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The Poetess
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Very sweet painting.
Not a self portrait I assume, rather a friend’s rendering.
All three worlds an audience of the heart.
Lasha. Really quick question. Is there a book that you can recommend where I can learn about poetry? One for a complete novice. Not one going over the various contributors, but one which teaches about form, style and language etc? It has always been a most quixotic reverie of mine to learn. X
Firebell, this is the book I recommend. That is, if you wish to learn the basic principles of prosody.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Ode-Less-Travelled-Unlocking/dp/0099509342/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345193114&sr=8-1
Don’t be deterred by the fact that Stephen Fry is a Jewish television personality. This book is an invaluable introduction to the writing of metrical verse. If teaches you the technicalities. I myself spent months reading and taking notes on it.
Needless to say, most poets writing today employ vers libre or free verse. Which is basically chopped-up prose. Any idiot can write free verse — and lots of idiots do!
Not that free verse is to be despised when written by the Great Masters. These were poets who had mastered the basics of formal verse and knew their prosody. They were masters of rhyme and meter and were extremely fussy about stresses and pauses, and sound effects, and the precise number of syllables that ought to be in each line. In other words, they knew that the best poetry is akin to music — and that poetry without musicality is pretty worthless. The best modern free verse is to be found in TS Eliot’s The Four Quartets. Unbeatable. Here we are on holy ground.
My own verse is heavily formal, making use of rhyme and meter. I therefore belong to an unfashionable minority. The style I write in used to be popular a hundred years ago, so it seems as if I’ve been born out of my time! I occasionally use free verse (“In Memoriam Matris”) and syllabics (“Under Cold Moons”), but mostly I stick to rhyme and meter because of my allegiance to musicality.
I hope you find the Stephen Fry book useful. Study it carefully. It’s not only entertainingly written, it’s an invaluable primer.
Thanks Lasha, I will get it from Amazon when I have finished my current book. I did Google Stephen Fry – he seems to be a mere yellow belt in the Jew rankings – rather than a sensei. Ha! – see what I did there? Many thanks I think I will have a good look at it sometime.
What do you think of the New York school of poetry? I came upon Frank O’Hara’s works whilst at college. Whilst I liked his flagrant and romantic language – I did not see how his works could be classed as poetry. What about musical lyrics – do they count as poetry? I have never found anything better that The Boss: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMB3M43AEpc
Are you a teacher by the way if you are able to say?
Yours
FIREBELLINTHENIGHT
Not to be rude but helpful, Firebell, I going to run real fast to offer the magnificence of the eternal Vedas wherefrom the most basic (for all us beginners) of any movement is poetry throughout.
Word on the street is it’s poetry and magic.
Goethe loves Kalidas!
GOOGLE: Goethe’s poem on Sakuntala
GOOGLE: Kalidas or Tulsidas.
The incomparable beauty of Sanskrit is on display for anyone nowadays, and as per Goethe and Schubert and others, some western replies are universally honored.
Thanks to Monjtecristo and Xanadu for the space and grace to peddle a little Sanatana Dharma. (;>)
Yes I meant Montecristo. Gracias.
I’ve smoked a Montecristo which was wonderful, but Ill bet my last euro isn’t nearly as good as smoking a rum crook with lobro.
We’ll see.
my contribution to science of poetry:
you need proper tools to start.
one of fat cohibas or ramon allones (it would take a fairly sizeable post to deal with these so we’ll skip it for now) and a bottle of havana club barrel proof.
and then, ahem, er, … truth to tell, never made it past the initial stage.
anyways, it would be a last euro well spent.
We’ll end up arm wrestling I imagine.
That ought to be fun!
and easier on head muscles
My master plan, lobro!
My master plan.
Homer, here’s a poem for you. I guess you know it already, but it’s worth reading again. Here lies the ancient mystical tradition of Mother India, as seen through Western eyes.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175138
I’ll be short and honest to say I subscribe to the Jimi Hendrix school of Vedanta.
“Just ask the Axis,
He knows everything.”
I always find in Jimi a friend and a gentleman.
Eureka!
“I am the doubter and the doubt…”
Hmmm … reminds me of a certain cigar-smoking gent…!
i doubt that you referred to me, the godless outcast from the blessed shores, weeping disconsolately onto his soaked stogie.
although it goes some way in clarifying why all the brahmins i met in india started singing as soon as they saw me
Not to worry lobro, what with me never having had an original thought (whew!) I gratefully defer..
“We do not begrudge an atheist, provided he has got some philosophy”
“Philosophy is simply this – Kindness to All Living Entities”
-Srila Prabhupada
His death in Benares
Won’t save the assassin
From certain hell,
Any more than a dip
In the Ganges will send
Frogs—or you—to paradise.
My home, says Kabir,
Is where there’s no day, no night,
And no holy book in sight
To squat on our lives.
just trying to impress ruth with after-puro fallout … ok, better fess up before she discovers the theft.
same poetry-on-wheels site that lasha pointed to.
by the way,
My home, says Kabir,
Is where there’s no day, no night,
And no holy book in sight
is a fitting plaque at entrance to abu kabir “hospital” where yarmulkaed butchers rip lucrative organs out of palestinian kids.
For everyone’s pleasure..
Vaishnava Prayers in English Poetry
http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/09-12/features2580.htm
Many thanks, Homer.
You’re very welcome, dear.
As per the photo accompanying the poem, it’s easy to see, feel, grok the brahmin’s transcendental position at Srila Prabhupada’s very sweet and dear feet..
Ceptin’ he’s way more than a brahmin.
He’s a very small devotee.
Isn’t this obvious?
A poem of dedication, written by the Mughal Emperor Akbar in honor of Lord Caitanya Mahaprabhu.
“Hail thee O Chaitanya — the victor of my heart,
Mark the rhythm of his mystic dance in lofty
ecstasy — quite alone.
Merrily sounds the tabor and the cymbal’s
note keeps time.
The joyous hand following him sing and
dance merrily — merrily;
He steps a pace or two onwards in his
dancing gait,
And knows no rest — intoxicated with his
own over-flowing joy.
Oh my heart’s Lord, how can I express the
love I have for thee?
Saha Akbar craves a drop from the sea of thy
piety and love.”
Song by Emperor Akbar
(Translated from Hindi)
Thanks for posting this, Homer. I confess I know very little about Chaintanya, but I find myself in sympathy with two of his basic ideas: (1) that religion should be centered on bhakti or devotion, and (2) that each individual soul (jiva) is a separated fragment of the Supreme Lord.
However, I find myself a bit confused about the nature of the “Supreme Lord”, being a somewhat intellectually challenged devotee…. Is the jiva a fragment of Brahman or Vishnu or Krishna? Or are all these the same thing or aspects of the same thing? Here I reveal my stupendous ignorance.
I am equally at sea with the the Christian “Trinity” and am a bit upset that there is no mention here of Magna Mater, the Great Mother. No concept of God, it seems to me, can be complete without mentioning the female aspect of God. The idea that God is beyond sexuality, or is epicene (sexless) or dual-sexed, is too much for my poor head.
Whew! here’s a pic to cheer you up and clear away the cobwebs … in case you need cobweb clearing!
CHAITANYA SANKIRTAN
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/01/Chaitanya_sankirtan.jpg/800px-Chaitanya_sankirtan.jpg
Thank you Xanadu, for being you.
Big mind, big faith, big heart.
All the ingredients for success.
I would add a #3 to your list.
No one is excluded. No one.
How might anyone be excluded?
Thank you for the cheer. Yes it did cheer me up.
Lord (Krishna) Chaitanya is in maroon.
Lord (Balarama) Nityananda Prabhu always in blue.
Srila Prabhupada..
This Srimad-Bhagavatam is like a sword in the hand. With it, intelligent men cut through the labyrinthine knot of karma. If you hear about Krsna, think about Him, meditate on Him and worship Him, you become perfect.
It is very simple.
Here is God; we give His name, address, phone number, everything. Simply qualify yourself to go there by thinking of Him. By thinking of Him you will become the greatest yogi, for Krsna is the goal of all mystic yoga—Yogesvara. You cannot serve Krsna with these blunt material senses. Krsna cannot be served with matter—only with spirit.
There are so many impediments to worshiping the demigods, but there is no impediment to worshiping Krsna. You simply have to offer Him love. In the material world people are always speaking about love, but there is no love in the material world. People are simply under the control of lust and are trying to satisfy their senses. But love is different.
Love is the satisfaction of Krsna’s senses.”
http://vedabase.net/bg/en
http://vedabase.net/sb/en
I also hope this is interesting to you, Xanadu, and not a nuisance.
Christians as Vaishnavas?
From the book “Dialectical Spiritualism” – Srila Prabhupada.
“Dialectical Spiritualism”
the early theists – “Origen”
http://www.windowsfromthesky.com/Guru/Pubs/DS/DS02_02.html
Devotee, Los Angeles, January 3, 1969:
Prabhupada, does Lord Jesus Christ appear in the spiritual sky with the body he manifested on the earth?
Prabhupada: Yes. Otherwise how there can be resurrection? Ordinary body cannot be resurrected. He appeared in his spiritual body, certainly. Jesus Christ told, if I remember, that “Lord, excuse these persons,” who were crucifying him. Is it not? He knew that “These rascals, they are killing me, but… They are offending certainly. So they do not know that I cannot be killed, but they are thinking that they are killing.” You see? But that was offensive, therefore he begged Lord to be excused because God cannot excuse to the offenders of the devotee. He can excuse one who is offender to God, but if somebody is offender to the devotee, God never excuses. Therefore he prayed for them. That is devotee’s qualification. He prays for everyone, even of his enemy. And he could not be killed. That he knew. But those rascals, they thought they were killing Jesus Christ.
That’s all. All right. If there is no question, chant Hare Krsna. (end)
Thanks, Homer. Of course it’s not a “nuisance”. Feel free to post whatever you want on this website, as on xymphora in the old days. We are open to all ideas and don’t insist that every comment should be “on topic”. Sometimes the irrelevant is more relevant than the relevant!
If by sometimes you mean around 95% of the time, give or take, then I agree.
Hardly anything IS relevant except the irrelevant.
That is, if once again we agree we believe that Krishnamurti quote.
You’re a sport, Xanadu. An admirable (and fun) quality!
For the pleasure of the devotees, and everyone.
“BHAGAVAD-GĪTĀ AS IT IS: The King of Education”
http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/news/12-12/news4616.htm
http://youtu.be/QPOVZZcq0qs
Thanks for these links. I’ll certainly check them out. I know for a fact that Lasha rates the Gita very highly. She recommended the Swami Prabhavananda/Christopher Isherwood translation to me.
http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Bhagavad_Gita.html?id=za3mi8MA2OIC
You’re welcome Berenice.
I’ll simply say there is a total difference in Srila Prabhupada’s Gita (As It Is) and the Isherwood translation.
The link to the Gita (As It Is) – http://vedabase.net/bg/en
“Bhagavad-gita is known in the West for the last 200 years and it was translated many times but only after Srila Prabhupada presented it in its pure form, many people became Krishna’s devotees.”
Srila Prabhupada’s is in the direct disciplic succession of the Brahma-Madhva-sampradaya.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=brahma-madhva-sampradaya&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&ved=0CEAQFjAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bhagavad-gita.org%2FDiscipleSuccession%2F&ei=IjDbUPH4OOyx0AHrsIH4Ag&usg=AFQjCNGDOQ3OQxodtTDXMNiHG9nvDuG8jg&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.dmQ
http://www.bhagavad-gita.org/DiscipleSuccession/
India’s Divine Personalities, Printed in Germany
Krishna Puja
German Lithograph, c. 1930
http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/01-13/litho2a.jpg
Jesus is God’s pure devotee. He said so himself. Period.
“Glorifying the Lord and glorifying the Lord’s pure devotee are one and the same. Or rather, glorifying the devotee is more important than glorifying he Lord directly.”
(Srimad Bhagavatam 10.1.69)
Whoops, sorry..
@Darkmoon – “The style I write in used to be popular a hundred years ago, so it seems as if I’ve been born out of my time!”
Humm… Interesting! Let’s see. Pencil, paper, and my Abacus. Lil’ girl is 33. Born in (Abacus), 1980. Under ‘normal’ circumstances (?), she was born prior (average) in (Abacus)… 1836. Even then, women were more mature and restrained than today, and quite possibly got an education (yes, another) into her… humm!… thirties! Coincidence, or Conspiracy?…
Therefore, some 30 years after birth (Abacus), 1866-1870, a young poetess was flexing pen and confusing some un-poetic readers (like today?) with her “hundred years ago” style… Which, because of the non-proliferation of garbage material like in kosher Media today, such poetic style could well last until, say, 1913… When disaster hit the U.S., and then the entire world was made to collapse.
And since this lil’ girl is not an ordinary lil’ girl, by today’s wacky ‘standards’, it is quite possible, under the Law, that she, subconsciously, picked up where she left before… Though stepping on maggots as a side kick.
Therefore (again), no, not “born out of [her] time”; the poetess of past times was simply reborn, by the Law, and continued “out of [her] time”, because “her time” was destroyed by maggots she gladly steps on today. Sweet revenge?
However, only the soul-personality itself can discover what its past was. Or, under a proper controlled setting. Else, it’s speculation. But based on the Law.
Peace.