2007-01-22 [scars of winter rain]: hmm, i like to be the first one to comment pages =]...
so i think this was a great idea, you guys are the best seriously

2007-01-22 [GoneGone]: Hey, any good suggestions of your own is always welcome too, you know. :)

2007-01-22 [scars of winter rain]: lol i never have any good suggestions
='[
haha what ever... so what should we talk about?? i lost the feeling in the conversation/arguement we were having before

2007-01-22 [Linderel]: Different formats? Free verse, iambic pentameter, sestinas? What's your favourite and why?
That'd be one conversation I'd be interested in following.

2007-01-22 [scars of winter rain]: i'd rather just write free verse or prose... theres more feeling in a free flow of thought, more than when you have to sit there and think of how to put what you wanna say into a rhyming cuplet or something. its too shakespearian. i mean, i love that guy, but there seems to be a bit of something thats out-of-date when it comes to him. most people cant follow his ideas when he has to count sylables and stuff. thats why i like the porter's scene in macbeth, it was all free flowing, and it was easy to follow, it all together sounded better.
sorry, i get off topic and ramble... *blush*

2007-01-22 [Linderel]: No, you weren't off topic, do feel free to continue if you want. ^_^

2007-01-22 [scars of winter rain]: okay =]
well, do you understand where i'm coming from though? about having to pause and think? streams of conciousness help the reader feel what the writer felt, but while your sitting there making words rhyme in your head, there's always this everlasting feeling of frusteration and the mood is lost. i've written a few rhyming poems, but i've hated them all, free verse helps me get out what i want to say before i lose my thoughts and get too off track to help the reader understand what i'm trying to say... it helps deliver the meaning better.

okay =] now i'm done =]

2007-01-22 [Linderel]: I do get your point, but there's always another way to look at things... Many enjoy the challenge of putting their words in a certain way - there are even some who can't not rhyme! I personally enjoy both types, as long as they're well written. I'll bow in the general direction of anyone who can use rhymes and do it well, but I also recognise the advantages of free verse.
Personally, I've always written poems mainly in free form, but I also enjoy trying out different forms and metres. It's a challenge, but as long as I don't take it too hard, it's fun.

2007-01-22 [scars of winter rain]: yeah i do see what you're saying, but i only like rhyming when it comes naturally, i dont like thinking about what i'm writing... i mena its a good thing to think, but i dont like to tink on what i'm gunna say, like i said before, until the feelings gone.

2007-01-22 [Linderel]: Very understandable. :)

2007-01-22 [scars of winter rain]: oksy...
i'm done ranting now lol
so...
hows this... what do you find yourself writing about the most?

2007-01-22 [NibblerLove]: hey I have some interesting poems if anyone wants to check them out alyssas' poems

2007-01-22 [scars of winter rain]: i'll check em out =]

2007-01-22 [NukleaЯ EveЯgloW™]: while we're at it, I'll advertise mine too <.< Mine's PhoenixV's Poetry Feel free to leave a comment on that page or drop me a message about em =)
OH! And if you can draw characters really well, I'm wanting a character of mine drawn...but I don't know who to go to...so if you know anybody that draws for people, that'd be great...[not sketches, but actual drawings]

2007-01-22 [scars of winter rain]: i can try if you want me to, i'm not the best at art, but my friends think i'm pretty good, they say its all in my head... so i can try if you want me too

2007-01-22 [NukleaЯ EveЯgloW™]: do you have any previous works I can see that you've done, besides the wolf one on your page?

2007-01-22 [scars of winter rain]: ummm... not at the moment... hold on, i'll go scan somein =]

2007-01-22 [NukleaЯ EveЯgloW™]: alrighty, ty

2007-01-22 [scars of winter rain]: i put one up, it was all i could find, though it got cut off when i was scannin it in, so sorry about that... i couldnt find me sketchbook...

2007-01-22 [NukleaЯ EveЯgloW™]: Looks good, but I was wondering if you do color. I got what he looks like but I just need someone to draw him =)
...last time I got someone to draw something they took some picture and just poorly edited it...I wasn't too happy with it so I dismissed them =\

2007-01-22 [scars of winter rain]: hmmm, yeah i can prolly do color
=] i can try
send me a message with the description kk?

2007-01-23 [Fireblade K'Chona]: I, personally, think that freeform is all right, but something about iambic pentameter just calls to me. True, freeform sometimes flows better, but I am a huge fan of sonnets and sestinas.

When I'm really in my poetry groove, I don't have trouble making things flow because I wind up thinking in iambic pentameter. My own thoughts usually flow very well onto the page, although whenever I write sestinas they have a disturbing tendency to try and turn into sonnets. (which is why my first ever sestina is....um....very strange.)

As for Shakespeare-some of his plays are hard to understand, yes, but have you ever read any of his sonnets? It's hard to get clearer than some of those. He was completely infatuated. My favorite sonnet of all time is Shakespeare's sonnet 64, and I think that flows very well.

Other poets I like are Neil Gaiman (his vampire sestina in the book 'Smoke and Mirrors' is what made me decide to write sestinas of my own, and his other poems are just...somehow perfect...), Rupert Brooke, and Byron. That's really only scratching the surface. I love Rupert Brooke, though-I don't think that he was a very good war poet, but that was because he was an excellent love poet.

And while we're on the poetry advertising thing, here's mine: Fireblade's Poetry

(there's...um...5 pages. If you comment on them I will love you forever. -hurries to clean up the pages-)

2007-01-23 [NukleaЯ EveЯgloW™]: Eh, the lengthyness is too much for me so I didn't read it, and I figure they are all like that <.<

2007-01-23 [Fireblade K'Chona]: ...um...what? If you're referring to my poetry, there are only one or two epically long ones (like the second one on the first page). But if I'm not writing sonnets, I tend to go longish.

2007-01-23 [NukleaЯ EveЯgloW™]: ah, alright. anyone else like to comment on mine? PhoenixV's Poetry

2007-01-23 [Linderel]: Gaiman has poetry? Ooooh, how lovely, I must look into this! I do remember reading a poem in his blog once, but that was pretty much of a parody of something. Can't remember what, currently.

I shall try to read all of the pages mentioned sooner or later, and if I do, you may expect some sort of commentary. I'm a huge nitpicker, though, as might have already become clear, so beware. ;)

As for the topic Ducky mentioned earlier, I'm not sure if there's a particular thing I write about most. Love, naturally, is a major theme, but I'm not certain if even that dominates my writings.

2007-01-23 [NukleaЯ EveЯgloW™]: Yeah, or else you wouldn't be one of the daily poem bosses if you weren't nitpicky...ok maybe I'm wrong but w/e, you get the general idea =)...but ya, I'd actually like some constructive criticism on your behalf, [Linderel] =)

2007-01-23 [Fireblade K'Chona]: Gaiman does indeed have poetry! you can find it in his short story collections, Smoke and Mirrors and Fragile Things. I like the first one more, although really, I love both of them to bits. But there's a bit more poetry in SaM than the other. His sestina is particularly lovely. :)

Don't worry, I'm a nitpicker myself. Go ahead and nitpick away on my stuff, although if I mention 'twerp' in the commentary...well, in Fireblade-speak that means, 'I really don't know why the hell I'm even leaving this up'. :)

Trends in writing? Fun! Let's see...um...I write about love, occasionally, although for some reason it's dark and cynical and stuff. I write about dreams a lot, and dancing. Other than that, I don't really have a set topic.

2007-01-23 [Linderel]: Nah, I'm a Boss because I kept nagging at [True, plain and simple] to do his job, and he apparently found me a suitable addition to the crew. So, I ended up selling my soul to the duties, and here I am. :P But my tendency to point out grammar and spelling errors is useful in this job, I would think.

2007-01-23 [NukleaЯ EveЯgloW™]: well ummn...idk what I really write the most of...go read and you tell me <.< lol

2007-01-23 [Fireblade K'Chona]: It is indeed. Although my grammar tends to become a little more fluid when I write poetry, normally I'm kind of a nazi about it. :P

2007-01-23 [Linderel]: I think I bought Smoke and Mirrors on my trip to Edinburgh last summer. An offer of 3 for 2 in Waterstones', couldn't resist. *drool*
It's on my long, looooong, reading list. xD

Alright, I'll keep that in mind. :)

Dark and cynical is the way I like it. <3 That's usually how my stuff turns out, too, though sometimes I manage to write something that's not melancholy. Which is only a bit short of a miracle.

2007-01-23 [Fireblade K'Chona]: SaM is beautiful. I love it to pieces. Actually, I bought mine used too, and I reread it all the time because it's absolutely stunning. I remember about halfway through it, I was almost angry at Neil Gaiman because no human being should be able to write that well. :P It's not fair!

I have absolutely no idea why my love-stuff is so cynical, though, considering I don't date. No bad breakups to my name or anything. The most I can figure is that I was jilted in love in a past life, or something, and the bitterness carries over into reincarnation. :P

2007-01-23 [Linderel]: I agree with you on that. Do you know Ursula Vernon? She has a style similar to Gaiman's, and she's a bloody brilliant artist as well.

Hmm. One of the great mysteries of life... I've always found it easier to write sad than happy. I'm not sure if it's that happy feelings are harder to put on paper, or that when you're happy you have nothing to tell because you're so busy being happy. xD
Or something.

2007-01-23 [Fireblade K'Chona]: No, I don't. What has she written? There is a chance I read one of her things and forgot her name, happens all the time.

I've always found that too. My creative writing class last year had a discussion about it, and we eventually decided that happy stories are much more difficult to put on paper.

Angst, however, is very easy to write down. This is why we have emos. :P

2007-01-23 [GoneGone]: Um, Phoenix, I may be wrong, but I think this is a place to discuss poetry, not to re-affirm your poetic ego.

2007-01-23 [Linderel]: Here is a link to her website: http://www.metalandmagic.com/
I'm not certain if she has published anything outside of the web, but what she has written is definitely worth a read. The website mainly has her art, but there's a link to her LiveJournal on the 'Other Works' section. She also has a DeviantArt account, she links there often in her blog.

Oooh, I would have very much liked to hear that conversation.
Hmm, I wonder if any of my poems can be called emo-ish - I've had my share of angst. :P

Moving along, though, have you ever tried to write a poem that only has words beginning with a certain letter? Or a poem where you have to omit the 20 most common words of the English language?

2007-01-23 [GoneGone]: I'd try to include, but it seems you two are on a rant. :P I can't keep up!

Besides, my poetry is in my prose.

2007-01-23 [NukleaЯ EveЯgloW™]: And nothing's wrong with emos...
And not all emos cut their wrists
and not all are always whiny pussies...
stupid stereotypes...but of course...
emos tend to be on the darker side of emotions literary wise...but I know people who are emo and they're not much different from you and me...except for a few you may or may not notice...

and no, i'm not saying you said anything was wrong about emos...I had to rant <.<

2007-01-23 [Linderel]: Oh, sorry. xD Should we slow down? :P
Well, I'll be going to bed in a minute or two either way - it's half past three in the morning.

2007-01-23 [GoneGone]: Don't slow down! Enjoy yourselves. I'll catch up on the convo when it starts up again.

2007-01-23 [NukleaЯ EveЯgloW™]: But it's talking about poetry too...it just happens to be mine...I've written a poem that went in order of A-Z, and Z-A too...also where the first letter going down of each line spells out something like a sentence or a word

2007-01-23 [Fireblade K'Chona]: Yay, thank you! :P

No, I've never actually done that before. I've had to write along certain topics, but those tend to twist and mutate out of my control. My subconscious doesn't seem to like me much. :P

[GoneGone], go ahead and chip in whenever you feel like! I write a bunch of prose too, and it definitely has its merits. I have a few of my pretty prose pieces up too, actually, somewhere...I'll dig up the link sometime if you want me to. You'll have to remind me, though. :P

[NukleaЯ EveЯgloW™], I was referring to the emos who act ridiculous and wear so much eyeliner they fuse their eyes shut and pretend they're vampires. Also, I write angst stuff, I'm certainly not an emo, I was just poking fun at the angst genre in general!

Good night, [Linderel]. I have to get off soon too anyway. Have good dreams!

2007-01-23 [NukleaЯ EveЯgloW™]: I get what you mean, but I just had to go off on a rant there =)

2007-01-23 [GoneGone]: Well, I've been writing very dark pieces for over a decade now. But it's not so much angsty like emo...it's more violent and twisted. I thought I was awful for writing like that until I turned ten. :P Now it's my strength.

It's interesting, because the angsty writing is sometimes incredibly pathetic. It's hard to find good, moving angst. Most of it is just cliches thrown together.

2007-01-23 [GoneGone]: Fireblade, I'd be pleased to read your work at some point! Maybe I should post my stories, but I honestly think no one would bother to read them.

2007-01-23 [Fireblade K'Chona]: Very well-said, [GoneGone]! It is difficult to find good angst. -sigh-

Heh, no problem, message me about it and I'll send you one of my short stories, if you like! :) I have to get off now, but it's been awesome chatting with you.

And, by the way, you're wrong-I certainly would read what you wrote! Neil Gaiman, an author I *idolize,* is dark and twisted and violent, and it doesn't worry me. ^_^

Toodles for now!

2007-01-23 [GoneGone]: Cheers.

And I think people wouldn't read it because no one has the time or inclination to sit down in front of the computer and read a good-lengthed story.

2007-01-23 [Fireblade K'Chona]: ...um, have you ever heard of fanfiction.net?

That's full of people who do that sort of thing all the time.

Fictionpress is for original fiction. Ditto what I said about fanfiction.net.

I have read stories online that are a good deal longer than some books I read. One of my favorite stories online comes to easily over three hundred pages in Microsoft Word.

I read the entire thing online.

2007-01-23 [Daemon SaDiablo]: ditto...

2007-01-23 [Linderel]: Don't forget Writersco!

Either way, I'd be very interested in reading whatever any of you has to offer. ^_^ And, as long as we're on that track, I might drop an advert myself: Do feel free to read my poetry at Coal black wings. ^_~ Comments would be highly appreciated.

Can you define 'good angst'? Just another interesting question.

2007-01-23 [Fireblade K'Chona]: I'll give it a try, even though I just woke up.

Good angst is angst that portrays sadness without being whiny. It is written well enough that the reader empathizes with the characters.

Does that work?

2007-01-23 [scars of winter rain]: wow... i havent been on for like four hours... and theres already like, two pages that dont have my name on it anymore...
i'm lost whats goin on?

2007-01-23 [Daemon SaDiablo]: Look and see, best way to figure out things.

Also a shameless plug, Ravings of a mad man is where my attempts of poetry can be found, also a few little scribbles of character details and the like. Its cluttered, and some of the stuff I don't even like. -chuckles dryly- We're are own worst critics.

That pegs good angst pretty bang on, K'Chona.

2007-01-23 [scars of winter rain]: lol i know reading is the best way out... but i'm just so damn lazy...

2007-01-23 [scars of winter rain]: lol

2007-01-23 [Linderel]: Well, better be a bit less lazy if you want to keep up. ;)

Hmm, a pretty good definition. Then again, as all art, poetry is incredibly subjective. 'Good angst' for someone might be 'incredibly whiny' for someone else. But that road just results in neverending, headache-inducing musings, and I'm not going there voluntarily. xD At least not at the moment.

2007-01-23 [Daemon SaDiablo]: All from the eye of the beholder, as they say.

2007-01-23 [Linderel]: Indeedy.

Now that we have all thrown our own respective links here, are there any poems in particular you want to discuss? Any one that you want feedback on more than the others? I thought we could perhaps paste one such poem each on this page and discuss it. :) Of course, only if people are willing.

Or then we could poke at Shakespeare's sonnets or Sylvia Plath's marvellous madness or...

Anything not to let the page dry up. xD

2007-01-23 [Daemon SaDiablo]: I'd be game to have one of my poems poked around and critiqued. Aslong as I wasn't the only one. -chuckles dryly-

2007-01-23 [GoneGone]: I probably have a poem or two hiding somewhere in my huge collection. Good angst, for me, I think, is that I can feel the character's worries, understand them and empathize with them. Bad angst is I want to shake the person and tell them to get a life. But the subjective thing, "eye of the beholder", is very true as well. For some, Shakespeare's Hamlet is a great hero, for others, he's a teenager who whines about his problems too much and acts when it's too late...

And I'm on fictionpress.com, albeit not much. Most of my writing is on deviantArt and few people bother to read there.

Maybe I should just add my stories here just so I can be all fancy and flashy like you guys and say here: look at my all pretty works too! :P

2007-01-23 [Daemon SaDiablo]: Oh, I'm anything but fancy and flashy. Its sort of like dust bunnies under the couch. My work just accumulates here, and I decided to sweep into into the dust pale, my Ravings page.

2007-01-23 [GoneGone]: Ah, your dismissiveness of your work is probably misleading. Dust bunnies they may be, but I bet they're good dust bunnies!

2007-01-23 [Daemon SaDiablo]: Some of them, I like yes. But some of them I look back and laugh. Over time, writings have matured. Its all just a mass of stuff from different periods of time on ET. I've got about two and a half, almost three years to pull from. Its all helter skelter. Though anymore, the further to the bottom you go, the newer it is.

Yes, I'm very dismissive about my work, own worst critic as they say.

2007-01-23 [GoneGone]: Someone once said that the artist is always the most critical of her/his own work. I know I am far more critical of my productions than anyone else is. But it's the nature of being an artist, I think. It's certainly not healthy, but it definitely has some truth to it.

You should see some of my stories from a decade ago! I laugh through all of those. It's amazing how naive we are as children. Even my work from a year ago I find young and silly. It's interesting, though, following the progress of any poet or writer over time, and how their styles change and mature as they go.

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: Aw, thanks, Deost. :P (By the way, for people who are too lazy to type out my full name, you can call me one or the other or Blade. I don't really care.)

Wow, my computer just completely spazzed. That was strange. Back to the comments. I would love discussing Shakespeare's sonnets; I have more than is healthy memorized. My favorite is 64.

As for your last comment, Daemon, about writing maturing over time...I completely know where you're coming from. I have been writing stories all my life, but I started posting in seventh grade. Looking back on all that stuff, the utter dreck I wrote is incredible. On my poetry pages (Fireblade's Poetry and onwards) I have commentary under most of them. Sometime I'll put them into chronological order of some sort, and see how I've evolved as a poet.

Small children's stories are fascinating.

2007-01-24 [GoneGone]: 64? I know that one....it's a love sonnet to his dark-skinned mystery woman, right?

2007-01-24 [Linderel]: Writing sure matures with the writer... if the writer has the luck of still having room to develop within the talent. I know I've improved, but the change is perhaps more evident in my prose than in my poetry. There is some small, gradual shifting apparent in my poetry as well, I think, but I haven't grown there as much.
Then again, it's possible that someone else might be able to see better if there has been any development, and how extensive that development is. Being your own worst critic may be useful sometimes, but it also makes one a bit too subjective to one's poems, no matter how based on reality the self-criticism is.
Better that way, though, than to possess no sense of self-criticism at all, right? I'm pretty sure there are people like that as well out there.

At eleven years old, I wrote a story that still serves as an important milestone for me. It's so clearly fantasy that it must have given me a push on my current path. Nevermind that the writing itself is horrible - the idea is still there.

64, 64... *takes out her book of sonnets* Doesn't open to me exactly as a love sonnet. Then again, I never was very good at analysing. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/64.html

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: No, 64's the one that starts, 'When I have seen by Time's fell hand defaced'. It doesn't exactly come across as a love sonnet, but the language in it is just...perfectly strung together.

[Linderel]-I too, have developed far more in my prose than in my poetry, simply because I write much, much more prose than poetry. And I write a lot of poetry. I basically just write all the time. :P But for the purposes of the conversation, yes, an unbiased outsider is better able to see development than the author themself.

Although I have become much better at RPing over the years, and there's a direct correlation between how good an RPer you are and how well you write. :P

(well...the RPs where you don't roll dice, you just depend on the skills of the various writers to pull things off...)

2007-01-24 [Daemon SaDiablo]: Ok, time for me to defend my beloved D&D. I'm not like the typical DM, I try to make it as interactive as I can, Npcs that don't just say yes, no, or cut straight to the plot. Character flaws, heavily descriptive rooms, not just saying, oh this hits, that hits, miss, criticle. Explaining where it hits, how, etc. Though granted, the players don't really contribute to terribly much on the overall scheme of things. Though having ones that like to Roleplay more than just roll dice is nice. Though I will agree that a bunch of roleplayers playing off each others posts shows a greater depth for keeping things alive. Especially when you have to hold up the slack of a... well not so talented roleplayer.

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: Oh, I wasn't trying to diss D&D at all! Sorry. I was trying to make a point that writing skills become more developed if the roleplayers play off one another, like you said, than if they do every action off a roll of the dice. I don't usually play with dice; in some ways it's easier for me, because I lose things and would lose the dice instantly :) but in some ways it's harder, because I have to think critically to stay in character.

Holding up the slack of a slack roleplayer is terrible. -sigh- All the RPs I try and start seem cursed with them.

2007-01-24 [Daemon SaDiablo]: I know, K'chona, I wasn't saying you were. I got your point. I was just throwing mine in as well. I lose my dice all the time, and am constantly buying new ones.

I've long since given up creating my own RP's. That and having a heck of a time finding one not rife with slackers and the like.

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: -nodnod-

-looks furtively from side to side- You have trouble finding RPs without slackers in them?

Talk to [iippo] about this. Say that one of the contestants sent you. I can say no more.

2007-01-24 [Linderel]: I like all kinds of roleplays, but I do love D&D. And I love my dice. <3

But, to get back on topic... *ahem* Or at least closer to it...

I just had a very interesting, very frightening idea.
Would someone actually participate in a roleplay where everything would actually be said in poetry? The narration in iambic pentametre, speech in heroic couplets...

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: OMG THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!!

...now that I've stopped fangirling... -cough- I have to start paying attention in class. can we return to that topic later? -begs-

I'd totally do it.

2007-01-24 [Daemon SaDiablo]: I'd have to read a few of the passages when you guys start, so I could fit in. I'm a writer, but I've never done any classes into poetry. Information seems to just not phase me. I write, it fits a certain parameter, ok cool. Just don't try and explain it to me. Writing just comes simply and easily to me. Start telling me how to write, or what form I have to take, and it all unravels in my head. -chuckles dryly- But it sounds like a lovely idea Linderel. I'd be more than willing to join.

2007-01-24 [Linderel]: Well, it would be a huge challenge to me as well, since I've only recently begun to practice different forms, and so far have only successfully pulled off a poem consisting of heroic couplets. I tried to write in trochees once, but that didn't go so well.

It was very much a random idea, but I like it. xD

2007-01-24 [Daemon SaDiablo]: Rise to the challenge, I shall. -chuckles dryly- Though you'll have to forgive, if I seem a bit slow on the uptake.

The best ideas are oft spun from the most odd and randomly selected of yarns.

2007-01-24 [GoneGone]: The only rpg's I have ever been in are completely written. I actually found I had to simplify my writing style to keep with the other players as well as space and time constraints. I like to describe things, and in a completely written rpg, that's just not feasible. Mostly because it would destroy my wrists.
Like I said before, I'm much more into prose than poetry, so an rp that is only poetry I'd probably fail miserably at. I could try, but it'd be rather pathetic. Like Daemon, I just write. Trying to fit it into a certain poetic category is difficult for me. Except for haiku. I seem to do well with those...

(the only time I tried D&D, everyone decided to start at a high level, got bored halfway through and committed mass suicide)

2007-01-24 [scars of winter rain]: lol i give up on trying to foillow you guys haha

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: I would adore playing like that. It would be an awesome challenge. Depending on interest or uncertainty, though, we might only want to have the dialogue be poetry? I don't know.

Writing an RP as an epic ballad might be fun. Then someone could put it to music and sing it and put it up. :P

2007-01-24 [Linderel]: Having onky the dialogue be poetry sounds like a good idea, at least for starters. If people become more confident, we could go hardcore, so to say, and make the narration poetry as well. :D But first, we'd have to see how many people are actually interested.

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: Are there any good poetry wikis around here? :P Methinks we need to advertise!

2007-01-24 [Linderel]: Well, Poets meeting point has all sorts of pages listed. :D

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: Mmkay. We should probably set something up first, though...actually have some kind of material beforehand, sort of thing.

2007-01-24 [GoneGone]: Muee hee hee. I can see the advertisement now: Hardcore Poetry RPG. Only the toughest poet will survive. Do you the rhyme in you?

Characters:
Almira Sestina: Loves to talk in long verses. Don't have much time? Don't talk to her.
Mr. Haiku: Says little, and you have to read between the lines to know what he really means.

Oh dear....

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: ...RPing in sestina form would be incredibly cruel and unusual. Ever tried writing one? They are absolutely insane.

...of course, I love them, but I'm a nutcase, so yeah.

I liked Mr. Haiku, though. Muaha. That was funny.

2007-01-24 [GoneGone]: I'm actually ignorant about sestinas. But, if they're insane, I think we should insist all new rpers write at least three to inaugurate them.

2007-01-24 [Linderel]: Aye... And then we can go to being a bit more on topic here. :) Icarus

2007-01-24 [GoneGone]: How come I get a feeling of impending and inevitable doom from that title?

2007-01-24 [Linderel]: I like mythology. <_<

2007-01-24 [GoneGone]: So do I, but couldn't you have chosen a happier character?

2007-01-24 [Linderel]: Umm... It was the first that popped into mind? Better suggestions are taken.

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: ...okaaaay...um...you wouldn't say that if you'd ever written a sestina. As a sestina veteran, I again protest that it is cruel and unusual.

And Icarus works fine, he flied. Whee!

(I know I'm using bad grammar. I don't care.)

2007-01-24 [GoneGone]: Yes, yes Icarus flied. And then he died.

There is my first poem I submit.

What can I say? I like cruel and unusual. More unusual though.

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: Sestinas are 39 lines long, just to start with...oh, here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sestina

The first one I tried sort of...bombed. The first one I actually completed doesn't make all that much sense.

My second one, however, is about vampires and I love it. :P

2007-01-24 [Linderel]: I'm getting increasingly curious. I'll have to check out this sestina soon. First, though, I'll have to write a limerick. About George, the koala hybrid!

2007-01-24 [GoneGone]: Oh...my...

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: spiffy.

I have two sestinas lurking in the later pages of Fireblade's Poetry. Actually, both of them are up on the daily poem page too. The first one didn't quite turn out how I wanted, but the second one I adore.

Question for everyone: Do you consider songwriters poets? Why, or why not?

2007-01-24 [Linderel]: That question is a bit hard to answer, since I write song lyrics as well. But songwriting feels a bit different from writing poems - I can't really explain, but for me, as a person who mainly writes in free form, there's the greater carefulness to make at least something rhyme when writing songs.

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: Hm. I usually write in iambic pentameter, and often rhyming, so I see what you mean.

I am a musician, but I have never succeeded in writing my own songs. I can write poems like anything, but I can't put them to melodies. -sigh- Oh well. Give me a piano piece and I will learn it just fine! :P

2007-01-24 [GoneGone]: I think a lyrics is a poem because even though it may not necessarily rhyme, the lyrics do have to fit inside a structure in order to match the rhythm of the song. Beowulf, for example, is more song lyrics than poem because it relies on rhythm more than rhyme for its structure, but it is still technically a poem. Besides, before Beowulf was written down, it would have been sung. Long epics -- which are considered poems -- were sung in rhythm to make it easier for the laymen to memorize them. So a song, historically speaking, is just another structure of poetry.

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: That's how I've generally viewed it, ED. And you're quite right about Beowulf.

But, you know, sometimes poems will be set to song. Handel, for example, wrote music to some of Alexander Pope's poetry, and Pope didn't intend for them to be songs.

(see what English class does to your brain.... -eyeroll-)

2007-01-24 [Linderel]: I can write, but I can't play. I can't even read notes! So I can only hope my lyrics are fit to compose into actual songs. Based on feedback, though, I have hope.

2007-01-24 [GoneGone]: Well, Fireblade, putting music to poems works both ways. Disney put one of Tchaikovsky's waltzes to words in Sleeping Beauty ("I know you. I waltzed with you once upon a dream").

And calling me Deost is fine.

2007-01-24 [Fireblade K'Chona]: Okay. That's a good point about Sleeping Beauty, too.

2007-01-25 [Linderel]: I've actually never watched Sleeping Beauty. At least I don't remember doing so.
Yeah, I know, I've been deprived. :P

2007-01-25 [GoneGone]: I'd have to say Sleeping Beauty is my favourite. I'm in love with Malificient. But Walt Disney (the man himself), in an attempt to introduce kids to classical music vowed that the only music played in Sleeping Beauty would be composed by Tchaikovsky alone. That might be also why I like it. :)

2007-01-25 [Daemon SaDiablo]: Sleeping Beauty, I agree is one of my favorites. Then again, anything that rings of old style fantasy, or high style, is right up my alley....

2007-01-25 [Fireblade K'Chona]: My favorite Disney movie is Beauty and the Beast, but that's not the point here...

Although now I am wondering if I could possibly retell Beauty and the Beast in verse. Oh dear. O.o

2007-01-25 [GoneGone]: You very likely can. And I bet someone has. But I'd love to read your version!

Same with the high fantasy here...

2007-01-26 [Linderel]: That would a very interesting read, surely. :D
Will you write it in sestinas? *grin*

2007-01-26 [Fireblade K'Chona]: oh dear god please no -whimpers-

-cough- Er, that is, probably not. I might have a sort of chorus, though. Some sort of theme that twines through the whole poem. I'm thinking iambic pentameter, though. :P Of course. Although free verse might give some interesting possibilities.

2007-01-26 [GoneGone]: When I think theme, I think about imagery, not poetic rhythms. Might be interesting to infuse a whole bunch of different styles.

2007-01-26 [Fireblade K'Chona]: What I meant by 'theme' was really just not wanting to repeat 'chorus'.

Something about roses and the basic plot. Like, maybe...

We all know how it ends: a girl, a rose
A Beast, two sisters, and the castle dark
A father's folly, then a chance remark
A beauty's will, the love that always knows,
A constant question, and the end she chose.

What you thinky? Just sort of a...refrain type thing.

I'm going to have to write it now, or it will haunt me forever, you realize...

2007-01-26 [GoneGone]: So, what have you written?

2007-01-26 [Fireblade K'Chona]: ....those five lines?

2007-01-28 [Linderel]: Write more! :D

...and don't die, damnit. :P *pokes*

2007-01-28 [Daemon SaDiablo]: -chuckles dryly- I'm intrigued to see how this comes out as well K'chona.

2007-01-28 [Fireblade K'Chona]: aw, thank you. With you guys behind me I know I'll wind up doing it... :P I'm glad you like what's there so far!

I've got a little notebook that I'm carrying around muttering and scribbling in.

2007-01-28 [Daemon SaDiablo]: The poets version of a little black book eh?