Edie Roones

Wrapping up a 26 blog posts about poetry during 2017, Writers Ink Services is presenting Pure Verse for Christmas. Yes, we take a look at two classic Christmas poems, including "The Night Before Christmas", as well as two that should be classics. And three video clips of classic Christmas songs and movies. Join us!

Pure Verse:  Seduced by Rhythm and Rhyme Over at Writers Ink Services, we're concluding a yearlong examination of poetry craft.  We've looked at "Clocks" and "Counting Stars", "Both Sides Now" and "Tapestry", "First Fig" and "Wildflowers".  We've looked at major poets and songsters who deserve the title "major poet".  And we glanced at Occasional Poems. Christmas is the greatest occasion during the year, and poets of all sorts can't resist writing their own version of a Christmas poem. Herewith are the dangers of Pure Verse that so many wannabies and newbies and hacks fall into while the true poets manage to avoid those pitfalls. We finish up this blog with Sara Teasdale (true poet!) and her "Christmas Carol".  You'll like it, I know.  You may even want to make it one of your Christmas traditions. Flip it ::  click here to read  this blog. Only one more blog for the year...

Blank Verse:   Old Masters and New Remember, we’re examining the poems using MMO:  Means, Methods, Opportunity (Aristotle’s Kairos ).  This time we won’t have three different forms to analyze.  Blank Verse only has one form. On tap we have the Old Masters, Shakespeare and Cowper, and the New Masters, Frost and Stevens. Flip to the link below to read the blog: http://writersinkservi.com/2017/11/25/ poetry-major-met…-blank-verse-mmo /

Free Verse is like Jazz on Steroids. What is Jazz?  Well, here's a sample of the best:   Ella Fitzgerald riffing with "Blue Skies" The key to jazz is to present the melody then go everywhere else in play.  Like Dave Brubeck's "Take Fire", giving each musician an opportunity:   Equal Opportunity Music Free Verse does that.  It presumes the reader is familiar with regular poetry (Pure Verse), so it begins its riff immediately. I like Free Verse more than the other two methods:  Pure and Blank.  The best (think e.e.cummings) is highly experimental and an intellectual challenge to work out. It's Pure Verse that we encounter most often.  You know, those songs that rhyme.  Rhyme helps us remember. Blank Verse is the most "intellectual" (said with rounded snobbish tones). Free Verse is experimental. People have a tendency to think Free Verse is simple;  it's not.  Believe me, it is certainly FAR from easy.  It's actual...

Sprawling roots, seen and unseen, support the central Tree. For poetry lovers, we have a series of blogs,  Poetry Lesson s, guest-hosted by Emily R. Dunn of Writers Ink Books.  Visit our page on every 5 th   (5th, 15th, and 25th) to see which poem has inspired a lesson in thinking and writing.  We'll also intersperse news about Writers Ink publications. ~~ M. Lee Madder Three Unities. Action. Time. Place. Writing can sprawl into unnecessary digressions. The struggle for writers is to keep that sprawl focused so that every element seeds ideas relevant to the theme. When relating the story of father killing daughter, wife killing husband in revenge, and son killing mother to restore a balance, any writer might be tempted to stray away from the central storyline.  Aeschylus managed to stay focused for his trilogy  The Oresteia , and he didn’t have the Three Unities to guide him. I am tempted, just from that previous sentence, to co...

For poetry lovers, we have a series of blogs,  Poetry Lesson s, guest-hosted by Emily R. Dunn of Writers Ink Books.  Visit our page on every 5 th   (5th, 15th, and 25th) to see which poem has inspired a lesson in thinking and writing.  We'll also intersperse news about books. ~~ M. Lee Madder Burning Candles “First Fig” My candle burns at both ends It will not last the night But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends, It gives a lovely light. Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “First Fig” is a rich gem.  An unassuming jewel of four deceptively simple lines preceded by a clever title, the poem seems merely to celebrate the bravado and esprit of the bohemian lifestyle:  adventurous, blithe, and insouciant. Closer examination reveals the poem is crafted with a diamond-cutter’s precision, sparkling with St. Vincent Millay’s talent. Part of a collection entitled A Few Figs from Thistles and published in 1920, it heralded the Roaring Twenties.  ...

The Greatest Love Poem in the World What should love be?    Insta-Lust?  No, love is lasting. Weak when faced with problems?  No, love is strong. Selfish and self-focused?  Love is mutually focused. True love is integral to the soul.  It colors and brightens our world and gives us guidance in the other spheres of life, helping us survive the professional slog and the communal drivel.  It gives potential to the elements necessary for growth and abundance. This poem expresses all of that. Personally, cummings is one of the few poets who still intrigues me.  This poem is proof that he is more than the gimmick of unusual punctuation and capitalization. What does the poem say? Speech and thought go hand in hand, side by side, just as a couple should.  “Whatever is done by me” is not me alone.  The other half of the whole contributes just as much, just not in the same way.  Each powers the other, even w...