Haiku Journey on River Dart by Jean Knill

Jean Knill has kindly allowed us to publish her haiku journey on the River Dart. The river flows through the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England.

Jean’s Nature’s Kaleidoscope Folding Mirror poem had the most comments on fmpoetry last year. 

Haiku was the main inspiration for Marc Latham initialising  the Folding Mirror poetry form, and as far as Marc can analyse, Jean provides fantastic haiku examples both in form and quality.

Here’s Jean’s haiku journey, followed by her website link:

Newbridge on the River Dart near Spitchwick on Dartmoor. The stretch here is popular with canoeists. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On the River Dart 

We board at Totnes
on a cloudy autumn morn.
What delights await?

Ankle deep in mud,
heron standing regally
till its lunch swims by.

Red fox on the bank,
sated belly near the ground,
slinking slowly home.

Buzzards spiralling
as small birds flock together.
Safety in numbers.

Seal heads popping up,
inviting us to join them
for some water play.

Weary parent seals
look on from resting places,
floating wood pontoons.

Houses crowd the banks,
places reached by narrow lanes
for a quiet life.

Boats are moored here too
heralding Dartmouth’s approach
and the open sea.

Boarding for return,
rain drives us all to shelter
till the sun comes out.

Precipitating
raindrops pattern the water
all around the boat.

Bright shafts of sunlight
make the river spark and gleam
for an interlude.

Lower tide reveals
weird shapes of weed covered roots
of the trees above.

Totnes here we come,
disembark the tourist’s boat
for our homebound drive.

We will remember
how we spent a lovely day
on the River Dart.

Jean muses at: http://jakill-jeansmusings.blogspot.co.uk/

Shows the River Dart at Totnes in Devon looking upstream to the bridges (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Relevant Quote for Folding Mirror Poetry

Just saw this quote in the latest Publish Your Own Ebooks newsletter, and thought it was relevant for fmpoetry (the writer could also be a woman of course):

“[The writer] has to be the kind of man who turns the world upside down and says, lookit, it looks different, doesn’t it?”

~ Morris West

Caroline Gill writes about Poetry Forms

As previously mentioned on this site, the Folding Mirror poetry form was included in the new Book of Forms, edited by Lewis Turco. One of the examples of an FM poem included in the book was by Caroline Gill, who has also provided a lot of expert advice and support for the establishment of the form and this site. Caroline recently blogged about the book on her Caroline at Coastcard site, and an extract is copied below with her permission.

Caroline Gill
Publication Pointer (2): The Book of Forms (4th edition) by Lewis Putnam Turco

Professor Lewis Turco’s work, The Book of Forms, is now available in its 4th Edition, published by the University Press of New England. This new ‘revised and expanded edition’ has as its subtitle, A Handbook of Poetics Including Odd and Invented Forms. 

A copy of the third edition (published in 2000) has long been my constant poetry companion. I have learned so much about what Professor Turco calls ‘the elements of poetry’, comprising ‘levels of language usage’. I have been fascinated by the plethora of covered forms, from one lineadonics to 210 lined sonnets redoubled.

The latest edition contains all these features plus added extras in the guise of ‘odd and invented forms’. If I home in on British contributions for a moment, you will find a description of Dr Marc Latham’s Folding Mirror Poetry, with an example by Claire Knight and a second one by yours truly.

Lewis Putnam Turco is an emeritus professor of English. He was the founding director of the Cleveland State University Poetry Center and of the Department of Creative Writing at the State University of New York College at Oswega. The new edition, with sample poems by established names like Robert Frost and newer names like Greg Pincus, can be purchased from UPNE: the details can be found here. You can read the reviews on Amazon here.

In drawing these thoughts to a close, I would also wish to express my thanks to those who create these new forms for us to enjoy. For after all …

“It can be argued that to invent a verse-form which becomes immortal,
living on in the works of future poets and in other languages,
is one of the greatest achievements possible for a poet …”  

Martin Lyon, ‘Acumen‘, issue 71 (Sept 2011), p.71 

http://carolinegillpoetry.blogspot.com/2012/01/publication-pointer-2-book-of-forms-4th.html

Folding Mirror Poets Featured on New Poem Forms Image

FMPoetry is proud to see two poets who have created Folding Mirror poems alongside many famous poets in an image on Lewis Turco’s Odd and Invented Forms blog. Caroline Gill and Claire Knight had Folding Mirror poems accepted for the new book of Odd and Invented Forms as examples of the Folding Mirror form.

Both poems were first featured on this site. Caroline Gill’s accepted poem was Thalatta, Thalatta; Claire Knight’s was Hourglass of Time. Thanks again to Lewis, Caroline and Claire for their creativity and time.

Here’s the image that appears on the Odd and Invented forms blog. Viewing it as a clock face, Caroline Gill is at about 5 o’ clock and Claire Knight is at about 9 o’ clock:

Poems on this Site (195) and New Poetry Books

Hi, I just updated the poems on this site list, and it now stands at 195.

New Book by KJP Garcia

Several of the new entries were by KJP Garcia, who has now released a book of poetry.  More details at the kjpgarcia site.

New Book by Lewis Turco

Lewis Turco has also had a new book of poetry forms published, and includes the Folding Mirror form in it.  More details at the Lewis Turco poetry site.

Happy Holidays

Thanks to everybody who has supported this site through contributing or reading in 2011 and I hope you have a great holiday season.

Marc Latham’s central site is the Greenygrey (http://www.greenygrey.co.uk)

Liebster Award for FMPoetry. Thanks to KJP Garcia.

Wow, fmpoetry had a nice surprise this morning, as we’ve been given a Liebster Award by KJP Garcia.  Many thanks to Kenyatta for the award.  Also thanks to all the poets and readers that have kept this site going with their creativity and time.

The Liebster Award

KJP’s excellent blog had been awarded the Liebster by the writeitfeelit blog, and then Kenyatta was supposed to pick five blogs to pass it on to, and this blog was the first chosen on the list.

KJP explains the Liebster Award thus:

Liebster is a German word meaning dearest, and the award is given to up-and-coming bloggers with less than 200 followers.

If you receive the award, you should:

1. Thank the giver and link back to the blogger who gave it to you.

2. Reveal your top five picks and let them know by leaving a comment on their blog.

3. Copy and paste the award on your blog.

4. Hope that the people you’ve sent the award to forward it to their five favourite bloggers and keep it going!

Passing on the Liebster Award 

As this is a poetry site I thought I should focus on other poetry sites, and apologies to anybody who thinks they deserve to be on the list but aren’t.  My five picks are:

1.  http://tigergrove.wordpress.com/

2. http://norfolkpoetsww.blogspot.com/

3. http://www.sarah-james.co.uk/

4. http://lewisturco.typepad.com/odd_and_invented_forms/

5. http://realmofthecrow.wordpress.com/

National Poetry Day Double: News and Poem

Image via Wikipedia

Happy National Poetry Day in the UK!  Here’s some news and a poem to celebrate the day.

Firstly, Marc Latham’s Autumn Air Spins Summer Samaras to Equinox Earth has been published in the latest etips, which is a free monthly poetry e-magazine if you sign up at Wendy Webb’s etips blog.  Thanks to Wendy for publishing it amongst lots of quality poems and poetry discussion.

Secondly, here’s another thoughtful FM poem full of poignant imagery
by KJP Garcia:

Wishing wells,

fountains

foot

river

Hand-in-hand

mouth

sea

fishermen

Poor-unknown

Poem about Future Wars same as the Past

Image via Wikipedia

Today we have another powerful Folding Mirror poem by KJP Garcia, and thanks again to KJP for creating and sharing them on the above blog and here.  This was first published in the Straight to Screen section of the above blog.

by KJP Garcia:

the news told new

stories of future alien

civilizations’

secrets

the grandchildren denied the beginning of the settlements

played

war

and wrinkled their clothes

as next show began

Exclusive New Version of See Below Sea Poem

Image via Wikipedia

Everyday Poets kindly published Marc Latham’s See Below Sea this week (May 17th).  Here’s another version with the bottom half’s top two lines
(old experiences long forgotten
some ambitions not yet lived)
changed.

This site would like to publish all FMs here first, but think it is also important to try to publicise the form on other sites, and that means meeting their requirements.

To be fair to poets who publish here for free, we don’t think we should take payments for the poems.

I hope you enjoy it, and thanks for your votes and comments on the EDP site.  Cheers, and enjoy the weekend!

See Below Sea

Tip!
of the
iceberg
is all you see,
the growth that shows
from the block supporting me
ships sailing past lifetime memory

what is above is not what is below

old melted chunks long forgotten
desired water not yet frozen
you look for reality
in a misty sea,
mystery
who is
me?

See Below Sea published for Every day poetry

Marc Latham’s See Below Sea
has now been published on a site of poetry:
Every day poets is yours to see for free.
Enjoy at your own liberty!