August is Great, September is better

Happy September everyone!

The month of changing leaves (if you don't live in Texas) or beginning school (if you haven't graduated or were crazy enough to go back) or a new poetry type (if you read my blog, which you clearly do).

Seriously though, September is a great month! Lots of people vacation in August so people are generally still relaxed in September. Moms get some extra "me" time when their kids go back to school. The weather becomes less devastatingly hot (again, particularly for Texans). There is some good fall food, particularly fruits, that I find delicious.

So on to the announcement: The official poetry type of September is (virtual drum roll please) "Roses are Red" poems! Ok let me explain, these poems will be based on the basic poem:

Roses are red.
Violets are blue.
Sugar is sweet,
And so are you.

In plogging* this month, I am going to follow 3 rules:

1. My poems will be four lines.
2. My poems will have the rhyme scheme ABCB. (So the end of the second and fourth lines will rhyme.)
3. The first two lines will have to follow the "Something is/are something" format.

An optional fourth, I am going to try and stay within the basic cadence of the original. No promises there. First September poem:

August is great,
September is better.
Because sunburns are red,
But apples are redder.

* Plogging = Poetry blogging. If you didn't know that you are clearly behind on reading my plog.

My Big Adventure

What a fine retrospective time it is for Poetic Jabberwocky.

First, I have made it to 200+ hits. I estimate that the percentage that are actually attributed to me is decreasing. Second, it is the end of a month and therefore the end of a certain kind of plogging.* That's right, haiku has had its time in the limelight and now it must retire to the area outside of Mendocino and do community theater to make way for newer, younger, more perky poetry.

Third, and most importantly, I got a blog-to-blog shout out from one of the funniest peeps I know. (Or don't know, if you are trying to figure out who I am, weird internet stalker.) I would like to cross-shout-out her blog so check it out: Smaller Adventure

I've made it! haiku:

Mentioned by the best,
Make her laugh and you're worthy.
She's a blog icon.

* Plogging = poetic blogging. I just made it up so put down that dictionary.

August = Haiku. Perhaps Hai-ugust? No? Ok.

Ok fans, of which I have none yet. This is how I plan to do this blog:

I am going to choose a poem type monthly, and try to write a poem a day of that type. I am going to write about something that happened that day or something I thought of that day or something that I tell you happened that day. I may have to explain some of them.

As for haiku rules, here is a link to a description of a haiku in case you don't know what it is.

http://www.seohaiku.com/blog/what-is-a-haiku/

For the syllable count, I am using either the 5/7/5 setup, or my own creation of 7/9/7. I know I am using artistic privilege on the 7/9/7 cadence, but this is my blog so deal. A finely crafted haiku will paint an image in your head (but keep in mind I am no fine craftsman.)

A note on the patron poem of the blog, I do love The Walrus and the Carpenter (a poem that Tweedledee and Tweedledum recite to Alice) but it seemed particularly apropos since I am starting the blog now while I am in Oxford where Lewis Carroll was a professor.

The Lewis Carroll theme pervades even in the name of my blog which is a reference to The Jabberwocky, a monster Carroll created in a poem heavy on the nonsense words. Still, it is quite scary.

A short story (later adapted to the screen in a movie with Rainn Wilson not playing Dwight Schrute) called Mimsy were the Borogroves was also based on this poem. The poems, the short story by Lewis Padgett, and (less so) the movie are very interesting to me. That is how I roll.

So....thanks for reading! Cheers!