Early this afternoon…

…I began feeling a bit under the weather.  And in a few minutes, I will settle down into my bed with my laptop and something fizzy to soothe my throat, and write the answer to Will Shakespeare’s sonnet II; which prompt, I have already posted.  I do like doing these; however, now I have two sequences that are essentially notes to myself.  I’m not sure how to characterise that.

Also: I, of late, have been thinking I should number all my sonnets.  I am not sure the numbering system I should use, however.  There are the short sequences and there should be some method for making them sequential whether or not I add to them later or not.  Still… that type of enumeration, in and of itself, might be confusing as well.  Perhaps I should just use plain sequential numbers and keep things in date order.  That, or I could use two different systems depending on what type of cataloguing I, or another reader, might like to do.

Kirkpatrick” type numbers and perhaps “Shorto” (rather than “Longo“) numbers.  This is a reference to Domenico Scarlatti, whose sonatas have three different numbering systems, mostly rather confusing, with Kirkpatrick being the most used–and which puts Scarlatti’s sonatas in sequential order by date as well as can be done.

Regarding my sonnets, these ‘K’ numbers would be chronological simply as: K1, K2, K3, &c.

The ‘S’ numbers would be Chronological as S1, S2, S3, &c; except where sequences are involved, I would then, perhaps, note the place where sonnet number one of a sequence first appears (whether it is out of order or not) and then, for example:

If S2 marks the first of a sequence, it will be numbered S2.1, and the next in the sequence would be S2.2, S2.3, &c, (all the way up to S2.154 or more if necessary!)  These would not indicate very well how many sonnets in total there might be, but the ‘K’ numbers would be for that purpose.

I might even try ‘P’ numbers also, for “Petrucci,” or whatever type of pasta the third system for classifying Scarlatti’s sonatas is named; which might group all sonnets by subject, perhaps in a similar way as the ‘S’ numbers.  Very well… I looked it up, it is, in fact, “Pestelli.” Sounds delicious, perhaps tossed with seafood and Alfredo sauce.  This is making me hungry.  “Feed a cold,” do they say, after all.

This would make the mnemonic for these three systems fairly straight forward.  If ‘K’ numbers are simple enumerators, and ‘S’ numbers are sequence based, and ‘P’ numbers are subject related; then we might say “Count, Sequence, Passion,” which would help one remember which is which:  K for count (or Kount), ‘S’ for sequence, and ‘P’ for passion (hence subject).

I suppose I could also use the unique post id that wordpress provides.  However, this, I have found does not exist on every screen wherein one might want or need it.

I could, of course, leave such enumeration to posterity, but I find myself needing and wanting such numbers now, for a variety of reasons.

Another Example of Embedded Haiku

Whatever Thy Perfection Doth Require

I close my longing eyes; envisage thee;
Reflection manifesting not mine hands;

Imprisoned lightning, countenanced with fire;
Shot through, withal, mine every wish commands’.
Extremity, thy tapered waist’s degree;

Impossible perhaps, if not sublime;
And yet, sublime, thy perfect form–admire
This hourglass, although confoundeth time.

Nor could reflected shadowing foresee
Such helplessness within, as now I feel;
Restrained, regarding mine embraced desire

Ensnaring; captor, caught without appeal;
This weal of metaphor thy warder barred;
Imprisonment inspired such a guard.

This sonnet is part of a short sequence; click here to read it all:

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Sonnet I | RL King:A Written World

Does your world spin wild through black of night?
Do you crave my hold, my kiss, my embrace?
Do you ache in desire, my lips to trace?
Do you look and see, my flicker of light?
Do I touch your soul, does it burn, ignite?
Could you have loved this splinter of my grace?
Would you hold me…if tears streamed on my face?
Tell me you would not, else, what a sad plight.

For, I would love thee, ever and a day,
What fool threw away this one that I see?
Did they not see the strength of your fierce heart?
To feel your breath as it moves upon me,
Caress your soul with mine, ever there stay…
You are my passion…you, dear love, my art.

via Sonnet I | RL King:A Written World.

Sonnet: (template) (Haiku/terza-rima/tanka) Coming (perhaps) soon to a website near you

This pattern occurred to me several days prior. I have experimented with sonnets containing word-wise or word count haiku in one form or another. And have made some notes regarding some that I might soon attempt.

I have never, on the other hand, written a sonnet in terza-rima which at that time a few days ago, also struck me as an ideal rhymescheme for embedded haiku. But even more recently, yesterday evening on my way home from running a few errands, it suddenly made some sense to me that if I concluded the sonnet with an embedded tanka, I would not need to include a 15th line or include an extra line representing a rather long title (in iambic pentameter.) In this way, I believe I might combine these two oriental forms with sonnet form seamlessly.

Furthermore, having considered the fusion of the two and/or three forms at some length, I have devised five differing rhymeschemes as shown in the diagram below:

 
line     words      Rhymescheme: 1  2  3  4  5
-----------------------------------------------
 1)        5                     A  A  A  A  A
 2)        7                     B  B  B  B  B
 3)        5                     A  A  A  C  A

 4)        5                     B  B  A  A  C
 5)        7                     C  A  B  C  B
 6)        5                     B  C  C  D  C

 7)        5                     C  A  C  B  D
 8)        7                     D  C  D  C  E
 9)        5                     C  D  C  D  D

10)        5                     D  C  C  B  F
11)        7                     E  D  D  D  E
12)        5                     D  E  E  E  F

13)      5 [7]                   E  D  F  E  G
14)      7 [x]                  [D] E [D] D [F]
15)      5 [7]                   E [D] F [E] G
------------------------------------------------
.

In all cases, I believe line 14 (the one with the ‘x’) would be omitted in favour of the tanka termination. This would give a 7 word concluding couplet rhyme to end each piece regardless of which of the five rhymeschemes I might use.

I therefore am getting a bit closer to writing something specifically for Kanzensakura–something I would very much like to do.

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Kiss Me~Music Inspired | RL King:A Written World

Fold me into your deep embrace
I ask just once, I lower a mask, show a tender, timid face
A face of love and need and heart and trust
Ask for you once, before this moment scatters as dust

Lead me into a place of warm abode, a safety I’ve not felt
Into the places of you, I beg to melt
How a soul can feel this close to mine,
…inside, flushing heart through spine,
…slicing bone
Turning about in a turbine,
…mind, heart,
…spinning in high pitched tone

So lean into my breath and lips,
Flush with me, through all the colours that love shades and splits
While insides turn outward, and outsides in
Bring me close, to find we are both warm and safe within

Words have finished their paths, reached a scorching, fired end
Bring skin to skin,
…a heart thunders for every synapse that every nerve can send
This is what was written
…in every book since dawn of time
So now…not another word,
I need to make you…body and soul…mine.

 

All this writing of reverse…

…Spenserians, I have finally (I think) ended the male body series with number ten, the last of which is a more or less standard Spenserian.

And, I believe perhaps, this is the one that causes me the most embarrassment.  I found myself blushing as I wrote this one–quite a comical picture, I may assure you.

To be sure, this was very definitely not the most embarrassing moment I have felt during this sonnet project.  I believe I have never been so embarrassed in my entire life as while writing the sequence which idolised me, myself, from the eyes and words of my sweet wife.  That was by far less theoretical, and hence, much, much more embarrassing.

Regarding the ending of the series, I say “I think” it is the last one in the series, because…  well… one never knows.  Embarrassing or not, it really is quite an intriguing subject, and does, from time to time, elicit moments of curiosity and reflection.

Even in cultures wherein such things were known quite openly to be commonplace, as in Ancient Rome, for example, there was still a bit of embarrassment among ordinary men regarding the subject.  Such things needed to be kept in proper perspective, after all!  Among the vast numbers of men–the great majority of which had no degree of unusual inclination or nature–even given that it might have been more common a subject at such times–such things would have been met with reticence, particularly when in the case of admitting such things personally. This kind of reticence spans all ages of the world, as far as I am able to discern, and even seems to be woven deep within our DNA perhaps, along with such inclinations as and of which we are capable.

And, of course, I am not speaking, or rather writing, of any of us less usual, such as today might be so labelled as one type or another.  Such people also were well known to those  as in my example of Ancient Rome.  Known and well understood, much as they are today, quite in contrast to the nature of the vast majority of us so glossed over, or perhaps, to re-purpose a common term of deconstruction: “marginalised.”

And…  I believe I have now said much more than I had at first intended, and certainly, even by Roman standards, far too much!!