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GD Deckard

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30 comments on Inner Poet, Anyone?

Inner Poet, Anyone?

I’ve often wondered if in the soul of every writer lurks a poet. So, this week’s blog is simple: is there one in you?

If you’re like me, you’re happy to show your writing but reluctant to show your poetry. Probably because we work to develop confidence in our writing, but poetry displays a bit of our inner self, that private world sane people keep private. Not that I’m saying all poets are a bit insane. Our current poet in residence, Sue Ranscht, seems stable. 🤔

Anyway, I’ll use the Comments section to begin by displaying rhyme I wrote. Not a poet myself, I do find that writing poetry focuses me on imagery. Hopefully, others will follow with their own rhyme and reason.
😏

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GD Deckard

Severely beaten as a child by a WWII hero and combat-induced-PTSD stepfather, the author, as a teen, faced the old man down with a shotgun and earned his blessing to join the military at the time Americans were learning about a country called Vietnam. The “lazy, no good son-of-a-bitch” opted out of combat and hard labor by becoming an Air Force medic, stamping out suffering and misery on Freedom’s Frontier at Clark Airbase in S.E. Asia and earning some kind of medal pinned on him personally by then Secretary of the Air Force, Harold Brown, for “Saving lives, etc.” There followed a summer in Europe ending in the first of happy marriages. Then graduation with University Honors, kids worth dying for and a career in business. Life is good. Author, The Phoenix Diary, Penguin, 2015. https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-phoenix-diary-g-d-deckard/1122175645 Founding Member, Writers Co-op. https://WritersCo-op.com Co-Editor, The Rabbit Hole anthologies. https://www.amazon.com/Rabbit-Hole-Weird-Stories/dp/1691225355/ref=sr_1_1 Founder, SciFi Lampoon Magazine. http://scifilampoon.com/ Contributing Editor, A Celebration of Storytelling https://www.amazon.com/Celebration-Storytelling-GD-Deckard/dp/1951716167 Current WIP: Code Blue and Little Deaths, stories from Clark during the Vietnam War. Recipient of the Psi Young award for Creative Biography.

30 responses to “Inner Poet, Anyone?”

  1. GD Deckard Avatar
    GD Deckard

    REFLECTIONS OF ANSU

    ANSU, matron of her reasons
    As within her wisdom grows;
    Sees the visions of her seasons
    In the cold blue winter snows.

    ANSU, willow in the breeze,
    Grace unbroken gracefully bends,
    Touching lives with noble ease,
    Proud beauty in the autumn winds.

    ANSU, burst of woman-cide
    Full of flowered love and pain;
    Petaled blossom opened wide,
    Mother of her summer’s reign.

    ANSU, Brown-eyed sprite of morn
    Sparkles charm without a clue,
    Of life’s innocence is born
    Young girl’s eyes of springtime dew.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply
  2. Sue Ranscht Avatar
    Sue Ranscht

    “…that private world sane people keep private.” I admit I laughed out loud. Fortunately, I was only bringing my cup of warm vanilla-cinnamon milk to my lips, or it would have been a disastrous-to-my-laptop spit take. And thank you, GD, I take both pride and comfort in my stubborn stability. 😀

    Mostly, I am mystified by poetry. Too often, the poet’s meaning, the poet’s communication, eludes me and I feel quite out of my depth. In your REFLECTIONS OF ANSU, of course the seasons pass back to front — it’s a reflection of age on the path to now. But rather than it being ANSU’s reflection, it seems to me to be the reflection of someone who cares deeply about her and describes what can be surmised by knowing her.

    Let me offer these:

    HIS ROSE

    Love came for her on splendid wings of blue
    and bones so brown
    earth wept for joy,
    and left her slashed
    and cleft
    and rootless
    thirsty
    fading to a blur of light
    so dim
    so far away,
    she learned to love
    with half
    a heart
    her face uplifted
    to the dawn
    of Time

    UNTITLED

    I dream as I sit
    waiting for sleep to remind me the day is over
    and I am still human
    A skunk hisses from the shadow at my ankle
    A hissing skunk,
    a stamping skunk is safe
    she told me
    It’s when it turns its back you need to run

    Wide awake I dream
    uncomforted

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply
    1. GD Deckard Avatar
      GD Deckard

      There’s movement in your poetry, Sue. I never end up where I started. At the end, my perspective has changed. And it all makes sense in a way I hadn’t thought of.

      “…rather than it being ANSU’s reflection, it seems to me to be the reflection of someone who cares deeply about her and describes what can be surmised by knowing her.” You nailed it once again, Sue. We were in our fifties when we met, and I wrote this to impress her. (If you’re a fan of Tom Sawyer, you know we’ll walk a picket fence to impress Becky.)
      Ansu is one of the Elder Futhark runes. It is the rune of spirit. From Old Norse, “‘Asa’ of the gods.”

      Liked by 3 people

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      1. Sandy Randall Avatar
        Sandy Randall

        AHHHH! ANSU answered! FUTHARK … ok a reference point for the unenlightened poetic simpleton!

        Liked by 3 people

        Reply
  3. mimispeike Avatar
    mimispeike

    To a fair friend

    Shall I compare thee to a crippled jay
    or sluggish wren, its belly overfilled,
    whose juicy promise steals my breath away
    and breeds such yearning as will not be stilled
    save by attainment of the morsel craved,
    the sop that tempts my tongue to drip and drool,*
    by which indulgence I am left enslaved,
    and, for the sake of that sweet taste, a fool?

    I promise thee an exquisite disport.
    Shall not I thine, thee mine, be thy report?
    _______________________________

    * A poetic usage; cats do not drool.

    Liked by 5 people

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    1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
      Mike Van Horn

      My cats sure drool, especially when being scritched.

      Liked by 5 people

      Reply
    2. GD Deckard Avatar
      GD Deckard

      I love it! A true Mimi spoof!!

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply
    3. Sue Ranscht Avatar
      Sue Ranscht

      Immediately recognizable, a finely crafted parodic imitation, Mimi has birthed a Slykespearean sonnet! With a footnote!

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply
  4. Mike Van Horn Avatar
    Mike Van Horn

    Most of my poetry is song lyrics. Here are the lyrics from Forever to Infinity, from Space Girl Yearning, book 3 of my sci fi trilogy.

    I am unmoored.
    I am adrift on the vastness of space.
    Like a boat, lines cast free from the shore,
    freed of land’s embrace.
    Slowly drifting out to sea,
    no rudder, no compass, no map, no haste.
    Across the vasty void.
    Forever to infinity.

    The farther I drift ‘cross the vasty void
    the harder it will be for me
    to find my way back from the endless sea
    to safe harbor, to home, to thee.
    I may discover new worlds out there.
    Or I might just drift, ‘cross the vast nowhere.
    Forever to infinity.

    I am excited, ah th’ adventure,
    the dreams of magnificence in the sky.
    I am terrified, yes, for I shall surely die.
    I am lonely, for home and love left far behind me.
    Across the vasty void I fly.
    Going where? Nowhere at all. No reason why.
    Forever to infinity.

    I confess, I’ve had a number of these published in anthologies of poetry from science fiction and fantasy, Eccentric Orbits.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
    1. GD Deckard Avatar
      GD Deckard

      Mike,
      I’m struck by the sense of primal wonder in your song. It may be that mankind’s earliest poetry comes from stories put to song. Not that I would know, but songs like yours may be recognized in the future as sagas of early space travel.

      Liked by 3 people

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      1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
        Mike Van Horn

        Thank you, GD. I put a link to the song in my response to Sue.

        Liked by 1 person

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    2. Sue Ranscht Avatar
      Sue Ranscht

      Mike, With a strong sense of the human desire to explore, but never sever that thin thread to home, the lyrics leave me with the image of the vasty void as a mere background to the singer’s emotional drive. It makes me want to hear it sung.

      Liked by 5 people

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      1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
        Mike Van Horn

        Here it is. Music by Troy Lush, vocal by Mari Mack. Lyric by Mike Van Horn

        Liked by 3 people

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        1. Sue Ranscht Avatar
          Sue Ranscht

          Wow. Nicely done. She captured the emotional drive even better than I’d imagined. Good on you, Mike!

          Liked by 2 people

          Reply
    3. Sandy Randall Avatar
      Sandy Randall

      I’m with Sue, I want to hear it.
      Also, the question I ask every songwriter, which comes first, The music or the lyrics? I’ve found it’s different for every lyricist, but I am always curious.

      Liked by 3 people

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      1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
        Mike Van Horn

        The link to the song is just above, Sandy.
        In my case, the lyrics came first. Here’s the story: My heroine is a singer/composer. I had to write snippets of songs she performed. Some snippets grew into entire lyrics. I thought, if I have lyrics, I should have music. So I found a composer, and he found the vocalist. I think I have seven songs published on Soundcloud. The songs all fit into the story narrative.
        I don’t know what to do with them; they’re languishing without listeners.

        Liked by 3 people

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        1. Sandy Randall Avatar
          Sandy Randall

          I listened to the song… I loved it. Perhaps mix your songs into a soundtrack and get them heard on Spotify… or in a podcast discussing your books … podcasts reach a lot of folks and can be listened to on a lot of platforms… YouTube, Spotify, audible… just to name a few. Get your songs heard and make sure their origins are included… maybe even market your books with an audio file of the music…

          Liked by 3 people

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        2. Sue Ranscht Avatar
          Sue Ranscht

          How much input did you have on the final version of the music?

          Liked by 3 people

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          1. Mike Van Horn Avatar
            Mike Van Horn

            I worked with the composer throughout, making sure we got the right sound. I was in the studio when the final versions were produced. But these guys were professionals, and I can hardly sign “Happy Birthday,” so the closer we got to the end, the more I relied on them.
            A story. The first time I was in the studio, the vocalist apologized for her shaky voice. “I’m a bit nervous with the lyricist here,” she said. Me? The big lyricist? Like I had driven up in a big limo, smoking a cigar?

            Liked by 3 people

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            1. Sue Ranscht Avatar
              Sue Ranscht

              It’s a great piece of teamwork!

              Liked by 1 person

              Reply
  5. mimispeike Avatar
    mimispeike

    Me, reluctant to show my poetry? You wish!

    Liked by 3 people

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  6. Sandy Randall Avatar
    Sandy Randall

    The look on the guys face, in the main picture of this post … Captures me to a T. I got nothing lol. Actually not completely true since I did share my Phoenix poem in a showcase. I do have one other and it’s somewhere in a box with an old research paper I did about Down Syndrome. If I find it will share it.
    Poetry is a rough one for me. Sue inspires me with her haiku’s. I find those manageable from a relatable, understanding point of view. I can even try my hand at those. Mike’s lyrics are also easy for me to understand. Mimi, I am beginning to think, is Chaucer reincarnated. I love Chaucer.
    GD, you fall in the William Shakespeare sonnet realm for me. I start to lose my way, because I’m thinking too hard. (I keep wanting to make ANSU be an acronym for something and if it is I still have no clue) I have always wanted to write a sonnet. Unfortunately, any sonnet I try winds up looking like a garbled limerick. Again, I try too hard and get lost.
    I shall spectate and enjoy the wares here. Again if I find that old poem I wrote a hundred years ago, in college, I’ll share. Until then … I’ll be the hidden angsty one!🤣

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. Sue Ranscht Avatar
      Sue Ranscht

      I feel your angst, Sandy. The first time I determined to write a sonnet, the wisest course seemed to me to be to follow the Bard. Google “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” Then pay as close attention to the rhythm and rhyme schemes as Mimi did. You can’t fail.

      Liked by 2 people

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      1. Sandy Randall Avatar
        Sandy Randall

        Thanks Sue! That’s great advice. It’s something I’ve shied away from, but maybe I need to dabble in that pond again…

        Liked by 2 people

        Reply
  7. Perry Palin Avatar
    Perry Palin

    I don’t write poetry. I read poetry sometimes to catch the cadence and the sounds of the words reinforcing the message. I read stories written by poets to catch how their cadence and sound sense reinforces their prose.

    I’ve been told that my sentences are “lyrical”. I’m just trying to make them sound right. I wrote a bit of flash fiction to read to a writers’ group and was told it was a poem. No, it was two short paragraphs that maybe sounded right.

    Liked by 2 people

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  8. mimispeike Avatar
    mimispeike

    Are you in there, little mouse
    in your little mousie-house?
    Do you hear me? Here am I,
    a-longing for my mousie-pie.
    Be you out or be you in,
    I’ll find you, darling mousie-kin.

    Mama makes a mouse-ragout,
    (that’s a fancy mousie stew).
    Oh! Her mincemeat! Mama, please,
    make your crunchy mousie-knees
    wrapped in bacon. Yummy, yum!
    Heaven, the wee mousie bum,
    every bitty bite a treat.
    I adore them mousie-feet,
    tangy, pickled mousie toes,
    not much meat (same with the nose),
    good to thread upon a stick,
    savor slowly, lick by lick.

    _____________________

    Tom he was a piper’s son,
    he learned to pipe when he was young,
    but all the tune that he could play
    was, ‘Chase the mousie while ye may’.
    He played that tune with such a skill,
    the mice could hardly remain still.
    He piped, and they would have to dance,
    they joyfully would twirl and prance,
    and follow gladly in his wake,
    and know too late their mad mistake.

    ____________________________

    FYI: Beside my eight prose novellas, I have six picture books dealing with Sly’s childhood. They are all written in verse.

    Liked by 3 people

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    1. Sandy Randall Avatar
      Sandy Randall

      Wickedly delightful! Chaucer reincarnated for sure …. but maybe Sister Grimm as well.
      I can hear the merry tunes of children singing these as they play in the coal darkened streets back in the day.

      Liked by 3 people

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    2. GD Deckard Avatar
      GD Deckard

      ROFL!
      🤣

      Liked by 2 people

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    3. Mike Van Horn Avatar
      Mike Van Horn

      Love to eat them mousies
      Mousies what I love to eat
      Bite they tiny heads off
      Nibble on they tiny feet

      A blues song sung by a cat in a cartoon book by Kliban.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply
  9. Perry Palin Avatar
    Perry Palin

    TEN WORDS

    The note was ten awful words, black ink
    On half a sheet of lined paper pulled from a notebook,
    Crumpled, then smoothed and folded
    Between the pages of an old book.

    A spring wind turned the new leaves, and then
    A warm rain pushed the city dust into the street.
    Birds carried small things to make their nests.

    I remember the hair on your arms, your dark eyes,
    I remember the scent of you.

    The envelope melted in the rain, but the message was there.

    I won’t be there Tuesday.
    I can’t do this anymore.

    Liked by 3 people

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