Author Archives: quillfyre

Unknown's avatar

About quillfyre

I'm a poet and member of the League of Canadian Poets published in Ottawa journals and online. My poems have received Honourable Mentions in Arborealis 2008, Ontario Poetry Society, and the Canadian Authors Association National Capital Writing Contest in 2008 and 2011. I began writing on a manual green Olivetti typewriter, but I don’t miss having poems flavoured with correction fluid and cross-outs.

Sea Shanty for April 3 NaPoWriMo

Posted on by
2

napo2013button2Well, never thought I’d be writing a sea shanty, for sure! And I don’t think this is my forte! Here’s an excerpt from the prompt for Day 3: write a sea shanty (or shantey, or chanty, or chantey — there’s a good deal of disagreement regarding the spelling!). Anyway, these are poems in the forms of songs, strongly rhymed and rhythmic, that sailors might sing while hauling on ropes and performing other sea-going labors. Probably the two most famous sea shanties are What Shall We Do With A Drunken Sailor? and Blow the Man Down. And what should your poem be about? Well, I suppose it could be about anything, although some nautical phrases tossed into the chorus would be good for keeping the sea in your shanty. Haul away, boys, haul away!  And here’s the link so you can see all the info: http://www.napowrimo.net/

English: Simplified (one voice) music score fo...

English: Simplified (one voice) music score for the traditional sea shanty “Drunken Sailor”. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

MY ATTEMPT:

Sail Away Shanty

A capstan crew would chant a particular type o...

A capstan crew would chant a particular type of shanty in order to coordinate their movements (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Cast off the rope lads, and pull up the anchor
Yo ho and sail away now
Come every fellow and fancy-vest banker
Yo ho and sail away now

Bound for the Indies, southward we go
Yo ho and sail away now
Gone for the winter, back in the snow
Yo ho and sail away now

we’ll look for palm trees on far away shores
Yo ho and sail away now
We’ll land in Haiti or isles of Azores
Yo ho and sail away now

Sail away laddies, ye all sail away
Yo ho and sail away now
See you in winter, when we get our pay
Yo ho and sail away now.

Carol A. Stephen
April 3, 2013

English: Sea shanty choir Rolling Home of Ålan...

English: Sea shanty choir Rolling Home of Åland från Åland demonstrating the original use of shanties aboard Sigyn. The shanty man is standing in the middle. A capstan has been moved to where the performance is easier to see. Svenska: Den åländska Shanty-kören Rolling Home of Aland sjunger och demonstrarar användningen av shantyn ombord på Sigyn under sång- och musikfesten “Ta i ton” 2011. Shantymannen i mitten. Ett gångspel har flyttats till en för förevisningen lämplig plats. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Related articles

April 2 Writer’s Digest PAD Challenge poem

Posted on by
4

napo2013button2

Today’s poem is written to the prompt from Robert Lee Brewer on the Writer’s Digest Poem a Day blog challenge. It’s Two for Tuesday, to write a dark poem or a light poem, or both. I followed Robert’s example and combined references to both in this short poem. It riffs off a poem by Katy Ellerman, a fellow classmate from ModPo.

http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/2013-april-pad-challenge-day-2

 

The Dark OutsideMarch 2008 Poetry Reading and NC backup copy032
   after Katy Ellerman

Struggle.  Darkness of senses.
Fight fog-blur, sightless.

Before, there was light. Before the blinding of eyes.
There is no turning-away. In this place
I make my peace with where I am.

Enfolded. Enveloped. Silence. I stand
against the dark outside this circle. Remember light.

Inside the heart, a flutter of doves.

Carol A. Stephen
April 2, 2013

Sagrada Familia doves

Sagrada Familia doves (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

April 1st Poem for National Poem Month

Posted on by
4

Prompt #1 from NaPoWriMo is to write a poem beginning with a first line from another poem. Here is my poem, which inspired the title of my chapbook, Above the Hum of Yellow Jackets, that starts with a first line from Yusef Komunyakaa‘s You and I Are Disappearing.

I’m told that posting poems on a blog is considered by some publishers to be published work, so this is my offering instead. (For the record, though, I DID write a poem. Not only does it begin with the first line of another poem, but coincidentally is an arrival poem, which goes to the prompt over on the Writer’s Digest PAD Challenge   

I didn’t look at that one till after the poem was already done, but since it starts “She simply arrives one day”, a line from Imagining Cassandra by Rhonda Douglas, it is so appropriate to the prompt.

bigstock_Yellow_Jacket_8341897Here’s my poem:

It Changes the Hour

The cry I bring down from the hills
spills upon the surface
of a stone skipping the pond
on a morning in summer.

It bleeds into the sound of the day,
an octave above the hum of yellow-jackets.
It is scented with limes and olives.
Children dance in its tremolo.
The cry I bring down from the hills
waits to be heard.
Light bends into the songs it sings
inside our heads.

It changes the hour,
perfumes it with mountain air
the colour of hummingbirds
the taste of strawberries.

 the first line is from a poem “You and I Are Disappearing —
                Bjorn Hakansson”  by Yusef Komunyakaa

photo: nrpphoto.BIGSTOCK.COM

Related articles

National Poetry Month April 2013

Posted on by
3

Poster from the League of Canadian Poets for National Poetry Month

English: Wild daffodils at Donnington Wild daf...

English: Wild daffodils at Donnington Wild daffodils beside the footpath across a field to the north of Nurdens Farm, Donnington. Early April (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I love April!  First of all, it’s my birth month, so I always have at least a small celebration to look forward to. And it’s Poetry Month. National Poetry Month, in both Canada and the USA. So there is a lot of focus on poetry this time of year. I know in Ottawa there are numerous readings as well as some fantastic workshops coming up at the Ottawa Public Library. You can read about those in my CAA-NCR weekly listing.

Right now though, I wanted to share a few other links with you, ones that relate to poetry challenges inviting poets to write a poem every day. This is by no means an extensive list. I am sure there are many others. These are the ones  I will be looking at and writing to.

First up is NaPoWriMo, short for National Poetry Writing Month: http://www.napowrimo.net/  which has some fantastic prompts for quite a variety of challenges. It begins officially tomorrow. To participate, you can register your blog, put up your daily poem and that’s it. Or you can simply write a poem to the prompt.

Second comes from Writer’s Digest Poetry Editor, Robert Lee Brewer. For this one you can post your poems online or you can keep them private, then at the end of April select the best per the rules and submit to the contest: http://www.writersdigest.com/whats-new/2013-april-pad-challenge-guidelines  

Then there is a Found poetry one that I just learned about yesterday. It is restricted to 85 already registered poets, but if you can access the source material, no reason why you can’t follow along and write your own poem. It is based on Pulitzer Prize winners: http://www.pulitzerremix.com/   To see how to write a found poem, if you haven’t done one before, visit the sponsor, The Found Poetry Review for guidelines: http://www.foundpoetryreview.com/category/blog

Another new one is this, just discovered yesterday: http://poetrysuperhighway.com/psh/a-poetry-writing-prompt-a-day/

And an interesting twist on the idea here: Write one poem on April 1st (or start it) and each day revise it. i.e. one poem, 29 revisions.)

http://anexerciseindiscipline.com/

Ok, I am sure there are others out there, and you can always google poem a day challenges for April 2013. Choose the best one that works for you. Or more than one.

One year I attempted three challenges and ended up with 80 or so draft poems. Some good ones too. One I really enjoyed in April 2011 was the Not Without Poetry one, which has not run since but the prompts are still there, starting with Day 30 and working backward. The prompts are so good, I am glad they haven’t yet been taken down.  http://notwithoutpoetry.wordpress.com/ 

So, there you go! Rev up your poetry engines. And drop a line to let me know how you are making out, or share a poem if you wish. Remember, though that some publishers will consider it published if you post online!

Carol

Related articles