v e r l i e b u r r o u g h s

C  hurning out poetry A marathon month of R aw drafts  D oggerel at best I  ncreasing  verbosity/velocity— suddenly G rinding to a halt A pril is the sweetest month N  otwithstanding all of the above. write a poem that uses a word from a Taylor Swift song as its title.

 A bold blue jay perches waiting at my window at feeding time. He gets so excited, and calls to his jay friends  and they arrive— Stayed quiet, he could have had all the peanuts. Now he has to share! try your hand at writing a sijo. This is a traditional Korean verse form. A sijo has three lines of 14-16 syllables. The first line introduces the poem’s theme, the second discusses it, and the third line, which is divided into two sentences or clauses, ends the poem – usually with some kind of twist or surprise. A sijo is not iambic pentameter, it is longer. Sijo has more syllables, fourteen to sixteen to be exact— I like the constrained sijo style. It is a welcome change of pace.

 My American Sonnet Has a bluegrass, blues, and country ballad vibe and a train whistle from far off  and a rambling man playing guitar in a box car and it’s lonesome (it’s a rainy night in Georgia) a deep baritone voice and a saxophone solo  it feels like it’s raining all over the world  He’s thinking maybe head out west  Maybe there’s still time for adventure  always wanted to walk the great divide See the desert, watch the stars at night  If he gets set up before winter, if things are going good  Maybe she’ll meet him if he sends her down the fare Drifting off to sleep on the box car floor dreaming  to the sad refrain of a rainy night in Georgia. write an “American sonnet.” What’s that? Well, it’s like a regular sonnet but . . . fewer rules? Like a traditional Spencerian or Shakespearean sonnet, an American sonnet is shortish (generally 14 lines, but not necessarily!), discursive, and tends to end with a bang, but there’s no need to have a rhyme scheme or even a specific meter.

 The light lasting longer now  on these spring sprung days— lingering drowsy birds warble  their sweet songs long into evening. write a poem that involves alliteration, consonance, and assonance. Alliteration is the repetition of a particular consonant sound at the beginning of multiple words. Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds elsewhere in multiple words, and assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds.

 They found her in repose underneath the rose Eating chocolate trifle layer cake and smoking cigarettes  (The one thing she said she had the most regrets) A book upon her chest, Margaret Atwood’s best Muttering away ok ok ok it’s ok everything’s going to be ok There was nothing more to say She was exhausted by the war and all the people  she deplored, narcissists, and self-made bores First responders could not revive her But she looked peaceful there, in her garden by the sea (Although having answered some questions truthfully  on Proust’s test, she had lied about the rest). Proust’s Questionnaire write a poem based on the “Proust Questionnaire,” a set of questions drawn from Victorian-era parlor games, and adapted by modern interviewers. The Interview  What is your idea of perfect happiness? To have good friends a home and surrounded by nature  What is your greatest fear? War What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? Laziness  What is the trait you most deplore in others? Narci