Wordgrove Post & Review

Quoted in the Grove:
It is perfectly legitimate to write novels which are essentially prose poems, but in the end, I think, a novel is like a car, and if you buy a car and grow flowers in it, you’re forgetting that the car is designed to take you somewhere else.
~Robert Harris

A good writer is basically a story teller, not a scholar or a redeemer of mankind.
~Isaac Bashevis Singer

I don’t know of a greater privilege than being allowed to tell a story, or to listen to a story. They’re the only thing we have that can trump life itself.
~Colum McCann

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Posted from the Grove:
2013 was not a lucky year in telling ways, and not a few will be glad to see it gone. The immediate goal is to enter the new year with friends, with hope and joy and thoughts of safety. Yes, and fun. Have lots of it. And pay attention. Maybe you’ll see something you can use in your writing

~

Prewritten for Thurs (10.24) 6 pm PT/9 ET is: English sonnet
For specifics on the English sonnet, please follow the link below. Attention students: You must read this page that you copy/paste for your paper in English class, or it will be obvious. You will be dinged for plagiarism. Everyone else, enjoy this knowledge of sonnets made flesh and accessible
http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm

~~

@Writers Platform
Glass Table:
Piffin: reprinted from Sinister Wisdom Poems
http://sinisterwisdom.org/SW90

“sunday afternoon”
The push <-> pull of being naked, attraction & hesitation, the empty/full of sex and intimate alienation

~

“The Woman You Need”
A declaration of independence branded in flesh, the knowledge seared in with lessons from life; the frictions of desire with echoes of Dylan (it ain’t me, babe) then parry attention with a retreating knife

~

Prewritten: Italian sonnet
~Stejovis: Ode to Obstinance

In coming to agreement, every stout opinion is like another swing of the club in golf; the more of them, the less well played the game

~

The Siren Does Not Share (quoted in full)

what she wants she schemes to take

and when she has it
in her possession

she can think of no other
way to keep it to herself alone

than to devour it.

~

~Greymane: Dreaming
Rahab, Rapunzel and Helen :: Jericho, Disney and Troy; a plea to their descendents, tear down the walls with the nightmares they employ

~Piffin: “Christmas Morning”
The forecast called for snow, but it rained (with a delicious warmth instead); hot heat between the sheets and love reigned with foreplay in their bed

~BarTalk: Close the door

~

Impromptu: bitter, spiral
~Piffin: “Gabriel, Atlantic City”
Two is twice as good as one at love, and three is exponential; juices flow like honeyed wine and intoxicate with potential

~DWade_3: Haiku
The acid backwash of memory

~Stejovis: Spot Dead On
It’s all fun and games until the stakes get serious; when someone dies

~~

Writers in Residence:
~Greymane @Greyed Expectations: Black Hole
The gravity of a deed where hope is crushed and no light escapes

~~

End Quote:
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
~T S Eliot

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Quoted in the Grove:
Winter is not a season, it’s an occupation. ~ Sinclair Lewis

Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius. ~ Pietro Aretino

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that there was, in me, an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus

~.~.~

Announcements:
Unfortunately, it seems last week’s Newsletter was unclear as to the nature of this week’s prewritten, and some folks ended up doing Italian sonnets. The sonnets were intended as next week’s prewritten; our apologies for the confusion.

That being said, the prewritten for Thursday, December 26th is: Write an Italian sonnet. (A basic guide to sonnet forms, including Italian, can be found here: http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm)

~.~.~

On the Glass Table:
BarTalk:
Legends of the Whale (Prose, previously reviewed)
“Show Me” (Poetry, previously reviewed)

~.~.~

Prewritten (December 19): phrasal; lamentable.
BarTalk:
Limerick (Posted below)

The ads included a special
False, clever and phrasal
Lamentable, said Joe Bob
That you went in for a blow _ _ _*
But all you got was a facial
*dry

Stejovis:
Haiku (Posted below)

lamentable cry
devoid of phrasal order
pierces the mountain

~.~.~

Impromptu (December 19): No impromptu this week, as our gathering gave way to holiday merriment and a caroling house tour hosted by our very own Jessalee. A fun time was had by all and we even received a holiday visitation from the mysterious Valhala!

~.~.~

Thank you, one and all, for your friendship and guidance throughout this past year. I look forward to our continued joint exploration of this thing that we do.

May you and your loved ones share a Blessed Season and a wonderful New Year!

Wishing you Peace & Joy,
Elissa

~.~.~

Blessed is the season which engages the whole world in a conspiracy of love. ~ Hamilton Wright Mabie

~.~.~

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Quoted in the Grove:
Why one man rather than another? It was odd. You find yourself involved with a fellow for life just because he was the one that you met when you were nineteen.
~Simone de Beauvoir

After all my erstwhile dear,
My no longer cherished;
Need we say it was not love,
Just because it perished?
~Edna St Vincent Millay

The beauty of a strong, lasting commitment is often best understood by men incapable of it.
~Murray Kempton

~~

Posted from the Grove:
The same innocent who considers any 5-7-5, 3 line poem to be haiku is likely to believe that every 14 line poem is a sonnet.  The classic haiku is rich with traditions that are specific in their requirements. Stejovis provides historical context on these finer points in, Writing Haiku, his book located @Haiku Haven at the east end of Wordgrove. For motivated writers, this is a book worth revisiting

This week’s prewritten assignment on sonnets unearthed an interesting variation of the form that essentially disqualified it from the category. Tho they offer a variety of rhyme schemes to choose from, sonnets also adhere to form. It was thought that another round of sonnets might give the maverick member a chance to redeem himself. Piffin did her research and provides the below link to a site on sonnets. If the word spacing is nonstandard at times, the information is solid
http://www.sonnets.org/basicforms.htm

This week’s Prewritten prompt is given below. Next week’s assignment was decided early in order to give everyone a chance to spend more time with it during the busy season. The assignment: Italian Sonnet, as described in the above webpage. Theme is open

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Prewritten for Thurs (12.19) 6 pm PT/9 ET is: lamentable, phrasal

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@Writers Platform
Glass Table: no new drops

~

Prewritten: Write a sonnet

~Stejovis: For My Erstwhile Friend
The ceaseless weaving of people into and out of life; this warp and weft of change now threatens to claim a long-time friendship; the quaint regrets of nostalgia shrink before the crumbling monument of a breaking heart

~Greymane: White
The impermanent winter stresses hard on every attribute that is not spring, that is contrary to summer, that out-freezes fall; the white that cushions all with beauty hides a death beneath

~Piffin: Quick Draw Rubber
Tires scream at the green, young-bloods driving, testosterone at the wheel for the curbside girls; sometimes they die

~

Impromptu: reflection, space

~Piffin: haiku
Only black space is eternal, quoth the mirror

~Greymane: untitled
Running from infinity while doing a coy dance with death, two sides of a coin flip that lands on edge; still alive, still alone, still perched on a ledge

~DWade_3: haiku
Stars that shine alike for everyone, shine especially for thee

~BarTalk: her nature

~~

Writers in Residence:
Apologies are extended for the delay in reviewing new work in Wordgrove pazs

~Stejovis @Haiku Haven: haiku, Quoted from, Daylight Conquers Night

remnants of night
linger beneath forest trees
shading the ground

~Greymane @Greyed Expectations: The Rain
The unrelenting soaking sadness seems to have eased a bit … today; when life gives you nothing but grey days and rain, no point thinking about rainbows; keep your head above water and thank heaven for a break in the clouds

~XWobbuffetX: Avatar
Try talking to Outworlders about the casual miracles that make up life in There, discover they haven’t the experience that’s needed for understanding (like talking to someone about war who hasn’t been); from war to online Eden, to the inexplicable next-level up … what next?

~AgapeLove @Faith Re-Tree-it: Enter His Gates
From “Cottage Quotes”
A belated Thanksgiving meditation on thankfulness and praising God

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