Iambic pentameter

It has been two days since the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare, and although I made mention of him on my St George’s Day post, I didn’t have time to really call out the significance of the great bard.

This is my slightly belated homage to the man, master of the iambic pentameter:

160425-Shakespeare — The Chandos Portrait (unconfirmed authenticity)

~ Iambic pentameter ~

For the great bard it seemed so effortless;

To lay down one line after another

But for those of us lacking his clarity

It is really quite a difficult chore

For the form is not governed by syllables

As each line is more driven through rhythm

Of an emphasis followed by quietness.

In five forms of da-dum, da-dum, da-dum

It’s the iamb, or “foot”, that achieves this

Breathing life into the words on each line

And affords every reader some structure

to make sentences, to flow with much ease

But now, this description is concluding

There remains but one question unanswered

For the audience to ponder themselves

Is this an iambic pentameter?

~Richard

(with apologies to the Bard)

April 25, 2016 0

ABACAB, the genesis of a verse

~ ABACAB ~

Rhymes are often hard to see,

and may even cause self doubt.

They’re sometimes in couplets of three,

but it’s not always an obvious pattern.

And sometimes (not here) there’s no key

so the reader has to figure it out.

😉

~Richard

April 24, 2016 0

St George’s Day, and the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death

I note that today is St George’s Day (the Patron Saint of England) and also the 400th anniversary of the death of arguably the most significant writer in the English language, William Shakespeare. It was the great bard who penned the famous cry to this saint in the Battle of Agincourt speech in his play Henry V: “Follow your spirit, and upon this charge Cry ‘God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'”

St. George was a Roman soldier who was killed for not recanting his Christian faith. Somewhere along this line a myth grew up around him that he killed a dragon and this is how we generally know him in the UK, and how he is almost exclusively portrayed.

Now, fast forward to 2016 and where many jingoistic groups have relatively recently sprung up in the UK, to support those smouldering hate-filled organizations who have been around since the early 20th century, and all of whom hide behind a falsehood of National Pride. These groups often associate themselves with the St. George Cross and use terms such as Keep Britain British and other meaningless rhetoric.

How ironic that a Christian Roman soldier, with no known association to England should be used to support the vitriolic hate speech and scare mongering that has been spread throughout the nation regarding immigration and has, to a large extent, driven the country to consider leaving the European Union based on such rhetoric rather than simple facts.

I wonder what the bard would have made of this?

160423_StGeorgesDay — St. George by Raphael

~Richard

April 23, 2016 2

Friday Philosophy?

According to my loosely followed schedule today I am due to post a “philosophical” thought or two on this blog. But where to start? Given the unexpected death of yet another celebrity musician/artist yesterday, with the untimely demise of Prince, I could perhaps ramble on about how we are losing so many celebrities this year, but I already did that a few months ago (which perhaps proves a point?!). Instead, I will witter on for a short while about Earth Day, for that is today’s designation.

According to the Earth Day Network the concept of Earth Day emerged from a growing awareness of humanity’s impact on the world through Rachel Carson’s seminal work, “Silent Spring,” in conjunction with the hippy movement that channeled a more introspective viewpoint on the world. This was a fairly slow grass-roots (pardon the pun) movement which became much more active following a particularly bad oil spill off the coast of Santa Barbara, California in 1969 that fueled (I promise that’s the last pun) Sen. Gaylord Nelson to found an environmental movement in 1970, that is still going strong.

I will admit, that I am not generally a great fan of these “(Inter)national days” that seem to be thrust on us from all sides almost every day, and have been largely denigrated by crap like “national chocolate covered cashews day”, “national get to know your customers day” (both yesterday) or “national jellybean day” (today) and “national hanging out day” (tomorrow). Yes, really! However, I do think that Earth Day is special.

Although we should always be cognizant of our environment, and the impact we make on it; whether it be the human environment, natural environment and, yes, even the office environment; how often do we really do this? Personally, I do make the effort to turn off lights (sometimes), re-use and recycle (when I remember), walk instead of drive (when I can be bothered), but I still waste a heck of a lot of resources in my daily life. In fact, more than many people on this spherical rock even start out their day with.

So, perhaps having one day set aside to actually focus on something as important as the planet upon which we live is not a bad thing. Today I will try my fallible best to do something, however small, “for Mother Nature” and I hope you will too.

By way of celebrating the day I also offer up the Flag of Earth, created by Illinois farmer, James Cadle, in the wake of the moon landing and unveiled the same year that Earth Day was started. It was designed to represent us all as passengers aboard the earth as a spaceship.

What a fitting way to consider our relationship with our home planet!

~Richard

April 22, 2016 0

Catching Sunbeams

The old man worked his way methodically through the meadow, his long cloak brushing through the tall summer grasses. It was almost dusk and he still had a lot of work to do before the Solstice was over. On this, the longest day, he had been up before dawn setting out his traps along the ley line than from the ancient gnarled oak and down the hill towards the brook. It was a pattern he had repeated twice each year for longer than he could remember. It had been well over a hundred and fifty times by his reckoning. Although the summer had always been easier than the winter, these last few years were really taking their toll on him. His joints ached but he would soon be finished. He recalled how, all those years ago, as a young boy, he had bounded through the fields, full of enthusiasm as he had learned his trade from his predecessor. How he had been scolded and told to slow down and feel the rods to make sure they were placed perfectly and had done their deed.

He had thought the tradition would continue forever, and be passed down for generations to come, but he was wrong. First, the Great War had taken so many from the village and then the revolution that brought technology had relegated so many of the old ways to mere folklore. He was truly amazed at the speed of the change. He had no apprentice, and over the last few years he had resigned himself to being the last Collector.

As he reached the final rod he carefully unfastened the iron jar from his belt, traced his forefinger over the runes on the lid and removed it. With a clockwise twisting motion he extracted the iron rod from the ground and gently tilted the hoop over the mouth of the jar with practiced, steady hands. He muttered his short incantation and gently tapped the hoop, watching as the sunbeams slowly, almost reluctantly, drifted into the jar. Replacing the lid, he added the final rod to the quiver on his back and turned to watch the sunset.

This had been another good harvest.

~ Richard

© 2016, Richard Reeve

April 21, 2016 0

Haiku: The Block

~ The Block ~

Fresh hewn square of wood

With clean unadorned surface

How do I start this?

~Richard

April 20, 2016 0

52 week challenge: week 16

WEEK 16: Portrait: Movement – Most portraits are stationary, so this week explore adding some movement. Dancing, twirling, or even hair flips.

Lots of choices this week – skateboarding, bicycling, etc. In the end I went for more localized movement – portrait of a drummer jamming in the basement…

160419_BasementDrummer

~Richard

April 19, 2016 0

Surface Thoughts

160417_SurfaceThoughts

More fleeting than white horses

that rush in the foam,

these sparkling diamonds

dance lightly on wavelets;

a brief but dazzling reflection

of our home star,

their fluttering white brightness

skates untroubled across rippling surface,

paths shaped by ephemeral winds.

Like transient thoughts

they twinkle

when exposed.

No two moments the same.

~Richard

April 17, 2016 0

Spring has finally sprung… the tulips are here

It has been a month since we “sprung forward” with the annual clock moving, and we have since had some odd weather in Pennsylvania, fluctuating between a nice 70°F (21°C) all the way down to 21°F (-6°C) depending on the day. We even had one full day of snow last weekend!

All very frustrating, but all part of the change of Seasons.

Well, today was finally nice enough for me to get outside into the garden and start work tidying things up, cutting the lawn, building up the veggie plots and generally appreciating the outdoors life. And what’s more, over the last few days the tulips have finally come into bloom.

Happy Spring!

~Richard

April 16, 2016 0

I’ll have a P please, Bob

Any British followers may know that today’s post title refers to a long running quiz show, Blockbusters, that was hosted by the late Bob Holness, the veteran radio and TV presenter and erstwhile James Bond (at least on radio). During the show contestants would have to pick their way across a lighted board by choosing letters and it became almost a rite of passage to use a variant of the phrase “I’d like a P please, Bob”, in order to elicit a giggle from the young audience through the use of the great British double entendre.

Anyhow, for totally unrelated reasons, and more for the use of corny alliteration, my blog description centers around words beginning with the letter p, and yesterday I added another one –Pottery!

In my continuing quest to seek out new activities, expand my skills and broaden my mind’s artistic capabilities I have started a pottery course at Chester County Arts Association. I think it has been over 4 decades since I played around with clay and last night was great fun. We were given a basic introduction to different art pieces and “practical” pieces being made in clay and I proceeded to make a couple of hand made pots and a few stamps for use in the future. Then the highlight of the evening – I was shown how to use the potter’s wheel.

Again, for those British readers, “The potter’s wheel” was an oft shown piece of film in the bygone days when the TV was not being broadcast 24/7/365. This black and white short film used to be shown on the BBC during the program “interludes” from February 1953 and throughout the 60’s and showed the work of Georges Aubertin. Although it predates my TV viewing by a decade or so this iconic short was occasionally shown during the 1970s and it stuck in the back of my mind.

So, with the visions of great pots and bowls being made I embarked on my training from my instructor, Meghan, and following an initial failure, I was pleased to have produced this as my first ever pot from a wheel!

160415_Pottery

The strange thing is that, basic as this is, I felt so pleased at having been able to do this – almost like a young schoolchild again, coming home with a barely functional pinch-pot ashtray that I had made and glazed all those years ago. I think I am really going to enjoy the next few weeks of pottering about in pottery!

~Richard

April 15, 2016 1

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Author: ReevePhotos

Iambic pentameter