Poems and poetry as experiential art experiments, created by a dedicated core, sparking consciousness river, word slurry. A harvest of poems and creative thought from a creative collective cadre.
This poem was a struggle. I reread one and a half notebooks from 1990, from the time I was working on my MFA in poetry, and it was not easy reading. Immediately I found myself needing to transcend judgment, pity and embarrassment over the past I went through. I had to remind myself that while I mostly wrote about the anguish of unsuccessfully seeking relationship, the full reality of my life then included many deep connections and a lot of enjoyable times involved with writing and collaborating and having my adventurous life.
I worked and reworked this poem more than usual, and found a rock in this form I've been writing in for a year and a half, an original form called queron. Having that as a familiar template helped me ease all that I wanted to say into a relatively centered package.
As is often the case, Lauren (my wife) points out that the heart of the poem, like the heart of an artichoke, is the last 5-7 lines. That seems to happen often with querons.
Daniel, can you say more about the queron form? Do you mean 'original' as in you created this form? I'm finding myself curious. I enjoyed you poem, too, a lot! Janice
Excellent poem, and the pun in the title set me spluttering. I Googled queron, wanting to know more about the form, and found that it is: some kind of building block the family name of more than 5% of people in France a flying instructor a girl's name, linked to Karen.
So...queron. Yes, I made up the form and have been working with it for the past year and a half. I'm currently submitting the form to the 2011 Poetic Form Challenge from Writer's Digest (Robert Brewer's blog Poetic Asides is hosting).
Here’s the recipe: - Seventeen lines are grouped into three quintets and a final couplet. - Each line has an equal number of syllables. - Rhymes interweave in this scheme: ababa bcbca cdcdb dd. - The poem includes a question.
That’s it for rules; however, over the course of writing many querons, these additions often prove useful:
- Each stanza break can usher in a new perspective on the question, like the turn in a sonnet. - Syllable counts from four to twelve per line seem to work best for me, though I have tried as many as twenty and as few as one. - Because the rhymes repeat four or five times each, I’ve found consonance and assonance preferable to “true” rhyme for their subtlety and versatility.
Influenced by Rilke’s advice to “live the questions now,” the queron form emerged to support the way my mind engages questions. If you try the form, send me the results! I'm excited to see others write queron. efflux@sonic.net, or post here.
Amazing form, amazing poem, and amazing coincidence: I just wrote a speech I will present this Thursday at my Toastmasters club meeting that centers on all the random notes I've taken over the last five decades in dozens of little spiral notebooks. I reference random items from them in my 7 minute to-do, and also note that my Dad always carried a little spiral notebook around in his shirt pocket, to receive any clever items that came his way. There's more, but that's enough.
This poem was a struggle. I reread one and a half notebooks from 1990, from the time I was working on my MFA in poetry, and it was not easy reading. Immediately I found myself needing to transcend judgment, pity and embarrassment over the past I went through. I had to remind myself that while I mostly wrote about the anguish of unsuccessfully seeking relationship, the full reality of my life then included many deep connections and a lot of enjoyable times involved with writing and collaborating and having my adventurous life.
ReplyDeleteI worked and reworked this poem more than usual, and found a rock in this form I've been writing in for a year and a half, an original form called queron. Having that as a familiar template helped me ease all that I wanted to say into a relatively centered package.
As is often the case, Lauren (my wife) points out that the heart of the poem, like the heart of an artichoke, is the last 5-7 lines. That seems to happen often with querons.
Daniel, can you say more about the queron form? Do you mean 'original' as in you created this form? I'm finding myself curious. I enjoyed you poem, too, a lot!
ReplyDeleteJanice
Excellent poem, and the pun in the title set me spluttering. I Googled queron, wanting to know more about the form, and found that it is:
ReplyDeletesome kind of building block
the family name of more than 5% of people
in France
a flying instructor
a girl's name, linked to Karen.
So I am no wiser on your poetic form!
So...queron. Yes, I made up the form and have been working with it for the past year and a half. I'm currently submitting the form to the 2011 Poetic Form Challenge from Writer's Digest (Robert Brewer's blog Poetic Asides is hosting).
ReplyDeleteHere’s the recipe:
- Seventeen lines are grouped into three quintets and a final couplet.
- Each line has an equal number of syllables.
- Rhymes interweave in this scheme: ababa bcbca cdcdb dd.
- The poem includes a question.
That’s it for rules; however, over the course of writing many querons, these additions often prove useful:
- Each stanza break can usher in a new perspective on the question, like the turn in a sonnet.
- Syllable counts from four to twelve per line seem to work best for me, though I have tried as many as twenty and as few as one.
- Because the rhymes repeat four or five times each, I’ve found consonance and assonance preferable to “true” rhyme for their subtlety and versatility.
Influenced by Rilke’s advice to “live the questions now,” the queron form emerged to support the way my mind engages questions. If you try the form, send me the results! I'm excited to see others write queron. efflux@sonic.net, or post here.
Amazing form, amazing poem, and amazing coincidence: I just wrote a speech I will present this Thursday at my Toastmasters club meeting that centers on all the random notes I've taken over the last five decades in dozens of little spiral notebooks. I reference random items from them in my 7 minute to-do, and also note that my Dad always carried a little spiral notebook around in his shirt pocket, to receive any clever items that came his way. There's more, but that's enough.
ReplyDelete