A NEW BOOK!

This is not a book of mine, but one that I helped get published. I have a friend, Lawrence Seeger, who is almost 82 and is very literate. He reads all the time, does some writing of his own, lots of genealogy and, after I had introduced him to the rictameter form of poetry, began writing several rictameter poems each week.

A rictameter consists of nine lines of poetry with no rhyme required. The poem starts with two syllables for the first line and increases two syllables per line until line five has ten syllables. The lines then decrease by two syllables a line until the final line has two syllables. The first line and the last line are identical.

An example of one of his poems is:

Poems
Are fun to write
They just pop in my mind
They're like popcorn in a popper
They fill up the pan and then flow over
The words are like kernels of corn
I love making poems
They're really great
Poems!

After I had accumulated about 50 poems in my e-mail in-box, I suggested that we organize the poems into a booklet, add some pictures and self-publish the book through Lulu.com in time for Christmas gift giving. Lawrence was excited about the task and together we assembled an exciting book for his family for Christmas.

Lawrence and his best friend, Laurie!

If you are interested in ordering the book, it is listed at Lulu.com, and it is listed as "Lawrence's Rictameters." Congratulations, Lawrence!!

POETRY

Barbara at The Serenity Room is giving away an interesting book, "The Poet's Companion" on March 1st. It is a guide to writing poetry and even contains writing exercises. Poetry is one form of writing that I have shied away from and perhaps that book might help me write poetry more often. Anyway, check out Barbara's Give Away and good luck!

AN INTERESTING BOOK!

Last week I received a delightful book, Elder Expectations: My Life in Rictameters, by Marlys Marshall Styne in the mail. Rictameters are unrhymed, nine-line poems with a regular pattern of two, four, six, eight, ten, eight, six, four and two syllables. The first and last lines must be the same.

I was first exposed to Marlys' poems on her blog last March when she decided to do one rictameter a day for the full month and I became hooked on the poetry form. I have never really cared much for writing any type of poetry but I began writing my own rictameters and encouraging my writing groups to do the same. It is fun and a bit of a challenge for the ole brain to write a rictameter!

Another intriguing thing about Marlys' book was that she self-published her poems through lulu.com. The poems were written in March and the book was in my hands in July. Amazing! Marlys says "As for self-publishing (Print on Demand), I'm a great believer in it. Traditional publishing is about making money, and my books don't have the sales potential to attract a publisher's financial interest. Besides, I'm too old and impatient to seek agents and publishers and wait years for a book to come out. I didn't even try that route. I guess I'm the ultimate do-it-yourself person and I enjoy doing the book layout myself. Self-published books have had a poor reputation in the past, thanks to the old "vanity publishers," but things are gradually changing."

Thanks, Marlys, for encouraging me to self-publish a book of my own stories, and also for the gift of your rictameter poetry!

Here is my own poem:

Thank you,

Marlys, for the

gift of your poetry

that you have shared with us via

your lovely rictameters in your book,

Elder Expectations, and your

blog, where I first saw them,

then tried my own.

Thank you!

They are tricky, but they are fun to work with!

By the way, you can buy the book on Amazon.com.