funny
SunWinks! February 15, 2015: Take a Tumble
Dearest hardy, intrepid SunWinkers:
I frequently badger you to read your poetry aloud, and today’s column is no exception. Writing poetry without hearing what it sounds like is like studying a piano etude without touching the keyboard. For about a year, I’ve been making the rounds of poetry open mikes here in Vancouver USA and trying to be a good citizen of the poetry community. Reading your poems to an audience is so valuable, I just can’t recommend it highly enough!
Ghost Town Poetry open mike, February 12, 2015
You get to hear it aloud, hear yourself read it, see what the audience responds to and what falls flat and what flies over their heads. It builds confidence in public speaking and in yourself as an artist. I’ve grown immensely from doing this. Here’s a sample, from January’s Ghost Town Poetry open mike: http://youtu.be/4Cdg3JWppk4?t=20m
This week, we bounce from Metaphors 201 back to considerations of rhythm and sound. Today’s topic is Tumbling Verse a.k.a. Skeltonic Verse. It’s lots of fun and it’s a great way to experiment with rhythm, pace, diction, sonority, and phonetics. Continue reading
My Son, Folks… (ba-dum ching)
Here’s another Christmas story from this year: my son Nevada got me good!
First, he texted me a few days before:
I don’t football a lot. Do you have any strong feelings either way on the 49ers?
Wanting to be helpful without being completely indiscreet, I replied:
I don’t know how to answer that. There’s Seahawks and there’s everyone else in no particular order. I was a big 49er fan in the glory years. If we’re talking about a windbreaker, I don’t care if it’s FC Barcelona.
Then on Christmas Day, I opened a present from Nevada and there was a beautiful, hooded, lined, LaCoste windbreaker. The only graphic was a tiny LaCoste alligator. He also gave me a bendable Ichiro doll. After thanking him profusely, I asked, “There’s one thing I don’t understand: what’s the 49er connection?”
And he grinned and said, “Exactly!”
Well done, son!
Poem: Egostatic Fluffery
Putting this up as an example for November 16th’s SunWinks! on neologisms. From Papa Doug’s Light Book of Little Verse.
Love, Doug
Caption Contest III
Please put your own captions (one or all…indicate the photo number) in a comment here!
1.
Hell, yah!
2.
So this is the World War II aisle?
3.
You shoulda seen the other cat!
New Poem: When the Pitcher’s On the Rubber
I’m sending this to the Chicago Cubs broadcasters Len Kasper and Jim Deshaies. Len and J.D.: I think you’ll enjoy this. It’s a parody of James Whitcomb Riley’s “When the Frost Is On the Punkin.”
Best wishes, Doug Westberg.
[This is my copyrighted work, but I acknowledge submitting this gives you the right to use it any way you like.]
Caption Contest II
The Caption Contest Returns Again once more for the second time! I’ve included my own captions, unlike when we did this on Gather, but please contribute your captions for any or all of these as well. Just put them in a comment with the photo number(s).
1.
The Tower of Babble
2.
To blazz or not to blazz, that is the quezztion…
3.
Grandma always said: the best ancient remedies are the brand new ones…
Caption Contest
The Caption Contest Returns! I’ve included my own captions, unlike when we did this on Gather, but please contribute your captions for one or more of these as well. Just put them in a comment with the photo number(s).
1.
There must be a better way…
2.
LOST: Comma. August 20, 2014 in front of Compass Oncology. Answers to “Muffy.”
3.
Riding by on my bicycle…
Sunwinks! August 17, 2014: Listing to Port
Dear SunWinkers!
I would sure love to see some of you so-called non-poets, especially my fellow editors, take a crack at a list poem before we leave the topic. If you can make out a grocery list, you can write a list poem. It’s fun! You’ll be the envy of your friends! You can add “Poet” to your business card!
Review the examples in last week’s column. You can see the possibilities are endless, and there’s no way to “get it wrong.” Bottom line: if you say it’s a poem, it’s a poem. If there’s a list involved, it’s a list poem!
- The list doesn’t have to be the whole poem
- The list items don’t have to be single words
- The list items don’t have to be all in the same form
- And if that weren’t enough,
- The list items can be interrupted with parenthetical phrases
So I expect to see lots of list poems next week. There’s just no excuse!
SunWinks! 