In a Poetic Mood

run if you don't like poetry...or stick around

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. - Lao Tzu

(beware, poem ahead…)

I get that not everyone likes poetry, but I think more people would if they took time to understand it. 

Poetry illuminates that which prose doesn’t; it brings words and imagery to play in imaginative ways. Typically, poetry speaks to the essence of things. Poetry can be a tiny vignette or a larger universal truth, told through meter and rhyme, or not. 

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Poetry ruminates and reflects, explores thoughts and emotions, or a snapshot in time, without necessarily being linear.

Prose is composed in everyday language—the way we naturally speak following familiar grammatical conventions. Yes, this is a general and high-level definition, and it’s my quick swipe at it—please don’t hurt me, novelists.

I’m not suggesting poetry is better than prose; it’s just different. 

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Why talk poetry?

I’ll not prolong my inadequate attempt to say what poetry is or can be. Instead, I’ll share a poem I wrote last September. The poem I’m sharing is a form called a cento. 

A cento is a poem composed of lines or passages written by other authors but assembled in a new way, order, or form. It’s a word collage, a mash-up, and they’re fun to create.

Recently, life’s profound delights have been making a home with me. 

Vague, I know, but suffice it to say that joy is meeting me, seeing me, and enriching my life multifold. This is unexpected and caught me way off-guard; it’s sublime—and this connection requires that I show up as my whole self, unmediated and unmasked.

Challenging? Sure! But oh my, how did I get so lucky? :) 

Now, what does that obscure tease of a love letter up there have to do with a poem I’m sharing with you? Lots.

I think in poetry, when attempting to describe the indescribable.

In doing so, I was going through the mountain of poems I’ve written over the years to see if something fits this situation I’m in.

During my rabbit-holing I came across this cento I wrote using the words of the iconic punk-poet rockstar Patti Smith.

patti!

Patti Smith is a legend. Her words energize me and her unwavering commitment to creating—whether music, photography, or poetry—inspires me. So it was a pleasure to disassemble and reassemble her lines into a poem.

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I composed this poem using lines from the various writings in her book, Early Work: 1970-1979. I took each line from a separate work. The individual works are cited below in order of appearance.

I hope you enjoy it. 

1970s Cento

I have been laying here a long time in stillness 

fascist or lover it doesn’t matter

to have no need for the apparatus

I sink in the shadow of dust

coated with phosphorous they glow in the dark

as there and as fruitless as the parthenon (sans goddess)

i am reckless. i never do anything according to the rules

I’m on the ledge. that’s a several story drop

maybe it’s just being free

I’m ancient I’m stunning I’m just your style.

- shanna trenholm

Works referenced in order of appearance:

penicillin

italy (the round)

prayer

jet flakes

the ballad of hagen waker

notice 2

a fleet of deer

k.o.d.a.k.

notebook

judith revisited

(source: Smith, Patti. Early Work: 1970-1979. New York, W.W. Norton, 1994)

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Your Turn

Tell me: poetry, love it, hate it, or somewhere in-between?

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Heartfelt thank yous to Janet, Ron & Barbara, Rich, @girlfuturist, Sande, Sara, Roxanne, Errant Dames, Denny, Bill, Brian & anonymous someones for supporting life: examined through Buy Me a Coffee.

Your generosity, in part, affords me time to write this letter to you each week(ish).

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Whether a coffee, a comment, a like, or a share—I’m grateful to have you along for the ride.

Until next time —> be kind, hug animals, and thank you for reading life: examined!