to della beyond the veil poetry
,

To Della Beyond the Veil

You yearned for your homeland.
Always do. After the era
passes you, you pass too.
Music styles wane as moons,
Norwood’s fiddle when new knew you,
knew grandkids too, never me
though or the little themes that we know,
millennials make do.  My how the strings
request of me: “Play.” Can resonance reach
across a sea? Out from you
unto we who sing? Or… are the strings
synced to this season of century gone?
Their song sung and strings rung out
whenever loss leaves us songless?

I’ve made my mothers feel
not so proud. So crowds take me.
But you are yearning. You quietly burn.
Obscurity scorns the scoop, awards —
The sounds of clapping cloven from hearts
Like you and yourn. Younger men make
Mistakes of fame, stake their claims on
Followers fondling, but fallow grounds
Grow up greenlings, great and silver
Towering trees take seeds to start,
Kernel and soil, corn and soot.
Thank you for thinking of us,
Toiling away at tender things,
Toiling away like tinder twigs
Will smolder — sparks and older twine.
Hope I that I will integrate
The privacy that premies bring
To wombs or moss weathers in shadows
Or stalagtites steal from stubborn ores
Deep beneath the dungeons.

The axis of our world acts unseen,
Yet it spins and clings to spiritual things.
We owe ourselves to owlish beings:
Nocturnal, wise, weathered, silent,
Sure to sneak snow mice in cold,
And watching, ever watching us
With eyes that know. With eyes of stone
That melted long ago in the River Jordan.


On odd years, I’ve made this habit of doubling my age and writing that many poems. I did it with the 46 @ 23, the 50 @ 25, and the 54 @ 27.

This year, for the 58 @ 29, I plan to focus on alliterative meter. It’s the meter used by Middle English and Old English poets as well as Latin and Greek poets. Basically all epic poets use some form of alliterative meter and it hasn’t been used in English for a thousand years. I will be pulling from the rules offered in Lewis’ article on The Alliterative Meter:

In the general reaction which has set in against the long reign of foreign, syllabic meters in English, it is a little remarkable that few have yet suggested a return to our own ancient system, the alliterative line…. Alliteration is no more the whole secret of this verse than rhyme is the whole secret of syllabic verse. It has, in addition, a metrical structure, which could stand alone, and which would then be to this system as blank verse is the syllabic….

A few successful specimens of alliterative meter would be an excellent answer to the type of critic (by no means extinct) who accuses the moderns of choosing vers libre because they are not men enough for meter. For if syllabic verse is like carving in wood and verse libre like working with a brush, alliterative meter is like carving in granite.

“Vers Libre” for those who don’t know is Latin for “free verse.” Lewis has, ultimately, offered for my poetry just the kind of reaction I prefer in all of my life: a reaction that is, deep down, orthodoxy. A reaction to dead branches as radical as the radish itself is to its dead leaf: radical because it is the root of the thing.

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Here is the table of contents for my 58 attempts over the next year. After the monogram, I’m including a quote from Chesterton’s An Apology for Buffoons because it defends proper use of alliteration in English:

Go here to see all of my 58 poems written at 29 years old.

 


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  1. Marilyn M. Wiggins

    I really like this one Lance. Keep on keeping on. Love you! Mimi

    1. lanceschaubert

      Thanks Mimi. Really appreciate you and your encouragement.

Quick note from Lance about this post: when you choose to comment (or share this post with your friends) you help other readers just like you.

How?

Well, see, your comments & sharing whisper a few things to those who come after you:

The first is that this site is a safe place to speak up & stay curious. That it's civil. That discussion is encouraged. That there's no such thing as a stupid question (being a student of Socrates, I really and truly believe this). That talking to one another and growing together is more important than anything we could possibly publish. That the point is growing in virtue and growing together and growing wise. That discovery is invention, deference is originality, that we all can rise together. The only folks I'm going to take comments down from are obvious jerks who argue in bad faith, don't stay curious, or actively make personal attacks. And, frankly, I'd rather we talk here than on some social media farm — I will never show ads and the only thing I'm selling anywhere on the site or my mailing list is just the stuff I make.

You're also helping folks realize that anything you & they build together is far more important than anything you come to me to read. I take the things I write about seriously, but I don't take myself seriously: I play the fool, I hate cults of personality, and I also don't really like being the center of attention (believe it or not). I would much rather folks connect because of an introduction I've made or because they commented with one another back and forth and then build something beautiful together. My favorite contributions have been lifelong business and love partnerships from two people who have forgotten I introduced them. Some of my closest friends NOW I literally met on another blog's comment section fifteen years ago. I would love for that to happen here — let two of you meet and let me fade into the background.

Last, you help me revise. I'm wrong. Often. I'm not embarrassed to admit it or worried about being cancelled or publicly shamed. I make a fool out of myself (that's sort of the point). So as I get feedback, I can say, "I was wrong about that" and set a model for curious, consistent learning, and growing in wisdom. I'm blind to what I don't know and as grows the island of my knowledge so grows the shoreline of my ignorance. It's the recovery of innocence on the far end of experience: a child is in a permanent state of wonder. So are the wise: they aren't afraid of saying, "I don't know. That's new: please teach me." That's my goal, comments help. And I read all reviews: my skin's tough, but that's not license to be needlessly cruel. We teach one another our habits and there's a way to civilly demolish an idea without demolishing another person: just because I personally can take the world's meanest 1-star review doesn't mean we should teach one another how to be crueler on the internet.

For three magical reasons — your brave curiosity, your community, & my ignorance:

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