Cape Canaveral Poet Laureate

This song is in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 launch, Moon landing, and splashdown.  It was a great mission and a beautiful moment that brought the world together.   This song uses "personification".  That means that we give a non-human thing human-like characteristics.  Here, the narrator is speaking to the Moon as if it were a person and a friend. The narrator even sees the Moon as having "hands".    There is "wordplay" in the first line with the word "distant".  This word can mean things are physically far apart, but it can also mean (especially when it comes to relationships) that people have lost touch or emotionally grown apart.   There is a lot of "allusions" here.  Most of it making reference to important dates, locations, equipment, or other items related to the Moon missions.  For instance, the "Gods of time and of light" phrase refers to Saturn and Apollo (the launch vehicle and the sp...

A haiku is form of structured poetry derived from short Japanese poetry.  Although there are many interpretations of what a haiku is, the traditional haiku in English is a three line poem.  The first line contains five syllables, the second line contains seven syllables, and the third line contains five syllables.  So the traditional English haiku structure is referred to as 5-7-5.    Being a short form of highly structured poetry, it is a simple form for anyone interested to attempt. Can you come up with any haikus?  Due to the restrictive nature of the form, feel free to omit words that are superfluous or that do not add meaning.  For instance, rather than writing "The waves wash the Moon", you could write "Waves welcome moonrise".  Think about it like writing a telegraph or a quick text message.  You have a short amount of space to convey as much meaning as possible.  Try writing one and sharing it. In honor of the Summer of Space...

At tonight's City Council meeting, the City will be making a presentation of a Proclamation to members of the Brevard County Historical Commission commemorating City Resolution 1969-30, which commends the historical Apollo 11 Moon Landing of July 20, 1969, and declaring June 21, 2019 through September 23, 2019 as the Summer of Space in Cape Canaveral.  Here is that Proclamation: I will be reading the historical proclamation at the City Council meeting.  As a writer, it is important to understand language usage.  Looking at this proclamation, we can examine its structure and learn about how the City uses structure to make this proclamation. This type of writing is generally called a "resolution" because it shows that the signatory is resolved to perform an action. The first thing we can see are statements that begin with the word "whereas".  These are generally referred to as "recitals" or the "preamble".  As used in recitals, wh...

Happy 4th of July, everyone.  In honor of our great nation's birthday, it seemed appropriate to post some poetry and songs dealing with America.  The Freedom of Speech guaranteed to the people of our country is precious.  It allows us all to express ourselves openly and honestly in a variety of ways.  So, here are some examples that express patriotism in all its glorious forms. This is a song from the band Marcy Playground called "America".  It describes different parts of America and seeing the beauty in it all, creating a feeling of home: Then there are songs that look at some of the not so beautiful aspects of America, but the desire of our citizens to want to help.  An example is "The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen.  Tom Joad being the protagonist in the John Steinbeck novel "The Grapes of Wrath".  This song sees the hardship of some American folks and tells the story of a man wanting to help. There are songs that look at sp...

Another poem from my application packet was a song.  A song is a type of poetry that is generally musical.  It tends to have some semblance of rhythm and melody.  Songs can be lyrical (focused more on expression or conveyance of emotions) or narrative (telling a story) or both.  Some songs utilize rhymes and meter, some do not.  Some songs, generally called instrumentals, do not contain words at all, but utilize music to convey the story or emotion.  Some songs have clear meanings, some are more abstract, and some are purely nonsense verse (noting that sometimes nonsense can still convey deep emotional ties or humor).  This narrative song utilizes many techniques and tools to convey the meaning.  It starts with a "simile" (a comparison of things that uses the words "like" or "as").  It also uses "dialect" and "colloquialism" (dialect is the type of language used in an area, and colloquialism is the way people actually talk in a give...