, treating with virtues and beauties that would be best illustrated by the late Norman Rockwell. Subject matter was almost invariably domestic, or family-oriented. These poets were grannies. It wasn't unusual to see a sixty line poem devoted to bragging about the poet's grandchildren--in lavish detail. I read poems in which 'coleslaw' was mentioned. The usual mood was sugary contentment--but some 'granny poets' were earthily and matter-of-fact-ly dealing with serious issues of aging, illness, bereavement, and so on. This was shop talk, in rhyming couplets, and rather an eye-opener for me. At first, I was inclined to turn my nose up at these Very Bad Poets--even my crap was better, I thought. But eventually they wore me down. There WERE rules governing their verse, and rules governing criticism by each of another's work. I spent some time with it, and saw that they were not completely senile. They did not lack wit, nor sensitivity. They just didn't construe poetry as I did. They weren't wrong. My construction of poetry was. I do not now disparage 'granny poetry.' It's not a bad approach. Most of the poets are NOT academics, nor are they especially interested in highly refined literary theoretics; they just want to say something in an ornamented manner, and 'granny couplets' are just right, for both the writer and the reader. My poem borrows that poetic method for a non-granny purpose--and it seems to be a robust tool. Any poet can use it, even if he fails to meet the demographic requirement.
Jonathan Moore

Jonathan Moore

18 years ago

Interesting as always

Both the poem and the subsequent explanation And it illustrates a declination (FINALLY got to use that word in a sentence) of poetry for me that extends into just about every conversation I have in life which boils down to this: Do you want me to listen or do you want me to fix it? Previously, unless folks tell me, I always assumed they wanted commentary and this jarred into some folks who wanted nothing more than for their effort to be given an audience in hopes that someone would have a peak into their life and feelings. As you've indicated, there is nothing wrong with this, and I now try to err on the side of caution, relising that not everyone will want to dissect meter and why "gleefully said" is so very different from "said gleefully." But I like the theme of the poem and quite enjoyed the explanation of what a "granny couplet" is. Jonathan Annoying the world, one person at a time (Group discounts available)