Learning about Poetry (part 10): Vague to Detail

©2020 by Ken Wickham

All rights reserved.

In the last poetry post, sensory words and images were added to the researched set of rhymes in order to make the sentences more visceral. Here is the result so far.

I heard the bombastic busk,

blasting echoes in the city dusk.
"Don't be brusque!" I said to the one most abrupt.

A heavy scent of lingering fresh musk.

Beads of sweat on skin forming an aromatic musk.

Eating fishy cusk and crunchy rusk.

There by rainy, wet dusk.

The slippery sliding and gliding slimy mollusk.

Protruding sharp and long, like fangs

impaled deep and deadly the tusk.

I'm just an empty dried husk,

of my ancient former self.

Hurt and lusk, unmoving, sunken in a sofa.

From bright noon to darkening dusk.

A single undulating foot of a dark shelled mollusk.

Gone far by final dusk.

This exercise, I'll focus on making a few of the descriptions more specific.

I heard pounding in my eardrum the increasingly bombastic busk,

blasting echoes in the shadowy towers of the unfamiliar city dusk.

"Don't be brusque!"
I said to the one,
my foe,
whom I despise most abrupt.

A heavy scent drifted to my nostrils of wanted lingering fresh musk.

Beads of dripping sweat on skin forming an aromatic musk.

Eating healthy fishy cusk and satisfying crunchy rusk.

There outside my sanctuary, covered by showering-mist rainy, wet dusk.

The slippery sliding and gliding slimy mollusk,
oozed seeking paths, to my eyes, of glistening wonder.

Protruding sharp, menacing, and long, like fangs

impaled deep and deadly the tusk.

I'm just an empty, drained of all soul, a dried shriveled husk,

of a long past shell of my ancient former self.

Hurt and lusk,
unmoving, sunken deep,
almost under, in a reclining sofa.

From blinding light of midday noon to darkening mist of shadowed dusk.

A single solitary undulating foot, I beheld, of a dark shelled mollusk.

Gone far from my familiarity,
away from my home by final, unstoppable dusk.

Alright, I tried my best to expand and make it more detailed and a little less vague by making a few adjectives more specific. I also added some more action, commentary, and images. In the next poetry post, I'll try to check abstract vs concrete words.

Learning about Poetry (part 8): New material for Poetic Images exercises

For this post, I want to move from the chapter 1 on Muses to the chapter 3 on Images in the Open Textbook on poetry Naming the Unnameable: An Approach to Poetry for New Generations.
https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/naming-the-unnameable-an-approach-to-poetry-for-new-generations

The original content and poetry research on this page is by Ken Wickham.

This poetry research is property of Ken Wickham written for World of the Fifth Sun blogster by Ken Wickham. It is readable by visitors to this website location only—not as a PDF, HTML, JavaScript, nor program. It is intended in this version and future versions, to help bring website traffic and use to this specific section or other author cross-post location.

This game, parts, or resulting text may not be reproduced or shared in any form, stored in any retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, reposting, or otherwise for any other person—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

©2020 by Ken Wickham

All rights reserved.

The poetry textbook chapter 3 begins by categorizing poetry as creative writing which focuses on text that focuses on images (an event in language) experienced primarily through senses—a virtual reality.

But before working with this chapter, I'd like to roll and come up with a new and different rhyming set so that I can review some of my prior poetry techniques, and I liked and begin with a fresh slate of material for this new chapter focus. So, this post will focus on creating new material by reviewing some of the past few poetry post techniques. Then in the next post, I will hope to focus on poetry Images

For this post, I'll roll up another random rhyming word set using Rhyming Fuel.

The d1000 roll is #964 busk, tusk, dusk, husk, musk, lusk, rusk, brusque, cusk, cornhusk, mollusk.

Looking into this wordset, I only see one that is used in a common idiom.

from dusk to dawn

Let me research or freewrite some stuff based on this list.

busk, music, solicit, street musician, market, corner, street
tusk, elephant, walrus, wild boar, sharp
dusk, dawn, evening, sunset, night, ending, final days
husk, outer shell, corn, worthless outer covering
musk, deer musk, scent, odor, perfume, musky
lusk, lounge, skulk, lazy, lethargic, idle, sluggish
rusk, light bread biscuit
brusque, abrupt, blunt, rough, curt
cusk, cod, fish, codlike, with a single long dorsal fin
cornhusk, corn, leafy, ear of corn, outer membrane
mollusk, snail, clam, squid, chiton, octopus, shellfish, invertebrate, cephalopod

Word use Research
From "Same Song & Dance" by Eminem
Of footage of me impalin' myself on an elephant tusk?
We'll settle this once and for all, I'ma tell her at dusk

From "Bring Da Ruckus" by Wu-Tang Clan
I come rough, tough like an elephant tusk
Ya head rush, fly like Egyptian musk

From "To Earthward" by Robert Lee Frost
That crossed me from sweet things,
The flow of--was it musk
From hidden grapevine springs
Downhill at dusk?

From "A better Resurrection" by Christina Georgina Rossetti
My life is like a faded leaf,
My harvest dwindled to a husk:
Truly my life is void and brief
And tedious in the barren dusk;

From "Time" by Camp Lo
I'm lost, I'm found, my sound was designed by dusk
Clogging emotions and I'm bleeding, I'm lusk

From "Luminous Blues" by Zippy Kid
The time is the unremitting sable dusk,
Its the idle space without her for stuck on,
My life was worse than a stale rusk,
I grieved it still flowed on.

word combinations
cephalopod mollusk
gastropod mollusk
giant mollusk
freshwater mollusk
marine mollusk
mollusk fossils
mollusk shells
rare mollusk

Freewriting the Rhyming Set
I heard the busk in the dusk of eve. I'm just a husk of my former self. The tusk protruded sharp and long. From noon to dusk. A heavy scent of musk. Don't be brusque! Hurt and lusk. Eating cusk and rusk. A single foot of a slug or snail mucus wave of muscular contraction sliding and gliding along a mucus slime. At dusk. By dusk. After dusk. Aromatic musk.

Based on that free writing I am going to edit, expand, and organizing the freewriting list for a poetry images exercises.

I heard the busk,

echo the city dusk.

I'm just a husk,

of my former self.

Protruding sharp and long, 

impaled the tusk.

From noon to dusk.

A heavy scent of musk.

Don't be brusque!

Hurt and lusk.

Eating cusk and rusk.

The sliding and gliding mollusk.

A single foot of a mollusk.

Aromatic musk.

There by dusk.

Gone by dusk.

Okay, for the next poetry post I hope to begin to use these 16 lines of original material to explore poetic images.

Learning about Poetry (part 7): "Dream Flows" poem and comparison of Poetry to Myths or Fables

While the urge to do something with "go" rhyming words, I want to take several of my freewriting sentence words and create something simple by altering it. I also want to do something by making some phrases little more descriptive.

This will be my first entirely original rhyming poem.

Dream Flows

©2020 by Ken Wickham

All rights reserved.

This urgent hope could go. 

Where do peaceful dreams flow. 

You're not my mortal foe. 

In the moment will never know. 

So, I add this new simple 4 line rhyming poem to that one that I created through imitation several posts ago. Here is that first imitation poem for comparison.

Plague Across the Land

©2020 by Ken Wickham based on Emily Dickenson's "Hope is a thing with feathers"

All rights reserved.

I've seen across the entire land,

All victims of the plague,

In a world looking strange and vague,

No, I don't want to beg.

I now have 2 poems written: "Dream Flows" and "Plague Across the Land".

Poetry writing it is fairly strange and unfamiliar. In 2nd grade, I remember doing a few poems for classroom activity, but those are now long forgotten to time.

Writing these poems are as unfamiliar to me as creating those 2 myths and 1 fable back in 2017 in the mythology series. It does give me a greater sense of breadth with writing styles although my skill level with poetry is only beginning.

Poetry is the art of sharing experience. In these two brief and little poems, it does feel like "Dream Flows" and "Plague Across the Land" do share some sort of experience. The mythology was more of a fictional creating experience than when I created "Blood and Water - Begin", "From them all become", and "Bird takes Snake to the Moons". Very little of me are included in those myths and fable. Instead of including any emotion or evaluations, my myths were more logically constructed.

Learning about Poetry (part 2): Muse #2 Collecting (idioms)

In the last post, I used freewriting to write down some associations, feelings, thoughts, and relationships to words rolled for from d1000 table in Rhyming Fuel. Since I have not been keeping a journal, the freestyle let me capture a 13 minute look into what came off the top of my head for the 9 rhyming words.

In this post, I will be collecting ideas also based off of the nine keywords and the freewriting.

egg...chicken, birth, lay, breakfast, scrambled, oval, omelet, new, incubate, innovation, hot, cold

leg...broken, chair, walking, kicking, stand, standing, asleep, stable, sufficient, sore

beg...need, want, desire, must have, desperate, beggar, don't have, forgiveness, mercy, ask, motivated

peg...hang, place, hit, decide, fit, plug, mark, holt together, small fastener, home supply store, wooden

vague...unclear, murky, misty, foggy, dark, unknown, confused, brief, barely, unsure, unexplainable

plague...coronavirus, stay at home, walking pneumonia, hospital, contagious, communicable, sickness, long duration, antidote

keg... dynamite, beer, Cracker Barrel, barrel, container, holding, storage, filling, emptying

bootleg...unofficial, underground, copy, illegal, music, movie, 

nutmeg... spice, ingredient, French toast, cookies, baking, eggnog

Collecting, according to the open poetry textbook Naming the Unnameable, is writing down "images, ideas, and phrases" or sparks of poetry.

So for this exercise, I'll write down a few idioms based on the words above.

I like Idioms. In Grammar Fuel: 12,000 Phrases & Idioms, I collected 12,000 mostly American English idioms. Idioms are groups of words that carry cultural based meaning. Here are some idioms grouped together for each of the words.

a bad egg
egg on one's face
walk on egg shells
you can't make an omelet without breaking eggs
a nest egg
all one's eggs in one basket
lay an egg

kill the goose that lays the golden eggs

without a leg to stand on
cost/give an an arm and a leg
as fast as your legs can carry you
pull someone's leg
put one's pants on one leg at a time, just like everbody else
stretch one's legs
tail between one's legs
the first leg
get a leg up
be on one's last legs
fresh legs
break a leg

beg for
beg the question
beg to differ
beg, borrow, or steal
beg your pardon
beg for something
beg on bended knee
beg to disagree
beg something from someone

a peg on which to hang something
fit together like a square peg in a round hole
peg as something
have someone pegged
be knocked down a peg (or two)
take one down a peg (or two)
peg away at something

wake up in a vague fog like a cloudy mist

avoid someone or something like the plague
plague one with something

keg party
powder keg
sitting on a powder keg

bootlegged movies
bootlegged CDs
bootlegged software
This must be a bootleg copy—the quality is terrible.

a wooden nutmeg

That is pretty fun. Already after doing the freewriting and this idiom exercise, it feels like the foundation for a poem is already constructed.

The next muse in this series is Muse #3 Reading. In that post, I'll research some poetry in the past to see if I can build a small chunk of poetry fragments for some or all of the 9 keywords. I may even try to imitate those historical chunks.

Summertime Writing: Innovation In Stories

This exercise comes from an innovation management technique.

I want to take the basic idea of the story Frankenstein and experiment with story innovation using one specific innovation technique of random word association.

1. State the original idea, problem, or question (source).

For this case, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein Synopsis found at Wikipedia. I cut together pieces of the larger synopsis.

tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a hideous, sapient creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment...the Creature tall, about 8 feet (2.4 m) in height and proportionally large. Despite Victor's selecting its features as beautiful, upon animation the creature is instead hideous, with watery white eyes and yellow skin that barely conceals the muscles and blood vessels underneath. Repulsed by his work, Victor flees when it awakens. While wandering the streets, he meets his childhood friend, Henry Clerval, and takes Henry back to his apartment, fearful of Henry's reaction if he sees the monster. However, the Creature has escaped.

Intelligent and articulate, the Creature relates his first days of life, living alone in the wilderness and finding that people were afraid of and hated him due to his appearance, which led him to fear and hide from them. While living in an abandoned structure connected to a cottage, he grew fond of the poor family living there, and discreetly collected firewood for them. Secretly living among the family for months, the Creature learned to speak by listening to them and he taught himself to read after discovering a lost satchel of books in the woods. When he saw his reflection in a pool, he realized his physical appearance was hideous, and it terrified him as it terrifies normal humans. Nevertheless, he approached the family in hopes of becoming their friend. Initially he was able to befriend the blind father figure of the family, but the rest of them were frightened and they all fled their home, resulting in the Creature leaving, disappointed. He traveled to Victor's family estate using details from Victor's journal, murdered William, and framed Justine.

The Creature demands that Victor create a female companion like himself. He argues that as a living being, he has a right to happiness. The Creature promises that he and his mate will vanish into the South American wilderness, never to reappear, if Victor grants his request. Should Victor refuse his request, The Creature also threatens to kill Victor's remaining friends and loved ones and not stop until he completely ruins him.

Fearing for his family, Victor reluctantly agrees. The Creature says he will watch over Victor's progress. 

2. Generate 5 to 6 random words (stimuli).

Protuberation
Lantanuric
Censer
Mean
Depolarization

Body

Protuberation - The act of swelling beyond the surrounding surface.

Lantanuric - Pertaining to, or designating, a nitrogenous organic acid of the uric acid group, obtained by the decomposition of allantoin, and usually called {allanturic acid}. Related to urine naturally. Used in lotion, toothpaste, and mouthwash.

Censer - A vessel for perfumes; esp. one in which incense is burned.
Mean - That which is mean, or intermediate, between two extremes of place, time, or number; the middle point or place; middle rate or degree; mediocrity; medium; absence of extremes or excess; moderation; measure.
Depolarization - The act of depriving of polarity, or the result of such action; reduction to an unpolarized condition.
Body - The material organized substance of an animal, whether living or dead, as distinguished from the spirit, or vital principle; the physical person.

3. Create association connections to each word.

Protuberation - The creature may have some sort of growth or swelling on his body.
Lantanuric - Maybe the creature smells like urine or is trying to cover stench or something with beauty products.
Censer - This could be holding perfume to cover the stench of the monster.
Mean - Between two extremes might mean between creature and human or between wild and tame.
Depolarization - Reducing a unipolar condition maybe rage and wild fury.
Body - The creature has a body created by Dr. Frankenstein.

4. Increase your associations

A. Contiguity - nearness or contact.

Protuberation - swelling, tumor, jutting, fangs, tusk, bulge, belly, muscles, chest, breasts, bump

Lantanuric - urine, lotion, waste, break down, metabolize, 

Censer - perfume, incense, freshener, scent, stench

Mean - extremes, middle, balance, reduce

Depolarization - more than one way, two or more opposing forces

Body - form, shape, condition, created, sum of parts

B. Similarity - reminds you of
Protuberation - Inflated, balloon, mountain rock, bubble, muscle, fat, veins
Lantanuric - sweat
Censer - summoning, magic, cemetery, tomb, wake
Mean - average, beyond average, bell curve, probability
Depolarization - opposites, alternatives, paths, flexibility, chaos, change
Body - creature, animal, plant, life, element, water, sea, river

C. Contrast - opposition
Protuberation - sinking, deflating, reducing
Lantanuric - undigested, not broken down, not flushed out
Censer - crud, sickening, vile
Mean - extreme, severe, one-sided, unbalanced, chaotic
Depolarization - polarization, one-sided, one direction
Body - shadow, appearance, illusion, unlife

5. Make more connections automatically

The instructions say that now, after doing this exercise, connections will start to happen automatically. I will see if some further ideas start to appear after a period of time.

Analysis of Innovation technique #1

That was somewhat strange, especially lantanuric. I would have never picked that word. I didn't even know that word. Out of the other words, body and protuberance might be the more obvious words. Censer, mean, and depolarization might be somewhat close, though not as obvious—being more secondarily related words.

I don't know if anything will come of this exercise. I will see. I'll look back at this in a few days and see if I like this technique. I want to try a few more innovation and creativity techniques though between now and then. Maybe I'll compare the techniques in a future post.

Fable part 3: snake symbolism

Myths Series
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)
Joseph Cambell : Myths

Myths: Types and functions

Mythology: How they are created

Myth #1: Blood and Water - Begin

Myth #2: From them, all become

Type of Myth #1 & #2; Fable #1: part 1

Fable part 2: bird symbolism

Myths and Fables: ponderings  & decisions

What have snakes symbolized?

For Native Americans, the snake can symbolize healing and rebirth. For Pueblo, the snake may mean storm bringer.  

For the Pueblo, Avanyu - the Horned Serpent - is benevolent but fearful. It is the companion of the trickster god Kokopelli. The antlers or horns represent spiritual power. The Horned Serpent normally symbolizes rain, thunder, and waterways. 

for the Hopi, they perform an annual snake dance to celebrate the union of the Sky and the Underworld and renew the fertility of nature. The hopes is that rain will fall upon the crops

For Mississippians, the the horned serpent was normally benign or benevolent. However the Great Serpent was normally malevolent. 

The Choctaw Horned Serpent is a source of inspiration.

The Feathered Serpent is more prominent in Mississippi, Aztec, and Mayan cultures revered much similar to the Horned Serpent of other cultures.

Southeast Asia and Australia

Rainbow Serpent has played a significant role as creator for the original people of this area.

Past Fables

Aesop, Greek fable storyteller, has several snake related fables.

In "The Laborer and the Snake", the snake killed the cottager's son. And then the cottager wounds the snake. The cottager then tries to make peace, but the snake warns that there will never be peace because of what each other did.

In "The Farmer and the Snake", the snake found frozen by the farmer is brought to the farmers body to try warming. The snake awakes and bites killing the farmer.

In "The Serpent and the Eagle", the eagle tries to capture and eat the snake. The snake fights back. The countryman frees the eagle from the snake. The snake spits venom into the guy's drinking horn. The eagle dumps the drinking horn before the countryman drinks the poison.

For all three Greek fables, the snake is untrustworthy, dangerous, and vengeful.

Christianity

In much of the New Testament, the serpent is Satan.

Chinese

In the chinese zodiac, the snake is intelligent though without morals.

Snakes in dreams

In dreams, snakes can refer to fear, hidden threats, the subconscious, sexual power, cold people, transformation, healing, or creativity.

Myth #2: From them all become

Myths Series
Myth making: my plan
What are myths, legends, and folklore? Definitions (Quotes)
Joseph Cambell : Myths

Myths: Types and functions

Mythology: How they are created

Myth #1: Blood and Water - Begin
Myth #2: From them, all become

In this section, I join and differentiate the maggots from the blood & water..

Struggling maggots falling as well.

Flies soon emerge, ready to fly

Spreading across the great land.

Some eat from the ancient remnants.

Some begin to eat each other. 

From maggots, the first serpents form. 

And from the flies, winged beasts grow.

Feed by the powerful essence,

the hidden beast from blood & water,

to small to be of concern to the offspring of maggots,

multiply and live in secrecy.

They are the offspring of maggots.

They are the offspring of blood & water.

From them, all become.

From them, all become 
© 2017 Ken Wickham