Trevor's Writing

How to write a pantoum poem

6 Comments »23rd February, 2010; Category: Poetry, Writing Hints

Yesterday I wrote about how I write poetry.

It’s a simple formula and one that usually works for me. My only regret is that I far too often either don’t have the time to devote to poetry – or I don’t make the time. As a prize winning poet I know I should be writing more.

The regular monthly poetry writers’ group I attend is one thing that keeps me writing poetry on a regular basis. Each month we set a writing challenge for the following meeting. Some of the challenges last year were really inspiring, and hearing everyone’s take on the one challenge is very interesting. The critiquing of each poem is also valuable. There are many benefits to belonging to a writers’ group.

In this coming month we were set the task of writing a pantoum on the theme of obsession. Now, I’ve never written a pantoum and have resisted doing so until now. I thought it was too hard, too complex. I was wrong. A few days ago I managed to write a pantoum called Obsessed by Sonnets. That’s right – I wrote a pantoum about writing sonnets! Go figure.

What is a pantoum?

Good question.

It is a poem of Malay origins and has undergone a few adaptations on its way into English poetry circles via the French. Essentially it consists of the following:

A set of four lined stanzas (quatrains) – anything from three stanzas and up.
It has a simple abab rhyming pattern throughout.
It is often metred but I believe that this is not a strict rule. However, metred poems always sound wonderful when read aloud.
Lines are repeated in a strict pattern.
Lines 2 and 4 of the each stanza become 1st and 3rd lines of the next stanza. This is repeated throughout the poem until the last stanza.
In the last stanza, the so far unrepeated 1st and 3rd lines of the first stanza become the 2nd and 4th lines – but in reverse order. This means the poem comes full circle and the last line is a repeat of the first line of the poem. This gives the whole work a very satisfying feel to it.

I’ll now be very brave and publish here a pantoum I wrote this afternoon. Note that a few words here and there have been changed to make grammatical or narrative sense.

What is a pantoum?

A pantoum is challenging to write,
It’s a poem of elegance and grace.
With stanzas of four lines – that’s right –
And a rhyming pattern to face.

It’s a poem of elegance and grace,
With quatrains for stanzas I’m sure,
And a rhyming pattern to face,
Not to mention a message that’s pure.

With quatrains for stanzas I’m sure,
And a metre so regular too,
I won’t mention my message so pure,
For I’m planning to entertain you.

It’s my metre that’s regular too,
With stanzas of four lines – that’s right –
For I’m planning to entertain you
With a pantoum that’s challenging to write.

How I write poetry

1 Comment »22nd February, 2010; Category: Poetry, Writing Hints

Writing poetry has been a love of mine from my very early years. I was barely a teenager before I started writing poetry seriously. Back then it was a haphazard affair with no real plan or purpose. Most were scribbled furiously on to any convenient scarp of paper and stored ungraciously in boxes or drawers.

In my 20s I started to be a little more methodical and I started using a manual typewriter to make neat, readable copies of them. These were stored in folders. Fortunately I usually date each poem, so it was relatively easy to store them all in chronological order of composition.

Four decades later it is a different matter. I am far more deliberate in my approach to writing poetry. Several of the units of course work for my Master of Arts in Creative Writing have involved writing poetry. Being an active member of the university’s writers’ groups has also given a boost to my poetry. Some of the assignments have been very challenging. Before starting the course I had never attempted to write a sonnet, for example. Now I’ve written prize winning sonnets and love the form. In the last few years I also started getting some publishing success with my poetry. It’s early days in my career as a poet, but the signs are encouraging.

How I write a poem

Most of the time I use a pencil. There is something wonderfully tactile about using a pencil on paper. It certainly helps the creative process when writing a poem. By way of contrast I always write prose on the computer keyboard. I can’t ever remember writing a poem on the keyboard.
I usually write the first draft of a new poem in my writing notebook first. This is a spiral bound A5 size notebook with hard covers.
I decide on the topic (unless it has been decided by the writers’ group) and play around with the idea, jotting down a few words, phrases and ideas.
I think about what form the poem should take to be most effective: sonnet, blank verse, haiku and so on. The form often determines the rhyming scheme (if any) and metre that best suits the topic.
I always try to have a strong opening line and will experiment until I can settle on one. The whole poem often grows from that good first line. It sets the tone.
During the writing I will have many false starts, words, phrases and even whole stanzas that never make the final work. My notebook can end up quite a mess, with many sections crossed out, arrows leading everywhere as I rearrange the work.
Reading the poem out aloud is an important part of my method; it has to sound right, and the metre has to work.
After much editing, rewriting and correcting, I finally turn to the computer and compose it on screen. I will try several different formatting ideas before settling on something that looks pleasing to the eye and is easy to read.
I will reread the poem aloud many more times, making minor corrections on screen as needed.
I print out a copy and file it away in a poetry folder. It may be many months before I come back to that poem, do a few more minor alterations and submit it to a publisher.

Good writing.

Writer’s block

No Comments »21st February, 2010; Category: The Writer's Life, Writer's block

I’m struggling to write.

Now this is a common problem experienced by most writers. Over the last three months I have had many distractions which have kept me from the key board.

Things like going away for several short holidays with family.
Things like spending wonderful time with my grandson – and his parents.
Things like catching up with family over Christmas.
Things like celebrating my wife’s birthday with friends – it was one of the big one! (Ssssh – I won’t mention her age)
Things like getting jobs done around the house that had been studiously ignored during the year.

Probably the most concerning, however, has been a deterioration of my health. Several things have made concentrating on my writing very difficult. This is where persistence comes into play. Over the last few days I’ve gradually pushed through the disappointments and difficulties and persisted with my writing. Sometimes it has been easy, sometimes very challenging.

As I see it now, my priority over the coming months will be to keep on steadily writing while being careful to pace myself and care for my health.

Good writing.

My latest publishing venture

No Comments »20th February, 2010; Category: Master of Arts course, Poetry

Now for something a little different.

I’ve had another poem published, this time in a small collection of poems called a chap book. There’s quite a story to this poem being published.

Every month I attend a poetry writers’ group at the university where I have almost completed my Master of Arts in Creative Writing. Poetry writing has been a love of mine for decades, but it is only now that I’m having some small publication successes. Poetry was a big part of the course and my skills have definitely improved in the last 2 years.

Every month we set a poetry writing challenge for the next meeting. One of the challenges last year was to write a poem on the theme of poverty (the Global Financial Crisis even crept into our little group). Some of the poems were brilliant and deserved a much wider audience than the group. We decided that this was to be the the first compilation published by the group.

I was nominated to be one of the three editors and I also set up the design of the booklet. We called it Shifting Sands. We had a very successful launch at our monthly meeting last Thursday. Normally we might only have about 5-7 members attend. This time we had 14 people present (including 3 new members) despite at least 3 or our regular attendees being away.

This month our theme was New Year’s Resolutions and the standard was extremely high. As a result we are now planning our next publication.

Good writing.

Review “The Slap” by Christos Tsiolkas

9 Comments »17th February, 2010; Category: Authors, Awards, Books, Fiction, Novels, Reviews

The slap

I bought this novel The Slap by acclaimed Australian author Christos Tsiolkas late last year as a birthday present to myself. I had heard so much comment about the novel that I wanted to read it. It was also short listed for the 2009 Miles Franklin Literary Award and was winner of the 2009 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, two more reasons for wanting to read it. There had been considerable media hype since its publication.

I resisted reading it for some weeks, keeping it on hold until our beach holiday just before Christmas. In the few days before starting to read it, I read Tim Winton’s The Turning. I reviewed that book yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed Winton’s collection of stories set in Western Australia and picked up The Slap with enthusiasm. I was enjoying a prolonged holiday of reading, and, at almost 500 pages, this was a work I could really lose myself in over the holiday break.

Wrong.

From the first page I was not only disappointed, I was furious, revolted, disgusted and appalled – sometimes all at the same time.

Strengths

The premise is brilliant: a group of people living in Melbourne gather for a backyard barbecue. All is going well until one of the younger children behaves abominably and one of the adults slaps him. Trouble is – the adult is not his father. The novel is in eight parts, each told from a different person’s point of view of the same incident. Each section covers the life of the person relating the incident, the events before and after “the slap” and their reactions to the event. It affects each in various ways, and for many different reasons.

In my opinion, the only other strength of this book is the characterisation. Tsiolkas has drawn eight major characters (as well as a few minor characters) brilliantly. By the end of each section you feel that you really know the person thoroughly. In fact, you could meet any one of them at a barbecue or at the pub this weekend.

Weaknesses

From the very first page Tsiolkas sets out to shock the reader. There is frequent very coarse language, something I find very objectionable. It is also unnecessary. If it is in character, and used for the purpose of shocking the reader, then it may have a place, used occasionally. After the first two or three pages of this novel, it no longer shocks; IT IS VERY IRRITATING. And very poor writing. Couldn’t the writer think of another word?

I find the same thing in many movies and television shows these days. Otherwise brilliant films like Four Weddings and a Funeral are very much the poorer for all the coarse language. Writers: if you want to shock the viewer do it very sparingly, otherwise it no longer shocks. It is just lazy writing!

Two major themes of the novel relate to drugs and sex. It would seem to anyone from another city or country, on reading this novel, would conclude that everyone living in Melbourne is either regularly out of their brains on drugs, or out of their pants in yet another bizarre sexual activity – or both! Sure, this probably reflects the lifestyle of about 0.1% of Melbourne’s population, most of them crammed into the characters in this novel. It occurred to me that whenever the plot was wandering, or getting weak, Tsiolkas would decide to throw in more about drugs or sex. In sections it borders on the pornographic. Again, lazy writing in my opinion. This book reads like a set of interesting, well written characters in search of a good plot!

Conclusions

This novel has been praised for the quality of the writing. It has won awards and prizes. It has sold many copies and done very well for the author.

I have read many reviews of this novel, many of them praising the book and placing it on a very high pedestal indeed, saying, in effect, there should be more high quality writing like this in Australian literature.

What rubbish!

Such reviewers wouldn’t know good literature if it bit them on the nose. If this is indicative of the fine level of Australian literature, it is a major concern. Thank goodness we have the likes of Tim Winton who writes brilliantly. I look forward to reading more of his works. I’m sure I’ll never read anything else by Tsiolkas.

Offer: Anyone want to buy a ‘read-only-once-and-never-again’ book?

Going cheap.