The Abnominal Snowball Continued
Well, you make your little noises in your own wee virtual glen and then, before you know it, there’s a rumble of snow elsewhere. I’m delighted to see that not only has Mark Burnhope’s blog been picked out as the featured blog for today on the NaPoWriMo site, but his growing number of abnominals is highlighted.
I suppose I could be slightly miffed that I’m not credited as the originator of the form, but Mark has really, really taken it and run with it more than I have time and energy to do at the moment (I mean, check out this one, for instance). Good on him! Nothing is more gratifying than seeing the form go into, and grow in, other hands.
I’d love to hear if there are any other abnominal writers out there I don’t know of. If you try your hand at one, please leave a comment and let me know! Meanwhile, here’s another one from Vicky MacDonald Harris.
The Abnominal Snowball
Well, when I dreamt up the abnominal, I had no idea it would have taken on a life of its own already by now. I’ve been pleased with how productive a form it is — seven poems in three weeks is a pretty good rate! — but it has pleased me tremendously that others have started to pick it up and write in it. Several people have done so as part of NaPoWriMo, and links are below. I suggest that you look at them before the poems are taken down at the end of this month, which is only seven days away!
To recap, here are the rules of the abnominal once again:
- The poem must use only words that contain letters found in the name of the dedicatee.
- The poem should be 20 lines long.
- It should be arranged in two-line stanzas, although other arrangements are permissible.
- Every two lines, regardless of the stanzaic arrangement used, should contain each individual letter of the dedicatee’s name at least once. It is perfectly permissible to use a letter that appears only once in the name more than once in a single word in the body of the poem.
- The title must be an anagaram of the dedicatee’s name.
- The opening and closing line should address or refer to the dedicatee in some form, with a strong preference for not using the name. However, the address in line 20 must not be a simple repetition of that in line 1; there must be some difference/transformation.
- There are no stipulations for line length or other metrical constraints.
- Rules 1, 4 and 5 are essential to the form. Rule 6 is more flexible.
(To be clear, I’m not claiming to be the first to have used the constraint in rule 1, just to have developed — and named — this particular form using it.)
Here are links to abnominals by others:
- Mark Burnhope: “Hurrah! Sober on Piranhas!”, “Whipper in, Lad”, “I am Odd Craven”, “A Jean Riven”, “Hereby Love Upin”
- Claire Trévien: “Natal Ocean Kin”
- Lindsey Holland: “Be Merry Little Ilk”
- Vicky McDonald Harris: “Son, Hoard Cranial Drama”
- Philippe Darragh Blenkiron: “Anointed Heart”
There may be others that I don’t know about, which is quite an exciting thought! Robert Peake has tried a variation on the form here.
I sent some of my abnominals out in a submission only today. They are the first ones to go into the wild to face an editor, and we shall see how they get on.
It’s National Poetry Month in the UK and, to celebrate the fact, I’m doing a reading tomorrow (Tuesday 17 April) with fellow Linlithgow poet Jane McKie — winner of last year’s Edwin Morgan poetry competition — and Bathgate poet Alistair Findlay.
The reading will be held at Far from the Madding Crowd, 20 High Street, Linlithgow. Formerly Town and Country Antiques, this is the new home of the Linlithgow Bookshop and Little Owls Bookshop.
The reading starts at 8 pm and entry is free. (Three poets for nothing! What are you waiting for?!)
If you’re on Facebook, you can let us know you’re coming by signing up for the event here. You can also leave a comment on this post to let us know you’ll be there, or just turn up.
See you there!
Today is the anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer‘s execution in 1945 and the day that he is commemorated in the Northumbria Community‘s calendar of saints, so I’ve decided to break with my normal practice of not posting new poems on this blog and put up a piece in memory of him:
X
Cheer Friend of Both
An abnominal for Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Thorn in the Reich, be the torch
for the terrified bride
of the torn Herrn. Interned,
confined, be free in the other
hidden Reich, the one eterne.
If the dirt of the Hof be
bitter herb, bete doch
“For thine be —.”
Ich hoffe not trite: no richer effort
to render the terror inert. Brief
the trot to Tod. Therefore, brother,
be fortified, cheered, enriched.
Deride the thin, horrid, inferior credo
ordered. Be interior hobo, freed
to intent. Tend the bidden boon.
If it be no Hilfe, do not ochone;
ochone for the Eiche, the Erde,
the bent Hirte. No introit intoned, be
the Brot bitten: be rid of, interred.
Thorn in the Reich, be reborn.
X
This is an example of an abnominal, a form that I have been developing for the past week. The core of the form is that you use only the letters of the dedicatee’s name to create the words in the poem, but there are other rules, which are explained here. It differs from other pieces I have written in the form so far in that it is entirely serious and strives to avoid the slightly anarchic wit into which the abnominal can happily lead the writer.
Notes:
Reich — Aside from the obvious reference to the Third Reich, this is the normal German word for kingdom. “Kingdom God” in German is “Reich Gottes”.
Herrn — genitive form of Herr; that is, in this case, “Lord”.
Hof — courtyard, yard
bete doch — be sure to pray
Ich hoffe — I hope
Tod — death
Hilfe — help
Eiche — oak (a symbol of Germany)
Erde — earth
Hirte — shepherd
Brot — bread
Easter Greetings!
I wish you all the blessings of the Easter season — and none of the abdominal complaints that may accompany it!
As has become all too customary on this blog, I also apologise for my absence. After celebrating being back in the saddle, I was knocked out of commission by a bout of tonsillitis, which kept me from going to the StAnza festival in St Andrews. Since then, the sheer busyness of the day job and dealing with several family illnesses have kept me away from the blog.
As compensation, here is an Easter poem from The Ambulance Box:
x
The Road from Emmaus
Didn’t our hearts burn within us
while he talked with us on the road?
And, suddenly as he came,
he disappears,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxleaving us
like timbersxxxglowing after conflagration,
apt at any moment
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxto collapse;
or red-hot ironxxxhammered into shape,
aware
xxxxxxxthat, as we cool,
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxwe harden.
Back in the Saddle
Ah, it’s good to be back! Sorry I’ve neglected the blog over the past while, but my Poetry School online course swallowed up all blogging time over the past couple of months.
It was also good to be back to reading at 10Red in Edinburgh on Wednesday last week. (I apologise to all, especially Kevin Cadwallender, the organiser, that I didn’t manage to promote it forby a couple of Facebook statuses.) Following the numerical theme — 10 poets reading for 10 minutes — I read my “10×10″ sequence, first published in Gutter and republished in The Best British Poetry 2011. I didn’t fell I gave my best reading, but it seemed to go down well.
10Red was a good line-up of page and performance poets. Unsurprising, given that Kevin straddles the divide, and does so well. My favourite readings of the night were from Rob A Mackenzie and Andy Jackson. I also particularly enjoyed hearing Ross Wilson read from his pamphlet, Stephen Welsh and, from the more performance bed of the poetry garden, Sophia.
Next month’s line-up also looks really good. I’d particularly like to hear Ryan Van Winkle, whom I haven’t heard in a good while, and Gerry Cambridge, whom I haven’t heard since we were at Cove Park. Go along. You’ll be supporting a great wee publishing house, Red Squirrel Press, if you do and you’re guaranteed a good night.
How a Few Clicks Can Help Grieving Parents
I’ve mentioned SANDS, the stillbirth and neonatal death society, on this blog in the past.
SANDS Lothians, which supports those in the Lothians who have suffered a stillbirth or a neonatal death, has been chosen as one of the five finalists in the Netmums competition to receive a share of a £200,000 money pot from Sport Relief but needs our help.
If you are in the UK, please go to this page, where you will see the list of five finalists. Scroll down and tick SANDS Lothians, enter your name, town and postal code then click “Done”. You don’t have to be in the Lothians to vote for SANDS.
Of course, all the finalists are exceedingly worthy causes, but this one is very close to my heart. I can tell you first hand how valuable is the work that SANDS Lothians does because it was a lifeline to us after our son Aidan died in 2005. No one understands that darkness like someone who has been through it, as the society’s volunteers and officers have. For us, the pain was deepened further by being childless parents. At SANDS, we were recognised as parents in a way that we could be nowhere else.
You can find out more about the society’s hard and vital work at the link above and in this story from the Daily Record. (You never thought I’d be directing you to the Record, did you?) SANDS Lothians could do much more with more money. The more votes the society gets, the more money it will get, as the prize split is £100,000, £50,000, £25,000, £15,000, £10,000. As the SANDS folk say themselves:
It’s fantastic we are guaranteed at least £10,000 but with your help who knows what we could achieve!?!?
I urge you to make a difference for bereaved parents with just a couple of clicks.
