Celebrating National Poetry Month 2020: Poems I Love and Poetry for $

The month of April is National Poetry Month.  A whole month dedicated to celebrating poetry and poets. While staying home, and looking for work, during this strange time with the COVID-19 Global Pandemic, it is vital to take some time and relax and what better way to do this than by reading a few great poems.

Picture of a poem written by Alina Happy Hansen on a piece of handcrafted painted cardstock. Poem reads "Dance with You, Sunshine dancing rays twisting, twirling warmth reflecting inner glow, Move, let your body beam shattering light illuminate the room, IGNITE, the fire dormant in my heart."
One of the personalized handwritten poems that I did for a $upporter 

I am still offering POETRY FOR $ while I am unemployed and looking for a job. It has been a hard few weeks since I was laid off from my job as FOH employee at Squatters Pub Brewery in Downtown Salt Lake City. I have been applying to a minimum of 2-5 jobs a day and thankfully just received my first unemployment check yesterday (not a lot but something) which is helping me pay some of my bills right now.

I have celebrated NaPoMo on my blog quite a few times, here is one National Poetry Month

Some great resources/websites to check out during NaPoMo:

Poetry Foundation

poets.org

My Favorite Poems: William Carlos Williams and Marianne Moore

Kora in Hell: Improvisations XIbY WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS

XI
1

Why pretend to remember the weather two years back? Why not? Listen close then repeat after others what they have just said and win a reputation for vivacity. Oh feed upon petals of edelweiss! one dew drop, if it be from the right flower, is five years’ drink!

  _______________

 
     Having once taken the plunge the situation that preceded it becomes obsolete  which a moment before was alive with malignant rigidities.

2

When beldams dig clams their fat hams (it’s always beldams) balanced near Tellus’s hide, this rhinoceros pelt, these lumped stone—buffoonery of midges on a bull’s thigh—invoke,—what you will: birth’s glut, awe at God’s craft, youth’s poverty, evolution of a child’s caper, man’s poor inconsequence. Eclipse of all things; sun’s self turned hen’s rump.

Cross a knife and fork and listen to the church bells! It is the harvest moon’s made wine of our blood. Up over the dark factory into the blue glare start the young poplars. They whisper: It is Sunday! It is Sunday! But the laws of the country have been stripped bare of leaves. Out over the marshes flickers our laughter. A lewd anecdote’s the chase. On through the vapory heather! And there at banter’s edge the city looks at us sidelong with great eyes—lifts to its lips heavenly milk! Lucina, O Lucina! beneficent cow, how have we offended thee?

________________

     Hilariously happy because of some obscure wine of the fancy which they have drunk four rollicking companions take delight in the thought that they have thus evaded the stringent laws of the county. Seeing the distant city bathed in moonlight and staring seriously at them they liken the moon to a cow and its light to milk.

 
Source: Imaginations (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1970)

Excerpt from poetryfoundation.org

“You Are Fire Eaters” by Marianne Moore – 1887-1972

 
       Not a mere blowing flame—
       A clinking ash, I feel—with shame,
          At malendeavor in your service.

But as Jehoshaphat said on that occasion in
              Old Testament history,

       "The battle is not mine,"
       And strategy laid down—in fine
          Surrender, may be conquest.

Excerpt from poets.org

I love National Poetry Month and it is something I can enjoy during this hard time. I hope that you can find some poems to enjoy, or better yet find a poet you haven’t read before who’s work you end up loving.

Thank you for reading and being a part of my journey! Stay safe and stay well out there!


Liked this blog post? Check out more post from this series!

Life During COVID-19 (3/28/2020): Personal Update, Rant and Unemployment

Life During COVID-19 (4/13/20): Poetry for $ and More Poems

Life During COVID-19: Reflecting on the Murder of Robert Fuller, Trump and A Personal Update

Poetry Reading Saturday, April 13th

I will be reading some of my poetry at Central Book Exchange located in Sugarhouse (Salt Lake City, Utah). This is CBE’s first ever Reading Night so it is pretty exciting. The event starts at 6:30 p.m.

CBE reading night 1
Central Book Exchange Reading Night

I am not sure what time I will be going on but I will be there for the entire event. I will be reading a few poems that I’ve been working on for the last year, there are very rough and not at all finished. I am more excited about watching other local authors read.

I hope to see you there!

-Alina

 

INFO:

Central Book Exchange

2017 South 1100 East SLC, UT 84106

Event Contact: Evan 801-485-3913


https://www.alinahappyhansenwriter.com/portfolio-publications-events/

Poetic Forms: Sonnet

Let’s talk about Sonnets! I wanted to do something different today and decided a short discussion on sonnets would be fun.

There are Two Major Sonnet Forms: Petrarchan and Shakespearean

The Basic Form of a Sonnet is Fourteen Lines in Iambic

[ U unstressed syllable    / stressed syllable ]

[ u/ u/ u/ u/ u/ ] x14

Petrarchan (Italian)

Eight lines (Octave)

Rhyme Scheme: ababcdcd

Six Lines (Sestet)

Rhyme Scheme: cdecde

 

Example Petrarchan Sonnet:

The Poet Petrarch  (Origin of the Petrarchan Sonnet)

Sonnet 101 [Ways apt and new to sing of love I’d find]

Petrarch1304 – 1374

Ways apt and new to sing of love I’d find,           A
Forcing from her hard heart full many a sigh,        B
And re-enkindle in her frozen mind                   A
Desires a thousand, passionate and high;             B
O’er her fair face would see each swift change pass, C
See her fond eyes at length where pity reigns,       D
As one who sorrows when too late, alas!              C
For his own error and another’s pains;               D
See the fresh roses edging that fair snow            C
Move with her breath, that ivory descried,           D
Which turns to marble him who sees it near;          E
See all, for which in this brief life below          C
Myself I weary not but rather pride                  D
That Heaven for later times has kept me here.        E

Source: poets.org

 

Shakespearean (English)

No Octave/Sestet structure

Rhyme Scheme: ababcdcdefefgg

Note: final couplet (gg) is a key part of this type of sonnet

 

Example Shakespearean Sonnet:

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun (Sonnet 130)

William Shakespeare1564 – 1616

My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun;        A
Coral is far more red than her lips’ red;          B
If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun;    A
If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.   B
I have seen roses damasked, red and white,         C
But no such roses see I in her cheeks;             D
And in some perfumes is there more delight         C
Than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.    D
I love to hear her speak, yet well I know          E
That music hath a far more pleasing sound;         F
I grant I never saw a goddess go;                  E
My mistress when she walks treads on the ground.   F
     And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare   G
     As any she belied with false compare.         G

Source: poets.org

 

One of my favorite poets/writers who wrote sonnets is Edna St. Vincent Millay

Thou Art Not Lovelier Than Lilacs

Thou art not lovelier than lilacs,—no,                        A
Nor honeysuckle; thou art not more fair                 B
Than small white single poppies,—I can bear        B
Thy beauty; though I bend before thee, though       A
From left to right, not knowing where to go,            A
I turn my troubled eyes, nor here nor there           B
Find any refuge from thee, yet I swear                    B
So has it been with mist,—with moonlight so.          A
Like him who day by day unto his draught                C
Of delicate poison adds him one drop more            D
Till he may drink unharmed the death of ten,           E
Even so, inured to beauty, who have quaffed            C (slant rhyme?)
Each hour more deeply than the hour before,         D
I drink—and live—what has destroyed some men.   E

 

Source: allpoetry.com

There are many adaptations to the original sonnet forms of the past. As you can see from the poem (above) by Millay which contains a variation of the traditional rhyme schemes found in both the Petrarchan and Shakespearean. Her sonnets are often funny and extremely witty about subjects that were considered slightly risky at her time (1920’s).

 

Other Sources/References used:

The Making of  a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms

Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics

Collected Sonnets by Edna St. Vincent Millay


 

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this brief and basic discussion of Sonnets.

-Alina