Day: November 28, 2023
I Don’t Want to Live Without You by Foreigner
I Don’t Want to Live Without You
Album: Inside Information
Date: 1987
Genre: Rock
Artist: Foreigner
Foreigner is a British-American rock band formed in 1976 in New York by guitarist Mick Jones, vocalist Lou Gramm, drummer Dennis Elliott, keyboardist Al Greenwood, bassist Ed Gagliardi, and multi-instrumentalist Ian McDonald. It is one of the bestselling bands of all time with global sales of more than 90 million records
Revenge
Revenge
Form: Raven’s Rovi Sonnet 95
In living, we leave behind us a trail
A glimpse of where we’ve been and what we’ve done
Like sand footprints that tide and time will veil
In time nothing of us ever remains
Those trails we made replaced without a hint
Like the wild trails replaced by trains and planes
We stand our faith in the powerful mint
In a day nature can make a man skint
Taking without an insurance write-off
As if she’s cleaning out the tougher stains
And man has nothing left to put for sale
For money is worthless under the sun
Still man and his wad, they stand there and scoff
So she sends disease, man’s end in a cough
©JezzieG2023
Lai and Virelai Notes
Lai and Virelai Notes
The Lai looks simple comprising a nine-line stanza over a five-syllable couplet and a two-syllable line. The couplets rhyme with each other and the single lines rhyme with each other. There is no limit to the number of stanzas.
Rhyme scheme: aabaabaab ccdccdccd and so on.
Example
Clay of Life by Ryter Roethicle
Dig your fingers in
Watch it spin and spin
Life’s clay
Shape it, press them in.
Feel the shape begin.
Each day
Watch! See it forming.
Then fire the kiln.
And pray.
See as the clay dries
Before your eyes
Your scheme
The shape you realise
Did you visualise
Or mean
None of us are wise
Do not eulogise
Your dream
The Lai Nouveau is much harder for the poet than the Lai and only has an eight-line stanza. The idea is like that of the Villanelle. The first two lines of the first stanza are the refrain and are used as the last lines of subsequent stanzas and are used in reverse order in the last stanza. The difficulty is finding a rhyme strong enough to carry over even a few verses, however the single-line rhyme can vary from stanza to stanza
Rhyme Scheme: A1A2baabaa aacaacA1A2 and so on until aazaazA2A1
Example
Lovers in the night by Lorraine Dafney
Beneath the moonlight
All is cast in white
Hiding
Lovers in the night
Each fragile with fright
Sighing
From any new sight
They rise and take flight
Determined to fight
This is their new plight
Waiting
When chances are right
Brief moments are slight
Proving
All is cast in white
Beneath the moonlight
An adaption to the Lai, the Virelai uses the short lines to set the rhyme the five-lines of the next stanza with the closing stanza linking back to the five-syllable lines of first stanza.
Rhyme scheme: aabaabaab bbcbbcbbc and so on until zzazzazza
Example
This Will Sting You By Peggy Nelson
I’m a Cactus tree,
Waiting for a breeze
I Stand
Covered with cruel bees.
Not pleased nor appeased
By Brand;
Stinging me with ease,
Will they ever seize
Their plan?
Beekeeper on land,
Says: halt I demand
Just wait!
Standing I expand,
All of my limp glands
Feel hate
It surely ain’t grand,
Do you understand
Debate?
Look at red dots mate,
Stingers! Stingers! Eight!
By bees
I’ve honey that’s great,
Sit below with plate
And squeeze
Yet, you’ll be irate
‘Cause I’m also a
Prick…see
Taglioni’s Jewel Casket by Joseph Cornell
Taglioni’s Jewel Casket
1940
Assemblage
In addition to his shadow boxes, Cornell created other boxes including ‘Taglioni’s Jewel Casket.’ The piece lacks the protective glass covering of the shadow boxes and resembles an actual jewellery box, including a velvet lining and open lid with a rhinestone necklace purchased from a dime hanging from it. The box seemingly invites the viewer to gaze within the box and even handle the contents.
Joseph Cornell
Surrealism, Assemblage
Born: 24 December 1903, New York, USA
Nationality: American
Died: 29 December 1972, New York, USA
Cornell was a visual artist and filmmaker. He was one of the pioneers of assemblage, Cornell was an avant-garde experimental filmmaker influenced by the Surrealists. He was a self-taught artist who would improvise his own original style with cast-off and discarded artifacts. For most of his life, Cornell lived in relative isolation caring for his mother and disabled brother, however he remained aware of and in contact with his contemporary artists
Requiem for the Croppies by Seamus Heaney
Requiem for the Croppies
1969
The pockets of our greatcoats full of barley…
No kitchens on the run, no striking camp…
We moved quick and sudden in our own country.
The priest lay behind ditches with the tramp.
A people hardly marching… on the hike…
We found new tactics happening each day:
We’d cut through reins and rider with the pike
And stampede cattle into infantry,
Then retreat through hedges where cavalry must be thrown.
Until… on Vinegar Hill… the final conclave.
Terraced thousands died, shaking scythes at cannon.
The hillside blushed, soaked in our broken wave.
They buried us without shroud or coffin
And in August… the barley grew up out of our grave
Seamus Heaney
Born: 13 April 1939, Castledawson, Ireland
Nationality: Irish
Died: 30 August 2013, Dublin, Ireland
Heaney was a poet, playwright, and translator. He is recognised as one of the principal contributors to poetry in Ireland in his lifetime with works including ‘Death of a Naturalist’ in 1966. The Independent described him as ‘probably the best-known poet in the world’ upon his death in 2013.
From Edge of Humanity Magazine
A Year in the Life – Day 28
Day 28
Prompt: A Shopping List
Hi Nigel,
‘Stuff for a cake, hopefully. Hey Jez’
Calm ya ass, I know you want to make a cake. So you want to go shopping for the things you need, what do you need to know first?
‘I guess what cake I’m making would be a good place to start’
Yeahp. As it is your first one it should be an easy one, like a Vicky sponge.’
‘Can I put chocolate in that?’
That would make it a chocolate sponge so yes you can.
‘I want to make that. What do I need?’
Look it up in one of the books, they all have a chocolate sponge recipe in it.
‘As you worship the ground Mary Berry walks on, I should use one of hers.’
I do not worship Mary Berry; her recipes do tend to be very good though
‘You worship her’
Bullshit but whatever.
‘I found one.’
Nige, that is a gateau, not a cake.
‘The picture looks nice’
Chocolate gateau is nice but that one takes a lot of work. Easy steps or you will screw yourself up and then you’ll be upset.
‘Found another one it says chocolate sponge so should be ok.’
Good, so what do you need, buddy?
‘2 8-inch sandwich tins, a bowl.’
Nige, I have the utensils you don’t need any of them. Look at the ingredients list.
‘Ahh, well you didn’t say that did you?’
And you wonder why I said start easy.
‘I am getting that’ Okay, ingredients are softened butter, caster sugar, eggs, self-raising flour, and cocoa, and for a filling softened butter, icing sugar, and melted chocolate.’
Haha! I now have a vision of you hunting around a supermarket for softened butter and melted chocolate.
‘Is that funny?’
In a cute kinda way, as you don’t buy chocolate melted or butter softened – that bit you do at home. You have a list though.
‘So what next?’
We go shopping. Add some bread flour to the list and we will go hit Sainsbury’s.
‘This is going to be fun’
©JezzieG2023
Jezzie G 