POETRY; THE STRUCTURE BEHIND THE WORDS #by Anthony Abten

 POETRY
Intro,

That a poem is to be read for its "message,"

That this message is "hidden" in the poem,

The message is to be found by treating the words as symbols which
naturally do not mean what they say but stand for something else,
You have to decipher every single word to appreciate and enjoy the poem.
 Poetry is the art of streamlining words to convey a hidden message to
the audience.
This "art" Is made of several patterns, structure, styles, rules, guidelines etc
An important method of analyzing a poem is to look at the ' stanza
structure or style ' of a poem.

Generally speaking, Structure has to do with the overall organization
of lines and/or the conventional patterns of sound.

Again, many modern poems may not have any identifiable structure i.e.
they use mostly free verse.
 When writing a poem, you consider,
1: Message
2. Style
3. Structure
4. Punctuation marks
 You got your message
E.g "nature "

Your "style " is next

 STYLE / FORM :

A poem may or may not have a specific number of lines, rhyme scheme
and/or metrical pattern, but it can still be labeled according to its
form or style.

Here are the three most common types of poems according to form:
Lyric poem
Narrative poem
Descriptive poem

Lyric poem conveys strong emotions and feelings in a poem.

Narrative poem tells a story, more like prose but the style distinguish it.

Descriptive poem explains the world or anything,  giving vivid facts
about such entity. The first style  ask
"what emotion do you want to reveal towards nature ( note, nature
here, is an example)  is it good or bad.
The second style ask
"what event did nature affect, be it rain, sun,  hazard, etc"

 The third style ask
"what is there in nature, you want to talk about, plants,  animal life etc.
After choosing such,  we move to the structuring,

The stanzas
The sound patterns
The metre and rhyme

 STANZAS:

 Stanzas are a series of lines grouped together and separated by an
empty line from other stanzas. They are the equivalent of a paragraph
in an essay. One way to identify a stanza is to count the number of
lines.

 Thus:
couplet (2 lines)
tercet (3 lines)
quatrain (4 lines)
cinquain (5 lines)
sestet (6 lines) (sometimes it's called a sexain)
septet (7 lines)
octave (8 lines). But some of these stanza may have its own rhythm
rule,  like the cinquain.

SOUND PATTERNS:

Three other elements of poetry are rhyme scheme, meter (i.e. regular
rhythm) and word sounds (like alliteration). These are sometimes
collectively called "sound play" because they take advantage of the
performative, spoken nature of poetry (like spoken word poetry) and
more rhyme (page poetry) .

RHYME:

Rhyme is the repetition of similar sounds. In poetry, the most common
kind of rhyme is the
end rhyme , which occurs at the end of two or more lines.

 Example of end rhyme

Forlorn fleas flee in "fray,"
Flutter in circles of "glee,"
No pressure for the riding "gray:"
Nor the tales of a soldier "bee."
The rhyme scheme is " abab"

Meter:

The systematic regularity in rhythm; this
systematic rhythm (or sound pattern) is usually identified by
examining the type of "foot" and the
number of feet.

A foot is traditionally the number of syllable per line stressed and unstressed

A foot is
 "Nor the tales of a soldier bee"
Feet are
"No pressure for the riding gray:
Nor the tales of a soldier bee."

Syllabic count
/Nor/ /the/ /tales/ /of / /a/ /sold/ /ier/ /bee/  8 syllable.

Blank Verse: Any poetry that does have a set metrical pattern (usually
iambic pentameter) , but
does not have rhyme , is blank verse.
 Free verse, frankly, has no rules about meter or rhyme whatsoever!
[In other words, blank verse has rhythm, but no rhyme, while free
verse has neither rhythm nor rhyme.
African poets love free verse because its simple, easy, quick, not stressful.

Structure to words.
I, learned of the ways of Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, Robert
frost, William Blake etc,  have been drilled to understand that,
The structure you use can make and destroy your work.
If you see the rules as blocks,  you won't succeed.

First,  get your message into the words,
Then shape the words into the structure.
Style has to do with the design of the structure,
Like the design on a book or dress.
Style,  is what gives the poem edge.
We have different types of style Like,
Sonnet,
Ballad,
Ode,
Villanelle
Elegy etc.

©Copyright

CITADEL OF LIFE LECTURE #By Kolawole Taiye Paul #Hosted by Sunsampaul

I'm Kolawole Taiye Paul, a publish poet and student of English and
Literary study at Kogi state University Anyiagba, Kogi State. I'm also
the assistant co-ordinator of Ghetto City Of Poetry. Today I'll be
discussing the topic:
 Reconstrustion of our minds for a liberating ART:The kind of writing
that facilitates 'change.'

 For the sake of 'proper understanding,' the following 'key' terms are
defined by oxford advanced dictionary(8th edition)

Reconstruction:
The activity of building again something that has been damaged or
destroyed: the  reconstruction of the  of the sea walls

Mind:
Your ability to think and reason;your intelligence;the particular way
that somebody thinks

Liberate:
To free somebody from something that restricts their enjoyment of
life: writing poetry librated her from the routine of everyday life.
However,it should be taken note of that we used the continuous form of
the verb,'liberating.'

ART:
Visual art, music,theatre,literature,etc when you think of them you think of ART

Change:
To become different.
It should be strongly noted that the change being referred to is not
the 'Nigerian political change being clamoured.'It goes beyond that.
We meant 'different' in everything. Finally
,if you are very
  observant,you should know that we have only used the definitions
that suit the purpose of this lecture.
Let's keep the ball rolling....Welcome everyone.

 There is no doubt that African literature began with literature of
lamentations, at least written African literature. This was due to the
struggle of Africans during colonization and even apartheid in south
African. There was proliferation of Creative arts that was/is full of
lamentations for the sake of libration from the shackles of
oppression.

This cuts through the three genres. Poetry, Prose, and drama. We do
not blame the writers of these kind of writings as at that time
because the occasion demands it. For example such works of
lamentations and protest includes the works of the great chinua
Achebe,Wole Soyinka,Athol fugard,okot p'bitek to mention a few.

There is no doubt that this kinds of literature provided the platform
for social criticism, as the author tries to portray the real society
in his/her works. Mind you,the work of a writer is not to be a social
critic. His/her job is first to write. Whatever genre suits his or her
ability. Having established this fact, Africa, although free from
colonialism still suffers from imperialism,modern slavery and
ultimately bad governance and poverty. The effect of bad governance is
evident almost in all the African states today. Thereby increasing the
numbers of social critics including we creative writers. Some African
writers seldom write anything without lamenting one plight or another
in Africa. The question is. Is this the primary job of a writer?

Yes there are theories that back this up, especially the fact that
writers are considered as prophets in the society. They make realities
come alive on papers. Now, must we continue to be prophets of doom
even though situation warrants it? In lamenting, contemporary writers
have continue to dance to the tune of early writers-lamentations. This
has in no way Change situations in Africa, they only make things
worse. Most writers just paint the fact that the uglies reside only in
Africa. Now there is a kind of art that should librate us at this
stage.

Writers in Africa have done less in projecting Africa as a great
continent,so are the theories they engage in writing their works. I
can boldly say that the theory that celebrate Africa and Africans is
the negritude theory. Other theories have been used only to relegate
Africa as a continent and the great black people in it. A kind of
writing should librate us, it was what i called a librating art. It
facilitates change. Especially change in the manner the international
community looks at Africa.

 Africa is not the worst continent in the world, writers of whatever
kind should work in portraying the positivities in Africa.You may be
as hort story writer, a poet,a novelist, a dramatist, or even a visual
artist.

 Your 'mode of representation' should favour Africa and portray it as
a blessed continent even in the midst of turmoil. For how long shall
we continue to lament? Do more works on the beauty of Africa as a
continent, there are only few who does this. There is a way it
liberates the people in the society, at least there minds.

A colleague in school had said that the African child is made to sing
always,'London bridge is falling down. 'There are so many bridges in
Lagos,it can fall down too. We need to produce more arts that
celebrates the values of Africa as a continent,if not our work of
lamentations will keep relegating and projecting Africa to the outside
world as a continent full of calamities. The northern region of my
country suffers from insurgency...It was okay for writers to write
about this,but many has turned it to a song they sing everyday with
their artworks. I am not against  using that as a raw material...but
don't turn it to something else. Other countries in the world suffer
from insurgency too. All we have been praying for ,is that peace
should reign in Africa and that Africans live in peace. I am not
saying that African writers should not portray the situation as it
is,but we already have too much of such literatures.

Let's start writing more works that celebrate Africa. This may be
difficult because Africa still passes through a lot of  social
problems,  Terrorism, Bad governance, Nepotism, Tribalism, and more.
No doubt,but your works as well should uplift the image of Africa.

As we draw the curtain. I would like to first be an example
 A 'preacher' lives by example...And that's why i love the fact that
someone called me a preacher earlier...
So I'll share one of my poems. It was written sometime this year

PLAY THE DRUM

Play the drum drummer

With arm, hand and stick

With stick,hand and arm play the drum.

The hide has been sunned for you

Straightened for those energetic hands

For with one you cuddle And with the other you hit

To produce heat-ehn ooo gbedu

You make sweat a thing so sweet Play the drum drummer

With arm,hand and stick

With stick,hand and arm play the drum



Our kembe await the vigour of the evening breeze

This abeti aja must fly its ears to your sounds

For you hit to produce sound so sweet And it is sweetness to hear this sound

Sailing across the sahara beneath our feet Play the drum drummer

With arm,hand and stick

With stick,hand and arm play the drum

For our breasts need to break the wind-

So silent to the cry of our ileke.



Let us lift our aso oke in array of colours To compliment the cry of the hide.

Let our waists bounce in response

To your play placating the peace

Of the evening breeze Play the drum


Hit the drum

Tighten your grip

Shake the drum

Roll the drum

Jerk it up And bring it down

Remove beneath your arm's care

To your thigh's care

Beat it with hand and stick Play the drum drummer

With stick,hand and arm

With arm,hand and stick play the drum

Turn round and round ayan...



Ayan..., round and round in turns. It pays to play the pain out

Exert pressure on the hide

Soften your grip

Drag the tip of that bent stick

On the field of that drum.



We see your sweat

Tracking ours on the wing of sound

Our feet paint the flour

But no more dust. Stop the drum drummer

Without hand and stick

But in your arm

The sound flees,

Our feet freeze

As we return to normal.
(c)2015.

®All rights reserved
©Copyright
29-12-15
10:50pm

CITADEL OF LIFE LECTURE TOPIC: WRITE FROM YOUR HEART by Alex Osagie.

Peace be upon you all, I'm Alex Osagie, a poet, counsellor and a prolific writer, I'm grateful to be here. Happy new year everyone. Today we shall discuss on a topic 'write from your heart'. As I begin to share tonight permit me to first share something that came from my heart earlier in the day. I do regular Brain Storming session and below is today's own.

BS Session "GET SENSE"

Officially all the euphoria of festivity is giving way to reality. Work begins, Life grinds. I am a great believer of prophecy and declaration but it won't pay the bills if you don't get do what you must and will. See if you like keep drinking or bathing in anointing oil, it won't cure ignorance remember people perish not for bad government or economy but lack of knowledge (get sense). Bros/ Sis get sense, to end your predicament and nonsense. Why must you get sense:

1) To whom brain is bestowed, sense must be disposed and exposed. The calendar is counting, what is your agenda amounting

2) Singing my helper daily without strategic positioning, that's confirmed recipe for suffer. Help comes when you are helping yourself

3) Packaging cannot hide ignorance for long, its like wearing a dirty socks, once you take off the shoe, you bring climate change. Get knowledge package, stop empty package.

Get sense, stop the nonsense in ignorance. The god's are not to be blamed but yourself. If you can't invest in yourself, who will? #R4HL

Get sense, get a coach. Stop living in delusion, that you don't need one. People MAY never attain their full potential until they ARE coached. #W3

Prov 13:20 Ever wondered why it is said common sense isn't common, because only few people truly and genuinely get sense. #R4HL

Euphoria of festivity is giving way to reality. If you passionately desire to get sense/ coach let's talk on BBM 25E8C472.

Now for me that came from my heart, note that isn't a spoken word or poetry but I wrote from my heart. I will be sharing from my heart. We are all in one form of writing or another. Whatever we write must have a message. And all true message come from the heart and not the head, people know when it gets to their heart and if you speak from the heart you will know too.

Now have anyone ever finished performing and you felt like you have been drained and deflated. And have anyone finished performing and the crowd applauded and you know within you didn't do anything. Now I shared those two instances to show us something. Preparation and REHEARSALs are very key but we must always speak / write from the heart. Some of the ideas are:

Idea 1: Write about pain.
We are in the emotion business hence we must have a very high emotional intelligence, do you know people will always connect to you when you speak/ write about pain. Why? In one way or another if we are brutally honest, we all have gone through or are currently going through one pain or another. For example, some are going through the pain of traffic if you live in Lagos. Student have the pain when data is left with 10mb,  job seekers have the pain of no jobs, there is pain everywhere until we get to heaven, as long as we are on earth we won't run out of pain. In fact not having a pain is a pain, whether you live in Nigeria or in Spain.

Idea 2: write simple.
Yeah I know many would want my head on a plate for this but simplicity is the new sophistication, how many people here have listened to Adele's "Hello". One word for that song is.? What's the one word that best describe the song? The song to me is simple yet with a strong message, which leads me to the third idea

Idea 3: what's the message.
I know you like shakitibobo but please can someone tell me the message In the song. Someone tell me the message in Darey Alade "pray for me" Now you see how does this relate to writer and spoken worders.

Idea 4: Minister.
You see many of us think what we do is a show but truth is it is not, we are as powerful as music ministers and pastors. We can share pieces that can open blind eyes, unlock deaf ears, cripple walking, sickness healed. Those Five minutes or less is enough to get someone's heart stirred for the supernatural. Words are potent, even God is nothing without His words. Speaking of God, am not trying to sound religious it's like saying water should have a color (#deep).

Idea 5: Stay in His presence.
Fela Durutoye would always say his is not a speaker but just a loud speaker. Now if we truly follow this idea and write a piece, for years that piece will be ever green. Now I know many are wondering this is what we know naah, what's new here? Do you know your phone your are holding can do much more than ping and whatsapp?

Life is already too complicated thanks to man, we shouldn't join to complicate it even more with our word. You have heard people's piece that it's only the punchline at the end before he drops the mic you can remember or if it was a piece that had chorus chant, it's only the chant you can remember.

Human attention span is getting short by the day even MI is constant, so when you have it use it with precision. Hit the nail (or mase) on the head with your message delivered. I see you guys can't wait to have the stage. Everyone will have his/her opportunity to shine, prepare and wait your time will come. Now here is something I just penned down.

Her life was a story, Alive in heaven but living in hell, Tragedy to much to mention, Not even the cardinal could tell, Losing her innocence, In the firm brutal arms of uncle innocent, Who to mum and dad was a saint, But the scent of shirt stayed long with her as it mixed with her sweat as she fought her battle futile If that was the first, it would have been a mistake, But he continued like those people who devour national cake, none would believe her even if she try to tell, alive in heaven but living in hell, you can easily spot all 5 ideas. Did the write up minister to you?

If you were on stage how would you share this piece? To minister it to people (cool calm sober tone and the words will pierce like a knife). Like I will tell friends, inspite of the inflation and naira fall to dollar, the wages of sin is still death
So inspite of what you become in the industry, these are my basics I have shared with you tonight and please don't take it hook line and sinker, so guys the basis are the the basic. So we can take feedback now...

Now I must say this, never let money make you lose focus of your true calling, and always listen to your heart (the still small voice). Even though you scratch the card, always remember who gets the credit (GOD). I'll take questions now.

QUESTIONS:
Philosopher(Nigerian): What should I do if I'm writing from my heart and the crowd seems not to find pleasure in my books or write up..coz I've no fan?

Alex Osagie: Keep writing from your heart, your message is not for the fan but for the one. Just as Christ was sent to the lost sheep, you are writing for that lost one. Have you ever performed and you felt you messed up completely and one person, just one person comes to you at the end and said you spoke to me. Don't go for the fan, go for the one.- Osagie Alex

Ify(Nigerian): I love writing especially about love,I feel d words in my heart,it in my head but I don't know how to bring it out or put it together

Alex Osagie: Do you have a voice recorder on your phone? When the words come again, just record it and then later you can write and edit it out.

Karen(Kenyan): You've said we should write from our hearts, I agree,but then sometimes the heart can be deceiving,why can't we write from our heads,you know more room to thinking, (figuring things out).

Alex Osagie: If you write from the head it will get to people's head, if you write from the heart it will get to people's heart. Head or Heart, which is your target. Someone on my list is opening up her past that the story is about her. Our class example is bringing closure to another like fresh ripe apple. One more thing, if you notice there wasn't any notes.  I simply wrote from my heart. I practice what I teach and preach. Go and do like wise.

Now to me request before my time is up here. Please always keep me in your prayers. That's all. Thanks a lot for having me.
I pray you speak from your heart in 2016.
Thanks Paul, thanks Citadel of Life members, it was an honor and privilege to share.
If you want to connect with me. Follow@wisdomcounselin
You'll learn a lot from me. Don't miss this opportunity in 2016

©Copyright
#Hosted by Sunsampaul
04-01-16
10:17pm

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