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IV. Beginner's Corner -- Bill Blohm
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First of all, thanks to all the poets who submitted haiku and rework
for the first iteration of Beginner's Corner. I've one new submission
to Beginner's Corner to present to the readers. This came between
issues, and I had some comments on the original haiku. From Peter
Corless (pcorless@cisco.com) came the following entry for the deer
scene. To the left is the original, to the right is a revised one.
Hiked-out sweaty mess.
Shade, cool falls, (stale lunch)... Then look!
Drinking fawn bounds off.
Hiked-out sweaty mess,
shade, cool falls, stale lunch... Now look!
Drinking fawn bounds off
Most comments from me dealt with the parenthesis not contributing
anything and the difference between the dramatic flow with "Then"
vs "Now" in the middle line. There were also some comments on
the use of capitalization and punctuation similar to what was in
the last issue. A good start and a good re-submit.
Here, then, is the next round of excersise for all who wish to
participate. Yes, if you contributed before to this corner,
you may still contribute. Although it does say Beginner in the
title, it's open to all who want help or simply wish to
participate.
In the last issue it was clear how different writers saw the same
scene differently. That points out one thing that I think we all
know, instinctively: that what is important in a scene to one
poet is not necessarily going to be as vital to another. Our
backgrounds and experiences come into play in selecting what we
perceive as the important parts of a scene. And this makes for
the wide range of great poetry we have available to us to read.
As usual, the assignment is to write a haiku using a basic scene
specified by me. The rules and scene are:
Rules:
strict 5-7-5 format is to be followed
fundamental haiku rules must be followed, except that
you do not have to have been there yourself
any details filled in must be valid for setting
Scene:
You are sitting at the beach watching the sun go down
One note: I have not specified any particular season, any more
than I did last time. In the one about the deer, the impression
I got was that most all the authors had no particular season, but
it was the warm part of the year. It will be interesting to see
if any seasonal aspect shows up in this excersise.
Again, send your work for this particular excersise directly to
me at bblohm@hpbs1686.boi.hp.com and indicate in the subject line
or the body of the message that what your sending is for Dogwood
Blossoms issue 2.1 Beginner's Corner.
If you have any questions about the fundamental rules, e-mail me
and I'll be happy to help you out.
Have at it!
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