“A Rugged Coastline” Photo of the Week #32, selected in December, 2019
There are sections of the Northern California coast that are just as awe inspiring as its Oregon neighbor. This shot of the coastline at Bodega Head, north of San Francisco and west of Santa Rosa, is one such section. Even high up on the cliff overlooking the bay the waves were roaring. From here to Astoria is the most spectacular stretch of thunderous, rocky bays and crashing waves in the country, and you can see most of it from the highway.
By the way, most of this coastline is open to the public- no fences, no “Keep Out” signs, no closed parking lots. Pull over off the road where the beach is easily accessible and, well, access it!
“Waiting for a Friend” Photo of the Week #31, selected in December, 2019
This photo was taken in St. Elmo, a renovated ghost town in Central Colorado. Here, blue jays, chipmunks and other species seem to live in harmony, as this photo of a Steller’s jay sharing a snack with a chipmunk clearly demonstrates.
Founded in 1880, the former mining town lies in the heart of the Sawatch Mountain Range off Highway 285, around 20 miles from Buena Vista. It rests at an elevation of 9,961 feet and is definitely worth a visit
“Inspiration Strikes” Photo of the Week #30, selected in December, 2019
One aspect of living in Kansas that I still miss is the spectacle of the spring and summer storms we had the excellent fortune to observe, especially lightning. This photo was taken right from my back door and was one of maybe 300 strikes that night. (I got lots of practice shooting lightning that night.)
I love that this bolt seems to come from an opening in the clouds, as if the sky opened up just to project it to earth, just as one’s mind can open up to create inspiration. Interestingly, we lived in Kansas for almost four years and never did witness a tornado, though we sat through many, many severe storms.
The following is the Preface from my book, “A Poet’s Primer,” where I show would-be and current poets how to write utilizing new or classic poetic forms, such as English sonnets, haiku, kyrielles and almost 40 others. I also describe meter, rhyming and flow, as well as the importance of being poignant. At the bottom, I’ll leave a link to the book, in case you want to know more.
A Poet’s Primer- Preface
With rap, slam poetry and prose so popular these days, I set out to learn and master many of the oldest poetic forms that have been evolved through the centuries, some developed in or before the Middle Ages. I learned some newer forms as well, and created my own format.
Forms can be based on a wide variety of patterns (or non-patterns), such as stanza and line counts, syllable counts, meter, rhyming scheme, theme and a “turn” or poignant finish. The familiar haiku format of five, then seven, then five syllables in its three lines transcends meter and rhyme. It requires a theme of nature or the seasons and may include a “cutting word,” which cuts the stream of thought during reading for any one of a variety of purposes. An English sonnet, on the other hand, is fourteen lines, typically in three quatrains (four-line stanzas) and a couplet (two-line stanza), which uses classic meter and a strict rhyming pattern. A sonnet sometimes employs an unexpected turn, called a “volta,” that may change the feel or even the theme of the poem, and the final couplet often serves to sum up the subject or purpose of the poem in two lines.
One can only master these forms by employing them, both with successes and failures guiding the education process. I’ll steal a quote often used by Robert Keim, the inventor of the blitz poem. He intimates that poet Theodore Roethke once said, “Sometimes an apparent constraint can serve to free the imagination.” To be confined by a stringent format forces a writer to think outside of their normal vocabulary, past cliché or colloquialism, and in so doing, may find passion or poignancy where it may otherwise have been lacking. Often the difficulty is in employing a format that guides the reader to your point without their noticing, that flows from the lips without struggle and in the case of rhyming work, that they are as natural in speech as any conversation would be. If you accomplish these things with your poem, you have indeed mastered the form.
My readers, students, friends and family who follow my poetry often ask, “You know so many forms, how do you choose one?” My answer is always, “It depends.” Truthfully, form, meter and rhyme schemes all play a part in the feel of a poem.
Sometimes I decide I haven’t written with a certain form for a while, or need to create an example for an article. I am an “ekphrastic” poet, meaning I derive inspiration from a visual art, namely my photographs, so I might start by looking through my photos to find something whose inspiration somewhat matches the feel of the form on which I’ve pre-decided.
Sometimes it’s the opposite- I am already inspired and look through the various formats at my fingertips until, hopefully, I find the form that most closely fits.
Occasionally that means looking up new forms I’ve yet to try, though that number is shrinking. If I have a lot to say, or am telling a story, I’m not going to select haiku, a sijo or another very short form. If it is serious or deep, I might not want to pick a limerick style or Dr. Seuss-like rhyming format. Even so, I might start with one form and discard it for another part-way through.
In this primer I will describe over forty formats and I’ll try to bring a little history or explanation to them when I’m able. I will also include examples of each, nearly all of which will have come from my own hand.
“Remnants of a Glorious Past” Photo of the Week #29, selected in November, 2019
Bison once roamed well beyond the Midwest plains, millions having lived and fed on grasslands that ran from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico. They are even reported to have inhabited a tract that ran east to the Atlantic as far north as New York and as far south as Georgia, North Carolina and Florida. This small herd was found grazing in Wyoming, but it’s easy to imagine the bison’s glorious past.
Interestingly, according to Britannica.com, there are no buffalo in North America, only two types of bison. “Contrary to the song “Home on the Range,” buffalo do not roam in the American West. Instead, they are indigenous to South Asia (water buffalo) and Africa (Cape buffalo), while bison are found in North America and parts of Europe.”
“An Elevated Garden” Photo of the Week #28, selected in November, 2019
High up in the Colorado Rockies is a popular hiking trail through Guanella Pass. This trail takes you to one of Colorado’s “Fourteeners,” Mount Bierstadt, and is laced with scenic views. I especially enjoy the wild alpine flower gardens, few and far between, scattered around the mountainous terrain.
When I first viewed this, one of my iconic Colorado shots, I wondered how a single purple “pioneer plant” came to take residence in this field of yellow “old man of the mountain” wildflowers. But then, after looking closely, I could see others far behind the yellow blooms near the green shrubs.
A quick note about alpine or tundra wildflowers from amylaw.blog: “[They’re] small. There just isn’t time in the short, high-altitude summer to get big, especially when flowers cost the plant so much in terms of energy. And they are spread far apart, to ensure that they get plenty of sun and water. So you’re not going to see meadows dense with flowers blowing in the wind.” You can see that this is a unique field of tundra flowers, larger but still separated within their field.
“An Icy Poudre River” Photo of the Week #27, selected in November, 2019
In the Northern Colorado Rockies runs a river through the famous, winding Poudre Canyon that stretches east from near the Continental Divide. This river truly has four seasons and is subject to widespread flooding in the spring, swift and calm rafting flows in the summer and fall, and frozen areas in the cold winter. This is my favorite photo of the “Cache la Poudre River” — I could stare at it for hours.
The Poudre (“poo-der” by locals) Canyon runs from Fort Collins, north of Denver, to Walden and North Park, approaching the Western Slope. It is a drive to remember, filled with narrow, rocky sections of the canyon and beautiful river scenes.
“The White Cliffs of Martha’s Vineyard” Photo of the Week #26, selected in November, 2019
Martha’s Vineyard is an island located south of Cape Cod that is known for being a summer community for the affluent. We were very pleased to tour it by bus, after a misty ferry ride, during one memorable visit to the area, though it was the usual dreary Massachusetts day at the time. The far eastern point of the island provided this viewpoint.
When we visited England several years ago, we never made it to the famous White Cliffs of Dover, but the Vineyard provided similar scenery. However, the actual name of this New England landmark is the Gay Head Cliffs. Within the white and colorful layers of clay, fossil bones of whales, camels and wild horses have been found, if the tourist rumors are true.
“An Acorn Woodpecker Prepares for Breakfast” Photo of the Week #25, selected in November, 2019
Acorn Woodpeckers can be found throughout the Northern California and Oregon coast, so it was no surprise that there was a large family of them in our remote campground in Paicines, east of Monterey and Salinas, California. I saw them continually during our stay and was able to take a few photos of during my walks through the park. I particularly like this shot, taken just after the morning’s golden hour, as the sun highlights the woodpecker in the shadow of the tree branches.
Paicines is known for its vineyards and top-shelf wineries, nearby Pinnacles National Park and California condor viewing. Unfortunately, the summer after this photo was taken, wildfires decimated much of this part of California’s wine country. Because of the pandemic, we haven’t been able to return to see how much the area was affected.
“Sunken Boat Exposed by Drought” Photo of the Week #24, selected in October, 2019
Lake Mead is a large reservoir created by Hoover Dam at the Nevada/Arizona border, not far from Las Vegas. The current continuous drought has dropped the lake’s water level by over 160′ compared to its most recent high mark measured in 1990. This has caused the lake shore to draw back several hundred feet in places, exposing a myriad of items long thought lost. This boat was one of the more interesting of my finds there. I often wonder what caused this pleasure vessel to sink and how long ago that was.
Trappings of the Years 