Day: August 28, 2016

Triolets:No more

P1000273 2=3

 

The new short poems are triolets,or similar to triolets.You can look it up in the first  poem of today.They are  like villanelles but shorter and easier though I find all poems in form are difficult.But it is a good idea  to learnt the forms.I have been rather slow in learning them.In these forms and in the rondeau which derive from song there is more repitition that in other kinds of poetry

The face that was familiar is no more
Yet in my dreams ,he is alive again
If ,by a chance, his life could be restored
It would affect me like the hidden chord
That  if were played, my  own  life would  be o’er
That one must live and one must die is plain
The face that was familiar is no more.
Yet in my dreams ,he is alive again

Oh. happy mean;oh centre that can hold!

Enriched with age, we  suffer from the cold,
Yet torrid heat’s   a danger to the heart.
The passion that a youthful one  just moulds
Would kill  some  humans old and over-bold.
Oh.  happy mean;oh centre that can hold!
This will give  us one fine place to start.
Enriched with age,  we  learn to deal with cold
Yet torrid heat  still threatens fragile hearts

Note:

Slouching towards Bethlehem by W B Yeats  has the line,The centre cannot hold

 

By a liar

The sun burns like  the Richmond blacksmith’s fire
Fierce flames   are  gleaming by   the sides of  clouds
The weather forecast is constructed by a  liar
To hide the  knowledge  of funereal pyre
The Social Contract  melts ; the flames fly higher
The dead are gathered  in;the fields are ploughed
Silently we say goodbye, without a choir
The sun burns like  the Richmond blacksmith’s fire
Fierce flames   are   glowing  by  the sides of clouds

What journalists should not say

It might be interesting to write a poem out of these phrases

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/to-be-sure-journalists-can-avoid-cliches/2013/03/22/71578f54-9318-11e2-8ea1-956c94b6b5b9_print.html?utm_term=.e519dbde167f

 

At first glance

As a society (or “as a nation”)

Observers

Pundits say (or “critics say”)

The American people (unless in a quote)

The narrative (unless referring to a style of writing)

Probe (as substitute for “investigation”)

A rare window (unless we’re talking about a real window that is in fact rare)

Begs the question (unless used properly — and so rarely used properly that not worth it)

Be that as it may

It is important to note that

Needless to say

[Anything] 2.0 (or 3.0, or 4.0 . . .)

At a crossroads

Inside the Beltway

Outside the box/Out of the box

Underscored

Midwife (as a verb that does not involve childbirth)

Palpable sense of relief

Rorschach test (unless it is a real one)

The Other

Effort (as a verb)

Gestalt/Zeitgeist

Little-noticed (that just means the writer hadn’t noticed it)

The [anything] community

Hastily convened

Ignominious end

Tightly knit community

In the final analysis

At the end of the day

Literally (unless quoting Vice President Biden)

Ultimately (especially as first word of last graf)

Redux

Rise of the 24-hour news cycle (it rose a long time ago)

Remains to be seen

Feeding frenzy/feeding the frenzy

Double down

[Anything]-gate

Dons the mantle of

Political theater

Hot-button issue

Face-saving compromise

The argument goes (or its cousin, “the thinking goes”)

Shutter (as a verb)

Part and parcel

Demurred

It is what it is

The new normal

Paradigm shift (in journalism, all paradigms are shifting)

Unlikely revolutionary (in journalism, all revolutionaries are unlikely)

Unlikely reformer (in journalism, all reformers are unlikely)

Grizzled veteran (in journalism, all veterans are grizzled — unless they are “seasoned”)

Manicured lawns (in journalism, all nice lawns are manicured)

Rose from obscurity (in journalism, all rises are from obscurity)

Dizzying array (in journalism, all arrays make one dizzy)

Withering criticism (in journalism, all criticism is withering)

Predawn raid (in journalism, all raids are predawn)

Sparked debate (or “raised questions”)

Ironic Capitalizations Implying Unimportance of Things Others Consider Important

Provides fresh details

But reality/truth is more complicated (oversimplify, then criticize the oversimplification)

Scarred by war

Main Street vs. Wall Street

Shines a spotlight on (unless there is a real spotlight that really shines)

No silver bullet

Shifting dynamics

Situation is fluid (code for “I have no idea what is going on”)

Partisans on both sides

Charm offensive

Pushback

Going forward

Stinging rebuke

The proverbial TK (“proverbial” doesn’t excuse the cliche, just admits you used it knowingly)

Fevered speculation

Oft-cited

Iconic

Growing body of evidence (in journalism, no bodies of evidence ever shrink)

Increasingly (unless we prove in the story that something is in fact increasing)

Tapped (as substitute for “selected” or “appointed”)

Any “not un-” formulation (as in “not unsurprising”)

There, I said it (more self-important than “voicey”)

To be sure

Read more from Outlook, friend us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.

© The Washington Post

When my mind is still confused by sleep

When my mind is still confused by sleep
I’m relaxed and I’m  full  of  hopeful dreams
The  sudden  shocks of  memory  make me  weep
The feelings  of my love are strong and  deep
But when with strangers I must be discreet
Avoid the talk of men and  wily schemes
When my mind is still confused by sleep
I am relaxed with  head  of joyful dreams

For  some  invite me to a dating site
And some  avoid me,   dreading I may tempt
They fear my glowing eyes so clear and  bright
Still visible without electric light
They think I’ll  pull  their man  with all my might
So now I try to look wild and unkempt
Lest  some  invite me to a dating site,
And some reject me  fearing I will tempt.

Embellish

 http://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day

Embellish

play

verb im-BELL-ish

Definition

1 : to make beautiful with ornamentation : decorate

2 : to heighten the attractiveness of by adding decorative or fanciful details : enhance

Examples

Kevin later admitted that he may have embellished the truth about the size of the dog that chased him out of the yard.

“On Snapchat, where users embellish their selfies with emoji, crayon scribbles, and elaborate ‘lenses’ that cover their faces with virtual masks, marketers like McDonalds are seizing the opportunity to write their messages across people’s faces.” — Amanda Hess, The New York Times, 20 June 2016

 

Did You Know?

Like its synonyms adorn, ornament, and garnish, embellish means to make something beautiful by the addition of a decorative or fanciful feature. Traditionally, the word is used specifically to stress the addition of superfluous or adventitious ornament, as in “The printer embellished the page with a floral border.” Embellish differs from its synonyms, however, in that it is sometimes used in a euphemistic way to refer to the inclusion of details that are not necessarily true to make a story sound more appealing. The word derives via Middle English from the Anglo-French verb embelir, from en– and bel (“beautiful”).

Loss

“When we suffer anguish we return to early childhood because that is the period in which we first learnt to suffer the experience of total loss. It was more than that. It was the period in which we suffered more total losses than in all the rest of our life put together.”
― John Berger

Late summer weighs us down with sullen heat

 

Photo0500http://www.baymoon.com/~ariadne/form/triolet.htm

 

Late summer weighs us down with sullen heat

Even cats and dogs sit still as stones

Gone are early flowers with fragrance sweet

Late summer weighs us down with sullen heat

The hot flagstones  make music of my  beat

As people  wander brandishing their phones

Late summer weighs us down with sullen heat

Even cats and dogs sit still as stones