Spelling and grammar in poetry - is it important?

Quite a bit has been written on this subject of correct spelling and grammar in poetry around the web, but I wanted to put a personal slant on to the subject.

To this end, I have just published a lens (= web page) on squidoo which addresses the subject, Spelling and grammar in poems. Basically it is possible for us to separate the two topics. I do not believe that there is any case for not using correct spelling, whether or not we are discussing "creative" writing. With dictionaries easily available and on-line if required, it is sheer laziness not to check up on words which a writer is not confident about.

I have to put my hand up and saythat sometimes when writing on-line I press the publish/post button before I should. It is so easy to get carried away, BUT there is really no excuse. I would never consider a painting complete until I have left it for a couple of days and checked upon it with a fresh eye. I need to remember this with my writing sometimes.

Grammar is another matter. I think that where necessary for understanding (and after all writing is about communication) then the writer should consider this as a matter of some importance. On the other hand rules are made to be broken, but like sos many things make sure that you know why you are breaking the rule. Know it before you break it is a good way to look at this topic. I have touched upon a number of specific examples in the squidoo lens.

Find My Poems.
I have also re-published most of the poems from Trion on a Squidoo lens, Poems On Attitudes To Life. The rest will follow soon.

A Poem By Artyfax

This poem has been set to music.

It tells of the ending of a love affair. The individual to whom this has happened is telling his story by using the metaphor of a song that is finished – a song that has been song, not to be repeated.

The Song Of My life.

The song of my life has been long

But now it is finally sung

And I sang it to you,

As I bade you Adieu.

Yes the song of my life has been sung.

Who cares now?

The words have no meaning for me.

The melody seems out of key.

I wished you farewell,

The performance went well,

But the song of my life has been sung.

Who cares now,

There’s no one conducting the band?

The harmonies hang on my ears

And sympathise with all the tears.

I watched with regrets

As you walked off and left.

Yes, the song of my life has been sung.

Who cares now

There’s no one conducting the band?

Who cares now. Who, who, Who?

It has a slightly strange structure as the chorus grows with each repeat after the verses. The whole chorus is used once only in the version set to music and acts as a contrast section after the second verse. For the poem, I did not want to retain this structure and so it became this extraordinary growing section. I think it is the only time I have ever used this technique.

Changing the published addresses of my poems

This is just a very quick post to explain why there may be broken links in the previous posts. I started to publish my poems on a site called Triond, however I have found that the site has many "spun" articles. It was not poor english as could be expected from non-native speakers but definitely spun rubbish. I did not want to be associated with the site so have cancelled my account there. I understand that Trion was hit very heavily by the Google Panda update and that the site have done very little to counter the issues. This has resulted in very little traffic from Google, so this is anonther reason to leave the site before It would be a major setback.

I will republish the poems on Squidoo and correct the links as soon as the new ones are available.
Update : links now point to correct url's

Apologies for any inconvenience caused. I should have done more to assess the site before starting to publish but there are people who have been on the site and have earned money in the past with good solid original content. A very quick assessment seemed to show it would be a good site to make use of. As I read the forums and found the spun rubbish, I became very disappointed. Still, we live and learn.

Writing Poetry

I have written Poetry/lyrics for many years without considering the technicalities. I used to be subjected to poetry at school and obviously picked up a little understanding of the gendre, and of course I was like any other teenager in the sixties a listener/consumer of pop music.

So I became aware of rhyme, metre and other issues and thought I knew what worked and what didn't. But with a little time on my hands now, in my 65th year, I am determined to try and learn a little more. Will it make my poems/lyrics any better? Well, that I don't know but I am going to find out.

I have just found a web site (creative writing) which offers lessons in various aspects of creative writing including : how to write poetry. I shall be following the lessons and hoping to write something of my experience in getting to grips with structure, techniques rhyming schemes and many more. I also hope to be adding a few new poems rather than trawling through my old, sometimes schoolboy, efforts. Not that I believe they were not or are not worthwhile, I am proud to have written them, but I want to write something with more of an intelligent outlook, something more personal ........ ?????  Do I really mean that? I am not sure what I mean really, but hopefully you will be able to judge for yourselves.

So for my first "new" work, I offer a piece about waiting - something I truly find is a pet hate of mine.

It actually reminds me of The Cat In the Hat, or at least the style that Dr Seuss, the childrens author used to write in. I read many of his books to my son's when they were small. If you don't know his writing, check out his biography page, but remember these are for small children. Horton the elephant, the lorax, I remember them all so well.

Still excited about this new venture into poetry.

I have had a little time to think about the offer of a free e-book and unfortunately I have come to the conclusion that I mat have mislead in my first post. I was thinking of selecting some 40-50 poems but in reality I will  only be able to find time to post 4-5 a week. They were written as I said many years ago, and probably never really edited at the time so I will need to review them all before posting for public consumption. This means it will take a little longer than I at first anticipated. Blame it on the excitement of the project, and nnot carefully thinking about it. One possibility is to publish in two (or) more volumes. This would certainly be a quicker way to make the e-book available. I will have to see how things work out.
Also it was a very poor idea asking interested readers to leave an e-mail (on a publicly viewed blog? OMG what was I thinking?) I will make it available in PDF format somewhere on the web when it is ready. In the meantime, if you know of a site where I can do this, please let me know in the comment box. I have never used such a facility before,

But now to the real purpose of today's post. I want to post another three excerpts from my back catalogue of poems. As I said yesterday, I have about 200 filed away, well stored in notebooks really, and am beginning to post them on line. This blog is really a central file system as they are being posted on different sites. Hopefully to earn a crust or two, so if you like the excerpt please support a straving artist. Well alright, I am not starving but who knows when the worm will turn.

The Song Of My life.

The song of my life has been long
But now it is finally sung
And I sang it to you,
As I bade you Adieu.
Yes the song of my life has been sung.

This has now been published in this blog

Put Down Your Gun

Put Down your gun, you’d better run,
You can’t have it all your own way.
You never know when you might need a friend
So put down your gun today.
Banish all thoughts of vengeance.
“Live and let live”, don’t they say.
You can’t come up number one, everytime.
So put down your gun today.

read the whole poem and notes in poems on attitudes to life

The Wicked Magician

The wicked Magician,
He cries in the night.
For the wrongs he has done
And the wrongs he can’t right.

read the whole poem and notes in poems on attitudes to life

So there we have it, there are now six of the poems published, and at least another two which I haven't excerpted here but their turn will come. I have also found a couple of sites which allow uploading of files but not sure if thi will count as duplication of content and so will be looking at all the options very carefully before I decide to use their services and post my e-book with them. Don't want to fall foul of the TOS of the sites which I am suing for publishing on line.

 

An interesting little application - Best Reviewer

As part of a campaign to get my poems noticed, I have created a TOP 5 on Best Reviewer. This is a great way of hopefully directing a little traffic to your web sites.

On the other hand, if you have a list of top items which may in themselves attract traffic ( top films / games / records / etc) you can earn money via the sites adsense content. If you feel like trying it for yourself then why not take a look now.

end of commercial break.

Poems and Poetry

I find that I need to start another blog. I have separated my painting and mixed media collage art work, started other blogs for my photography and musical interests and also another which is basically to promote my Zazzle store but now I need a blog as a home for my creative writing which at the moment is basically poetry. My poems are basically about life and the way that we live it.

I have a fairly large back catalogue of unpublished work, written mostly in my younger days. And that is sometime ago, LOL. I have used much of it to set to music and sung those which I think of as my favourites, because of this the structure and wording of some of the examples may well seem odd. However, now that I have "retired" from the day job, I am refinding and starting new interests.

So I am looking to get some exposure for some of the older work and will be adding new poems more and more frequently as the time passes. I need to get back into the frame of mind which enables me to start writing poetry again.

Just as a taster, here is an original poem and a couple of excerpts with links to the full text elsewhere on the internet.

Is The Day Too Long?

Is the day too long

To hold to what you’re crying for?

Is the day too bright

To see just what you want?

Is the time too fast

To make your mind up anyway?

Is life just a dream,

You cannot hold?

Have you seen the sun,

When up above’s a clear blue sky?

Have you felt the rain,

When the sun is beating down?

Can you reach the sky,

“Oh no”, this time I hear you say.

Can you really say

You’ve ever lived?

You’ve never seen the sun,

The clouds of doubt obscure your mind.

You’ve never felt the rain

You’re too insensitive for that.

You’ve never touched the sky,

Your crookedness is stopping you.

Oh no, you cannot say,

You’ve ever lived.

The River (excerpt)

Cold, silent river

How I long to be free.

You ask no questions,

Just roll on down to the sea.

Coloured lights reflect in your water,

I reflect in them too.

But I’ve so many questions,

I don’t know what I must do.

See the full version in my Squidoo lens  How To Write Memorable Song Lyrics

The Wind (excerpt)

The Wind sighed,
And the world turned.
The Wind whispered, "Why?"
But no one heard.

Read more about this poem and why it was written with illustrations of wind/storm damage in the article. A poem: The Wind

I hope that will will take the time to read the full poems, otherwise you will miss out and that would be a pity. I hope to create an e-book with the large back catalogue and will be making this free to interested lovers of poems and poetry. I cannot promise when this will be available, I need to assess which poems I think are worth being included and hopefully it will contain 30 to 40 examples of my poetry. If you think you might be interested in this collection please leave a comment and I will be pleased to email it to you when it is completed.

ADDENDUM: On re-reading this today, I think asking for e-mails was wrong. Leave a comment please, but when the e-book is ready I will find somewhere to post it in PDF format (probably) so that it is downloadable. At 4 or 5 a week it is going to be  a little while until it is ready if It is to include as many of the poems as I would like. So depending on the way it works out there may be fewer poems than I at first anticipated. Maybe two volumes would be more convenient.

"The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglay" - Robbie Burns