As part of my application, I decided to try my hand at a sonnet. Having never written one before, I though it would be interesting to tie my hands with strict structure. In general, a sonnet it a fourteen line poem. The word "sonnet" comes from the Italian word for "little song". Although the structure and meter have changed over time, most of them follow some sort of strict structure and rhyme scheme. Shakespeare wrote many sonnets, and is the reason most Americans are familiar with the term. He wrote in iambic pentameter, which meant that syllable stressing must also follow a strict form in each ten syllable line. The more common structure for sonnets are ABAB CDCD EFEF GG and ABBA CDDC EFFE GG, but the list goes on. Some not only contain quatrains and a couplet, but triplets as well. Remember that the letters represent rhyming words at end of lines. A quatrain is a group of four lines, and a couplet is a group of two lines. I wanted to utiliz
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Our town has so many beautiful offerings. The crossovers to the beach are an amazing place to watch the ocean and pay attention to the beautiful hammocks and dunes we have here. The boardwalk at Manatee Sanctuary Park offers a wonderful view of the river and the mangroves. Watch the sunset from one, and the sunrise from the other. Mix it up, as the colors and wildlife change throughout the day. Also, our community garden, Kairos, is situated just between the two. Be sure to stop and see what is growing. This is a free verse poem, so there is no set rhyme or meter. It incorporates our own unique ecology and represents the wonderful balance between nature and humans in our community. From the Crossover and Boardwalk, Smiling A skein of sea grapes in the hammock Forms a welcoming arch Live oaks create a carpet of acorns And pollen settles on the path Unfolding flawlessly into the dune Where glory vines unfurl their first Violet flowers of the season Ma
This is another poem submitted in my application. Obviously, it was inspired by the playground at our lovely local elementary school. Each stanza of this poem is called a sestain. A sestain is a six-line unit of poetry. Each sestain is considered a tail-rhyme stanza due to it's meter of AABCCB, DDBEEB .... and so on. Those letters represent rhyming lines, so that the "A"s rhyme, "B"s rhyme, etc.... Each tail-rhyme sestain utilizes repetition to draw importance to the subject matter. Each third line repeats "the Cape View playground" beginning either with "From" or "On" to provide a slight break from monotony. Therefore, each stanza contains a couplet (AA), a tail-rhyme line (B), another couplet (CC), and a repetitive tail-rhyme line (B). Some couplets here are true rhymes or perfect rhymes. That means that the words actually completely rhyme with each other ("roar" and "shore"). Others are so
On Friday, June 7, 2019, the City of Cape Canaveral hosted the Ribbon-Cutting ceremony for its new dog park, Rover's Space. In honor of the event, the City invited me to read some poetry I had written for the occasion. Both of these poems are Acrostic Poems . This means that the first letter in each line spells out a message, in this case, "Laika", the first dog in space. Acrostic Poetry is a neat way to expand the meaning of your poem, kind of like leaving a secret message! Please feel free to post an example of an acrostic poem that you have written. The City asked me to write something focusing on "man's best friend", and here are the two for grand opening of Rover's Space: Ad Astra Per Amicitia Like the twin stars of Procyon Amiability gleams lucently Interconnected, loyal, roving Keenly reeling mirthfully Adjoined, dog and best friend Friendship * Loyalty * Love -- Unleashed "Let's be friends" A child says to a
This is an original poem that was included in my submission for poet laureate. It attempts to walk the reader through some of our city's unique history. It is a free verse poem , meaning that it does not have a consistent rhythm or rhyme scheme, but rather splices in various literary elements to fit the feeling of the poem. If you have never written poetry before, a free verse poem might be a swell place to start, because you do not have to worry about cadence, measure, or rhyme. Instead, you just write from your heart (or your head) and let the ink flow. If you have any examples of your own free verse poetry, please feel free to share. This one was inspired watching the waves crash together and create little vortices from our own beach. Watching the reflections swirl and play reminded me of Van Gogh's Starry Night painting. Then, I could not help but think of all the prior occupants of our town seeing similar images playing on the ocean's surface, but with vastly d