#3 (Huzzah for the Ghazal!)

So, this ghazal form pretty much fascinates me. I haven't yet attempted to write one for myself, though I fully intend to. This definitely classifies as an intimidating form though. I think that I am most concerned with the ryhme scheme. I noticed that every example in the packet repeats the exact word to fulfill the "a" rhyme scheme that is required in every couplet. This approach definitely seems easier than attempting to insert a new rhyming word each time, especially if you are aiming to write a ghazal of any considerable length. I think that the repetition of the word would also contribute to the ghazal's musical quality. However, this repetition may also make it harder for each couplet to stand on its own since the goal would be to use the word in new ways each time, which may lean toward an inter-stanza dependency. I am also fascinated by the fact that the ghazal incorporates the author's name towards the end of the poem. I don't think that I could ever write a poem where it felt natural to insert "Kristen," but I do think that I could insert a nickname or something of the like. Of course, this would mean that I would either have to point this out or make it blatantly clear in the poem somehow. Overall, I think ghazals represent a challenging fascination to me and I am interested to see how they play out in my future.

#2 (A Birthday Sestina)

I also decided to post my sestina that I wrote for class to be critiqued this week as my free entry. Please let me know if you have any suggestions for improvement.


Sestina on Life

There once stood a tree.
It represented a life of freedom
from all the bad things, like drugs,
their cold sentence shaped like grapes
which were the same color as weeds,
so ironic since they couldn’t climb.

The best part of life is the climb.
When you were a kid, it was up a tree,
then life became entangled with weeds.
There is a pure element to the freedom,
like wine made from fresh grapes,
free of pesticides and drugs.

Kill your body and fill it with drugs
to watch your blood pressure climb.
Then go ingest a million grapes
to save your life, or plant a tree
and give the land back its freedom.
Light shines through the weeds.

Annoying people position themselves as weeds
do, right next to you, like a drug
that gets you high but never gives you freedom.
Vines can strangle and climb
up the trunk of the strongest tree
but they still support the grapes.

Raisins are yummy dried grapes
that are shriveled like a castaway weed
removed from the base of a tree.
If love is the best drug,
and life is the hardest climb,
then death must be true freedom.

So many never know freedom,
squished like rotten grapes,
bound tight until they learn to climb
out, over, away; run from the weeds.
Make sure to leave your drugs
behind. Bury them under a tree.

The strongest tree knows its freedom
away from the drugs of life, fresh like grapes
grown amongst weeds but still able to climb.

#1 (What's the deal with the sestina?)

I wanted to post about the very interesting (and admittedly frustrating) nature of the sestina. When I first read about this form in the packet, I immediately wrote it off. It was "too hard," as the whiner in me would say. I don't think that I even understood it completely until we discussed it in class. While I did find the examples in the packet to be awesome, I didn't think that a student poet like myself would be capable of producing comparable (or even adequate) work. I imagined that I would get completely stuck after a stanza or two and then the poem would either collapse upon itself or maybe even implode! This sounds dramatic, but it seems like most of us felt this way. After hearing the other student sestinas in class and writing one myself, I discovered that this form is not the complete horror that I suspected. Even though it is still difficult, it produces very interesting results that I do not think could have been created without the use of this form. However, the utter fear that I had before I was forced to tackle this form is something that I am curious about. Was I scared of the repetition in this form? We had already covered forms such as pantoums that had repeating structures, so this answer didn't make sense. Was it the sheer length of the poetic form? I had written poems in the past that were longer. Was it the "limitation" of only having to incorporate six distinct subjects throughout? This was definitely a new element to me, and although I was initially weary of this "limitation," I discovered that it really allowed for very interesting expansions about the subjects that I would not have thought of otherwise, so that proved to be a positive experience. In the end, I think that sestinas are kind've like vampires. They can be really scary, especially when you don't know them, but they might just turn into someone you love! (or at least they will if you're Bella...)