The Poetry of Animation


The simplest animation is close to poetry.
In both, there is something beautifully
Hand-drawn.


So it was sad, this morning, to find this article.

What Makes a Good Poem (II)



A good poem makes the ordinary and familiar seem extraordinary.
Michele Coppola


I think it's partly the compactness of a poem that, if the poet has a strong vision and command of language, will let it both "sprout roses and spit bullets" at the same time. A good poem doesn't waste words; it uses them sparingly and meaningfully.
Rebecca Davis


Good poems can tell us what we already know in our bones but had never seen or heard or even put into words before. For a poem to be good it needs the element of surprise. That comes to the reader both in content, line break, sound, and voice. You read the opening line, are carried (or jolted) to the last line, and then wonder, how did I get here? There you are standing in this new place but feeling that, yes, you too, belong here.

A fine poem needs mystery too; it doesn't say everything. If you were to compare a poem to a simple math equation, say 1 + 1 = 2, then a poem is butterfly + jagged scar = his warm breath on your neck. It's another way of knowing that makes perfect sense, but not logical, linear, rational sense...

Poetry works on us not only through content but through sound. And for a poem to be well written it must remember that element as well. It needs to sound right.
Patrice Vecchione.


When I have my editor's hat on and I'm choosing selections for an anthology, I look for poems with energy but focus, poems with emotional weight, poems that tickle me with their word play and cleverness, poems that delight me in the way that structure and words have meshed, or poems whose content makes my mind tingle. When I'm writing my own poetry, I would love to incorporate all of these at once!
Betsy Franco


Taking that medicine analogy, just a little dose of good poetry is sometimes all you need to be helped and even healed.

This, of course, ties into some very old ideas. My Abenaki ancestors said that words have power, that a song can be medicine, can restore balance, can bring back joy after sorrow. Words of power make things happen. Good poems touch that sort of power.
Joseph Bruchac

create your own poem at



PoemGenerator

Sunrise Cowboys



And only when

Sunrise Cowboys

Silver-hoofed and

Guns glinting

Lassoed tight

My wagon-train dreams

Did I consent

To be pulled

From my down-filled cell

Into the cool-blue day

To drink black coffee

From a can

And hunt jackrabbits

Until sundown





(ms2004)

American poet, Emily Dickenson --

strong, enigmatic, spiritual -- passed away on this day in 1886.
she wrote 1775 poems, of which only 7 were published during her lifetime.


809

Unable are the Loved to die
For Love is Immortality,
Nay, it is Deity --

Unable they that love -- to die
For Love reforms Vitality
Into Divinity.

About This Poetry


How it should be, or not be?
That was your question.

In answer: my metaphor, or not -
A bottle of scotch, dusted off
Tabled waiting to pour
A fathomless glen soared
Taken in, sip by sip
Or short. Upended. Like that

Followed by the clack -

A claw-gripped echo

An embedding.





(ms 2006)

What makes a good poem?


A good poem is a blind date with enchantment.Above all, no matter what its subject matter,it must possess perfect verbs and no superfluous words. It must be an antidote to indifference.The acid test is that you want to read it time and time again, and not only to yourself. A good poem begs to be shared with others.
-- Lee Bennett Hopkins.


Love and care for elemental details, for chosen words and their simple arrangement on the page... and a way of ending that leaves a new resonance or a lit spark in the reader or listener's mind—that’s part of it.
-- Naomi Shihab Nye.



For me, good poems, ones that I like to read over and over… I think poetry should come from the heart of the writer—whether it is light and funny or deeply-felt. Caring—about the subject, the emotion, the act of making the poem—is, I believe, essential.

It seems to me a good poem can rhyme or not rhyme, use similes and metaphors or not, be metrical or free, be as complex as a Shakespeare sonnet or as seemingly simple as a statement by William Carlos Williams. It can be anything the writer wants it to be—as long as it reflects true feeling. And that "feeling" can be just the joy of using words!

Strong, accurate, interesting words, well-placed, make the reader feel the writer’s emotion and intentions. Choosing the right words—for their meaning, their connotations, their sounds, even the look of them, makes a poem memorable.

-- Patricia Hubbell.


"Prose = words in their best order; Poetry = the best words in their best order"—Coleridge said it, and I believe it. Poetry IS about words—their precision, texture, beauty (and ugliness). Prose is about words, too, but not in the same way. Prose is about the bigger picture. The canvas is bigger and so are the brushstrokes. A good poem, whether narrated by a character or by the poet her/himself, uses words wonderfully, and it uses them to capture specific moments in a fresh way, a way that makes the reader exclaim with delight, "Yes, that's it! That's right!"

-- Marilyn Singer.