As I consider how my life was spent
so many years in tasks of small import
and think of how my own first fifty went
with little left to show, less to report...
We view your many great accomplishments:
the family you nurtured through the years
of moves to live with distant lands' events,
retaining savoir faire in each career
assignment that your hubby might accept
in Moscow, Tehran, Kyiv, and Washington--
And there to learn the language, each adept
at Russian, Farsi, and Ukrainian...
We wonder where your next new home will be
but know your sonnets share expressively!
Author notes
A birthday wish: Fifty, good heavens! It was Margaret who led me here to join as a member at Allpoetry.
Meaning caused a change in sonnet form. [Reward: double points]
Comments
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so it's like
one of those things you read off at someones reteirmint? It sounds really nice. I wish someones writes something like that for me one day. Rewarded 4
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You have to achieve a lot by then!
Peter-
wolf,
I had
to
laugh
at
this
solemn
view.
(More follows.......
Editing because my reply box is very narrow.
(Reminder after all these years it is still not replaced. One reason I seldom return.)
Anyhow, about MargaretG, certainly not retired but I see what you mean. It is a list of things she has done, and where she has been. Add, SO FAR, because she'll still be a prize poet twenty, thirty years from now.
I remember when I was young, fifty used to be ancient. Hey, thirty was ancient! Perspective changes. At fifty I had hit my stride and haven't looked back. Three of my "children" are older than that, and I haven't slowed down yet, more productive than ever, um, probably.
Anyhow, thanks for commenting.
Terry
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<
You're right, to say a kinder, better place
can be when easing loss with company,
the gentle touch, the happy voice, our space
to share, support--are kinds of love to see.
Perhaps because my own is far advanced
I see the age of fifty, life begun--
and dare to say the latter not romanced
may be perhaps a time of greater fun!
I lack the time! Continuing this sport
would be a hazard to our peace of mind,
when any other kind would just transport
our life, becoming rather less refined!
A rhymed couplet would finish this.
Thank you for visiting here!
Terry -
Nicely done
That is one great birthday wish. Very well written and it flows incredibly smoothly. I think the personal nature of it adds great power to this poem. It isn't simply "what should I say to this person" but rather it is "what does this person mean to me"... and yet, it is not abut you or focused on you. Pretty crafty... and pretty impressive. Good work!. Rewarded 6
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Thanks Mark
.......
7
columns
And Edit DID give me a full-size box, like everyone else! AHA!! A bit too late schmart, is all! Years I have suffered!
Your kind judgment that this poem "flows incredibly smoothly" makes the effort worth while! I really worked at perfect iambic pentameters in this sonnet, in deference to the subject of its content. An honest-to-goodness standard sonnet! Not often I take time to do one of those!
Point is MargaretG herself is a sonneteer par excellence! Hers flow smoothly and often, basking in their perfection quite without effort or ostentation, thus in deference to her skill, could I do less than at least to try? I also happen to know that Canadian diplomats do a year of intensive immersion to learn to speak and use the language of the country where they will be posted next. There is some truth to the saying that each new language builds on previous skill and becomes easier to learn, but it still amazes me to know that Russian and Ukrainian use a cyrillic alphabet nothing like our own, and farsi even more, it even reads from right to left! That blows me away! Result, I have a tremendous respect for such achievement.
How many of us could master that?
Thank you very much for finding this, and for giving me the opportunity to tell more.
Terry
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A sonnet... cool.
I don't know if it is a good thing or a bad thing that I did not realize this was a sonnet until you said so. My high school English teacher would hang me! lol In any case, knowing know that is a sonnet makes it even more impressive to me. Crafting my poetic thoughts into a recipe of any kind was always tough for me, and I admire anyone who can do it so effectively. I actually think it is a good thing that I did not know it was a sonnet... because I imagine a well written sonnet does not shout out to the reader "this is me trying to write a sonnet". =)
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Hey Terry, I enjoyed the poem alot. I like how you often hide rhymes in your works, but in this instance its if it was put in paragraph form it would work well and it would rhyme. I liked that alot. Everything else that is great has already been told by comments other than mine. Congrats and a belated happy birthday.
TTYL
MM
. Rewarded 6
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Thank you, MM! The act of avoiding commas at ends of lines to prompt reading to the next line is so old that Shakespeare has
enjambments in most of his sonnets. I used to have a column about them--some had as many as four examples! Who am I to quibble?
It gets rid of clunky end-rhymes, and may even sneak by those who hate rhyme.
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Good for MargaretG!
Leading you to the site is worth an accolade or two in itself, Terry! I shall certainly be checking out her work. As usual your OWN work is a case study of personable originality - a flux of interesting rhymes, bittersweet reflections interlaced with succinct descriptions.
I feel an urging to get back to a little more formal verse, Terry, and your polish shines as an inspiration to me.
Truth told I find it a little daunting at times to traverse Allpoetry, hard to trawl the teeny-bopper gushings to glean aspects of interest and worthy pearls that of course are present but not always so easy to uncover. There are so many trees occluding the forest as it were (at least for this myopic meanderer).
Highest esteem,
gG
. Rewarded 8
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Pasted into a two-column box
..
2.
This is a happier day since I wandered to this site; but it needed to be!
Just a miserable day. Thank you for helping! You have no idea how much!
If you are serious about testing the well-trodden terrain of formal verse,
and have limited experience with it, I am here to tell you that it is much
easier than you'd think. To prove it, I'm sending you a hand up.
Having written metric verse since I was a kid--without even knowing what
it was until much later, I can only give credit to my Muse! Nobody taught
me, (thus making me a dubious teacher indeed!) Make up your own mind.
See if it helps.
Essential to truly formal verse is the matter of meter, more important even
than rhyme but most students do not know that. Hidden meter, it is there,
but only if you are primed to feel it. Note the word feel. Check it out
with the sonnet dedicated to MargaretG after reading this.
Anyone else reading this could benefit too, especially those who still
count syllables to get pentameter lines, and need only to use five fingers
and chanting. How's that again, you ask?
Written for you, but I'll add more of it to my web reference pages at
http://www.mattaweb.ca/web2008/GREFS.htm
There is a trick that makes them all almost ridiculously easy.
In the chart,
click CourseA-2.htm and find in it: 2,b (iambic.)
click CourseA-3.htm, in 3,c (Meter in longer words )
click CourseA-5.htm, in 5, (where c has trochaic meter)
Below, I'll add two more complicated meters too: my no-syllable
counting metric method:
taDA taDA: i-AM-bic BEATS // most COM-mon SON-net BEAT
(Start each line with an unstressed syllable)
TAda TAda, TROchees, MAR-ching, AU-to-MA-tic ME-ter :
(Start each line with a stressed syllable)
but if THREE beats are HEARD like a GAL-lo-ping HORSE
a-na-PES-tic, my FA-vour-ite RHY-thm by FAR-- dadaTA dadaTA
(Start each line with an unstressed syllable)
DAC-ty-lic HAP-pens with SYL-la-bles THREE like when
"ONE more un-FOR-tu-nate" HELPS us to KNOW that the
DAC-tyls have THREE of them WALT-zing too! TAdada TAdada
(Start each line with a stressed syllable)
That is part of one of my courses at AP School, playing with
language. I should get back to work at that, now that the pump
has been primed. Thank you so much!
I hope you will enjoy the experiment. This method makes metric
verse as fast and and as easy to write as unstructured verse.
Easier, as sonnets. Even if you find no use for that, just
getting with it has been therapeutic for me!
Terry
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Thanx Again Terry
for imparting your wealth of knowledge in such generous fashion. I´m reading a good book right now by polymath comedian Stephen Fry entitled An Ode Less Travelled on his approach to poetry writing.
I have in the past found myself writing in certain rhythmic forms subconciously but its important I feel, to become more intimately acquainted with the methodology so that when/if one goes off on a tangent one at least knows where one "took-off" from.
Cheers Terry. Have a good one.
Simon
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What a super tribute
..to an accomplished friend. But hey, fifty's the new thirty, don't they say? Best RA -
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I switched to my rusty trusty Fedora computer
RA,
It's a pain but have you ever tried to type a message into a box ONE letter wide? That's the worst I ever got. It wouldn't even let me edit and is hung up now with two silly wheels rotating.
I'll bet it won't send, too. They are still rotating. Hung up,
Yes, 50 being the new thirty. Does that make 80 the new fifty?
Wouldn't surprise me. Except for a load of worry I'd say that would be about right.
I'd better send to see if this goes through. It refused to send so I deleted the proof.
Thank you for dropping by.
Terry
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1 column wide box! A new record!
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I w
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Hey, this is great, Terry.
Friends that know you and care about you for who you are make life great. Your admiration and appreciation for this friend are apparent. It's a good ode for a friend and I'm sure she's flattered and feels glad to have such a friend to care she's still here.
Nice work, Terry.
al
. Rewarded 6
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My reply vanished! Grrr!!
I finally get a full-size reply box and it doesn't work!
I write of her with amazement.
Margaret is the most prolific poet I know, turning out at least three flawless sonnets a week, each a delight of wit and obsrvation. Sometines they arrive every day!
Thanks Al,
Terry -
Bang on
That's what it's all about of course. I am constantly amazed how she can so blithely produce perfect sonnet after perfect sonnet almost every day! Surprise endings, snappy conclusions, shining with polish all the way. We are talking of several kinds of formal sonnets, never straining to rhyme; we often don't even notice the rhymes until we go back and there they are! Her iambic pentameters don't hit you over the head with their rhythm unless you choose to read them that way. Her most recent one in particular... Formidable Muse over there! ...I could go on and on.
But won't. Best to end while there is still more to say. She proves it CAN be done!
Thanks Al!
Terry
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Tribute
Nice tribute Terry. Something here reminds me of an old addage. 'We become the people we admire'. I suspect someone has written something similar about you already!. Rewarded 4
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Hi John, thanks --and
I suppose... Kind of tame, huh?
Nothing to match what you perhaps expected.
Facts cannot begin to approach metaphor, and even
perfect prescribed pentameters are no match for
inspiration.
Sorry. It can be a real challenge to comment sometimes.
You had the luck to be first to call it up and as
an old friend, instead of clicking out wordlessly,
you gamely took it on!
Thank you so much for that! And you did a fine job,
a true statement even though I know of no such work
about me. Forty years ago maybe? No, not even when
there might have been a little bit to say no one
was there to notice.
With thanks,
Terry
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