WRITER’S BLOCK

‘Surreality’ . . . WHB – 1959

I Needed a Prompt
Ideas Swamped
Inspiration Zonked
So on These Thoughts I Chomped

Writer’s Block? … Then … Why Not? …

… Picture a scene?
Not Dull or Obscene
But From Pope or Racine
From U2 or Queen

… Go back in time?
Make the Bell Chime
No Need for Rhyme
Grime, Slime or Mime

… Recap your History?
No Need for Sophistry
Give it Your Chemistry
Make it a Mystery

… Use your memory?
But Very Cleverly
Create a Summary
A Sensory Treasury

… Use an old picture?
With no Striking Stricture
Or Pure Holy Scripture
Just Make it a Mixture

… Look through those photos?
Your Secrets Expose
In that Indiscreet Pose
Please Put it in Prose

… Because many a photo
Does Set off the Word-flow
A Picture of Jethro
Heathrow or Chicago

… Try Mythology – So many tales?
With all that Entails
So when Memory Fails
They Breathe  Wind in your Sails

 … May I suggest such as these?
The Trials of Hercules
Perils of Pericles
Or the Wit of Diogenes

… Start with an image?
A Game of Cribbage
Begin with  a Scrimmage
Then Rape and Pillage

… Just put pen to paper?
Why not a Caper
In a Skyscraper
Don’t Leave it till Later

… Compose an allegory?
In Hell or Purgatory
Dormitory or Laboratory
Seminary or Conservatory 

… Invade the thesaurus?
With a Rousing Chorus
From the Stegosaurus
But do Play it Cautious

… Go to a boot sale?
There Without Fail
All Life is in Detail
An Observer’s Fairytale

… Steal an idea?
Make it Quite Clear
Something will Appear
 Perhaps Verbal Diarrhoea

… Revert to your childhood?
When Lost in the Wood
Uttering that Falsehood
Not Doing Something you Should

… Play to your strength?
Give it some Length
Strive to the …nth
Degree -Don’t Stop at the Tenth

… Play with a word?
Inane or Absurd
A Ludicrous Cowherd
Preposterous Bird

… Places you’ve been?
Aberdeen, the Cuisine
Avoid the Obscene
And Say what you Mean

… Try a spoonerism on your block?
Blighters’ Rock
Or Writer’s Block
Working Lock or Lurking Wok

… Try Love? – it’s a Must
Frank or Unjust
That True Tale of Trust
Lays of Lovers in Lust

… But, to make it tell?
To Ring everyone’s Bell
And Ring Loud its Knell
Do Hyperbole Quell

… And what about death?
No Shibboleth
From that Very First Breath
Write Another Macbeth

#     #     #

Finally, your Loins do Gird
Go Tell it to the Babbling Birds
That This is Not in Fact Absurd
I AM JUST SO LOST FOR WORDS!!!

An Act Of Creative Disappointment

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I sit and I look at my keyboard,
That world of words unexplored,
The umbilical cord to my computer,
All else completely ignored.

I stare at those magnetic keys
As they draw me into their world;
And so often to start I just freeze,
Before slowly ideas are unfurled.

As enlightenment slowly is born
My fingers react to my brain;
At their touch then the words will emerge,
A true feat of legerdemain.

Every jot, every tittle I fix;
The whole keyboard is hot to my touch.
Then I look at what I have written –
Do I like it? – No not very much!

OF UNCONSIDERED TRIFLES

 

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Autolycus came to me and said:
You are a fellow Trifler
Collecting titbits as you go
A code, a pun, a cipher.

A slice of verse,
A photograph,
Graffiti on a wall.
A derelict old building,
A motto I recall.

A snippet here,
A smidgen there,
Nonsensical or sane;
Collecting trifles will pay off,
Nothing is in vain.

An old dead doll,
A fireplace,
A waste bin on a beach,
Have all at times inspired my verse
My writer’s block to breach.

For my creative muse,
Despite its times of dearth,
Enjoys the trigger of the odd
‘Tis inspiration’s birth.

NOTE:  Shakespeare’s Autolycus (in A ‘Winter’s Tale’, claims that he is ‘a snapper–up of unconsidered trifles‘.

 

Awaiting My Muse

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Thoughts
Ideas
Flicker-flow my mind

Suggestions
Ideas
Broil
Half-baked
Within its febrile cauldron

Magnetic impulses
Stir the mix
Threatening to connect
But rarely touching

Intuition sparks
But does not flame
Promise flat-lined

So many false dawns
So few horizons reached
Dawn’s promise
Resolved in mediocrity

 

 

Weaving Words

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Weaving Words

 

(The Poet’s Calling)

 

I wander my world 
weaving words into verse
plaiting my thoughts 
into silken skeins of sense
rendering images
from my mind’s eye
to this digital paper
perverse perception
lending life to poetry
lust to hope 
and love to mon amour
the written word. 

Only in time
with wish fulfilment
perchance my dreams
will meet my expectations 
and produce that meisterwerk
whose impetus
drives me on

 

Portmanteau Words

A portmanteau word is created by combining the meanings and blending the sounds of two other words.  Examples would be: motel, brunch, fortnight, podcast,

‘Word Cloud’ . . . WHB – Aug.2018

Portmanteau words
concocted words
constructed words
New words
coming thick and fast
many do not last
We make them up
to suit our theme
not always too regarding
of meaning
but on the whole
our goal
With feeling
and maybe a sigh
we do try
no pretext
to fit the context
to fit
each new bit
sometimes with wit
into its new-found place
The recipe
melded
mixed
formula followed
dictionary cooked
tentatively tested
purposefully published
Recipe redeemed . . .

To give new birth
take one that’s old
be creative
and be bold
Join to another
to meet your purpose
Go on. Do it.
Don’t be nervous

Many a word has found its use 
however obtuse
even abstruse
by being concocted
from two others
Just as two ecstatic lovers
might join together in coition
and with their lack of inhibition
bring new life into fruition
produce new offspring
for a lark
for the hell of it
for effect
in joy
in desperation

Let inspiration
no hesitation
concoct the term
generate the meaning

Old parents
new child
birth
to a new word

 

 

 

 

‘Willy-Nilly’ – Reduplication

[ Wednesday Replay # 4 ] 

[  First posted on January 23, 2017  ]

Definition of reduplication in English …

Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.  (From: Wikipedia)

My word-play attempt (I’ve called it, quite arbitrarily, ‘Willy-Nilly’) at composing  a few Nonsense Verses to link together – however tenuously – a number of the very many examples of reduplication in the English language.

My latest knick-knack
Is a handy-dandy
Criss-cross
Walkie-talkie,
With Wi-Fi;
Better than snail-mail,
It creates a real hubbub
And gives me the harum-scarum
Heebie-jeebies;
But here goes, willy-nilly.

I’m an arty-farty
Culture vulture
I’m not hoity toity
Nor am I a toy-boy;
I love the pell-mell
Hurly-burly
And I don’t shilly-shally;
But I’m really so easy-peasy.
Okey-dokey?

So, let’s hob-nob
And chit-chat;
While the tick-tock
Turns topsy-turvy
And goes ding-dong
And ding-a-ling
We can talk clap-trap. 

Don’t be namby-pamby
Keep the bric-a-brac
Ship-shape
And we’ll have tip-top
Tittle-tattle;
No wishy-washy
Fiddle-faddle.

No ping-pong
No higgledy-piggledy
Ding-dongs,
No tom-toms
On the helter-skelter,
Just ship-shape
Pitter-patter
On the see-saw.

So Jeepers-creepers,
Let’s do the hokey-cokey,
The hip-hop
The hootchy-cootchy
and the boogie-woogie.

Let’s be goody-goody
And super-dooper;
Don’t dilly-dally
Let’s get lovey-dovey
And enjoy a little hanky-panky.

I’m not a nit-wit
Nor a bit ga-ga,
Well, maybe itsy-bitsy;
I do yada-yada
And  blah-blah,
But just a teeny-weeny bit.

Now cut the mumbo-jumbo
Get to the nitty-gritty.
When we pow-wow
With the fender-benders,
And have a happy-clappy
Sing-song
A razzmatazz
On the hurdy-gurdy
Wearing flip-flops;
What a mish-mash
And a hodge-podge,
But still mumbo-jumbo
And hocus-pocus.

I can Zig-zag
And razzle-dazzle
With the bee’s-knees
And in the hurly-burly
Cause double-trouble,
‘Cos I’m just an old fuddy-duddy.

So-so,
Night-night!
Bye-bye!
Ta-ta!
Must chop-chop!
I’m off to a chick-flick –
Called La-La Land,
To listen to more flim-flam.

 

 

The Borderlands of POETRY – 2

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PART THE SECOND

 

My Weeping Soul

 

I weep my truths in poetry
And from my unconscious mind
In the borderlands there
Where the finite
And the incomprehensible meet
My secrets are torn
Crying to be freed
To be revealed
In poured out singing words
Shed in images
Subtle revelatory pictures
My art telling of those wondrous places
Secreted within my core
Which
for good or ill
I never will
Access in any other way
Than through my weeping soul

 

 

 

 

 

Books Do Not Die . . .

{ A paean to Books }

 

Books, do not die,
You bring me such joy;
I’ve dwelt in your pages
Since I was a boy.

Books, do not die,
You are humble yet proud,
Bringing solace and hope,
The sun through the cloud.

Books, do not die.
Your warmth and your grace,
Your wisdom and charm,
I clutch and embrace.

Books, do not die,
You have smell, you have taste.
Your very presence
Will not go to waste.

Books, do not die,
Your existence delights
You see me through
Those long dark winter nights

Books do not die,
My dreams you renew;
You offer escape,
I can’t live without you.

Books, Do not die;
Do not burn, Or expire.
Life blood of words,
Procreate and inspire.

 

 

Impromptu

Calliope-The Muse Of Epic Poetry

The Creative Process

 

I sit here
Awaiting inspiration
Defeating anxiety
By not being anxious
Just as I defeat boredom
By acting oddly.
Poking my poised pen
Up my right nostril
Right side
– That’s my creative side –
Then
Humming ‘Ipsy Wipsy Spider’
To the tune of
‘Auld Lang Syne’.

Not that the procedure
Often produces a product
Concocts a concoction
Elicits the missing ending of
Kubla Khan
Finishes Schubert’s
Symphony No.8
Or Tolkien’s Tales Of Middle-earth

No. Definitely no!
Although
It has been known
To flick a switch
Ignite a spark
Connect two thoughts
To result in a third
of admirable content
Contenting Calliope,
Who, having prompted
My spirit of the moment,
Considers her job done
And promptly leaves.

Thus I return
To that stale and stagnant state
In which
I sit here
Awaiting further inspiration

That epiphany
That ever-absent
Eureka moment
In which
I compose my own
‘Paradise Regained’