Wanda Collins Johnson - Poetry Society of Tennessee

JOY

Poetry

Poetry is physical and sensual. It is vocal art. A poem is shaped by the mouth and tongue, breathed in and out by the lungs, and infused with the power of the human voice.

Although I have read poetry all my life, I never really studied it until recently. For years, creating a poem seemed far beyond my reach. I didn't know enough about the technical aspects of poetry and so I felt too intimidated to try. And yet, virtually every time I read a poem, I felt a gentle tug upon my heart.

Recently, I joined the Poetry Society of Tennessee (PST) and, along with it, the National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Inc. (NFSPS). Both organizations sponsor poetry contests that can result in prizes, publication, or both. PST’s annual publication is Tennessee Voices Anthology. All first place winners of their monthly poetry contest are published in this anthology. In addition, the Poetry Society of Tennessee hosts monthly meetings and other events.

The PST monthly contests often feature different forms of poetry, some of which are unfamiliar and quite challenging, almost like working a puzzle. For my first entry into a PST contest, I won third place. The poem was in the form of a “BEECH,” a type created by the poet Beecher Smith. It is a five line poem with the syllables of each line corresponding to the number of the letter of the alphabet—B is the second letter of the alphabet and so the first line of your BEECH poem should have 2 syllables, and so on. (E and E are 5 syllables, C is 3 syllables, and H is 8 syllables). The first and fifth lines must rhyme. The middle three lines must also rhyme. The title of the poem can convey further meaning.

The next month, I won first place. My poem was a description of a painting by Gustav Klimt, called “The Kiss.” Little did I know that there is a fancy name for a poem which describes visual art —it is called an EKPHRASIS poem. In an interesting case of synchronicity, I had already begun my poem about “The Kiss” when I received the February issue of Writer’s Digest, which featured an article about ekphrasis poems. The article helpfully suggested that you could move back and forth between subjective reactions and objective observations of the work of art, which is what I did in my poem about Klimt’s painting. One of the most famous examples of an ekphrasis poem is John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn.”

The monthly poetry challenge for the next deadline was to write a HSINKU poem. I was unable to find an example of this type of poem, but I did find out that it consists of four lines, with the 2^nd and 4^th line rhyming. Also, the 4^th line must contain an “ironic twist of enlightenment” about the previous three lines. To me, an “ironic twist” is often funny, and so I wondered if this meant that a hsinku poem must be humorous. I looked up “irony” in the dictionary, just to be sure that I understood what it really meant. Irony can imply humor or light sarcasm when the intended meaning of the words is the opposite of the literal sense of the words. In another shade of meaning, irony can be mockery. The last definition in my Webster’s New Collegiate says that irony is “a state of affairs or a result opposite to and as if in mockery of the appropriate result; as, the irony of fate.” I am intrigued by the hsinku form and hope to see more examples of it.

The National Federation of State Poetry Societies, Inc. (NFSPS) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the furtherance of poetry on the national level. It was founded in October of 1959. By joining PST, you automatically become a member of NFSPS. The National Federation of State Poetry Societies offers fifty contests each year and publishes winning poems in their anthology, Encore. The forms of poetry for some of the fifty contests are quite varied and some sound very challenging—cinquain sequence, sonnet, blank verse in iambic tetrameter, occasional choriambs, free verse, iambic pentameter, dorsimbra, and villanelle.

One of the challenges for the NFSPS contest was to write a VIGNETTE. There was some discussion among PST members about the poetic definition of a vignette since the word is not defined in The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics. As it turns out, a poetic vignette points to a style rather than any form. It is a brief but clear verbal description, especially of a person. In discussion, they also decided that a vignette could describe a scene or even describe a situation involving action.

For the annual PST contest, the challenge was to write in any poetic form about any subject. I wrote a haiku sequence consisting of seven haiku verses linked in meaning and imagery. Although the poem was untitled, which is typical for haiku, it can be called by its first line and therefore titled, “In Dogwood Winter.”

HAIKU is a poetic form that has several rules or standards:

1) The usual Americanized form contains 3 lines with a total of 17 syllables. The 1st and 3rd lines contain 5 syllables and the 2nd line has 7 syllables.

2) The poem is about nature...or contains a seasonal word.

3) It presents a memorable moment, an observation, almost objectively.
4) It has no rhymes, similes, metaphors ..and yet is poetic.

5) A haiku does not have to be a complete sentence.

6) It should not tell the reader what to think.

7) Haiku are usually untitled.

Keep checking this webpage for updates. I will regularly be adding more about poetry, poets, and their craft. Also, on my links page, there is a link to the PST website and other poetry sites.