Poem: Autumn Crumble Musings

[Ron65]

Rivers of gold runs

over the woodland path,

crisp and fresh,

fusing with feet foraging in leaves,

like two frivolous hedgehogs

hobbling to find a place to hibernate.

Dull greens, yellows, browns and rusty red

fraternise like paints on a palette bed,

swirling, mixing,

dancing on the ground

where feet are shuffling

to the rustling sound.

The smell of moisture

and sweet autumn crumble

excites the mind

with musings that rumble

of times when I was a child,

when life was mild

and carefree;

the autumn filled woodland

is crowded

with contented memories

that now spills over

to children of my own.

Edited January 24, 2014 by Ron65

[Roseslipper]

Hello, welcome to the forum and thank you for the poem. Did u write it?

[Ron65]

Yes, I wrote it about two months ago. I have been writing poetry for about 40 years and am a member of three poetry forums.

Edited January 20, 2014 by Ron65

[Forget-Me-Not]

I very much enjoyed your poem. I'm not good at free style so I like seeing how others write it. Also, though every season has things I love, I think I enjoy autumn the most and reading your poem was like walking through the woods along the river on a beautiful fall day.

[Ron65]

Thank you for your comments. I too enjoy autumn, especially its mellow colours, but that's probably the artist in me - or my age.

In open form poetry there are three basic categories; free form where rhyme is used where needed but no metric pattern, (which is the format I used for my poem above), free verse, which is free from rhyme and metre, thereby uses natural language as its rhythmic flow, and then we have blank verse, a format used by Shakespeare where a metric based rhythm is used but strictly no rhyme.

Do you know what? Having read some poerty on this site, I'm a little surprised there isn't a seperate section devoted to poetry only. Perhaps one should be set up where we can exchange thoughts, ideas and comments about poetry as a means of improving our craft.

[Forget-Me-Not]

That's interesting, I guess I didn't realize there were categories. I mean, I've read and noticed differences with some poetry having a rhythm though no rhyme, while some rhymes though may or may not be rhythmic, etc., but I didn't realize the various forms involved much beyond either that which rhymes and that which does not.

I know little about poetry, have never studied. I've just always loved poetry and it seems to be a natural means of expression for me. When I want to say something import or of deep or personal meaning, I tend naturally to revert to poetry in order to express it. I don't know why, other than my mother wrote poetry, as well as hymns, both lyrics & music.

[Ron65]

There's much more to poetry than meets the eye. There are two basic groups; 1 - open form, which as already explained, there are three categories, but there are also sub categories;. 2 - there is also closed form poetry, which is poetry written within very strict rules of rhyming and metric patterns, commonly known as traditional poetry.

As for free form, many tend to think that it's a modern format, but that isn't strictly true, it actually goes back to the 1500s, some of which can be found in the Book of Psalms, which was translated into English in free verse format and reads beautifully.

The fact that you say you never studied poetry amazes me; your work comes across as though you had. All I can say is, you must have a natural talent for writing poetry. Have you ever thought of self-publishing a collection of works?

Edited January 26, 2014 by Ron65

[Forget-Me-Not]

Thank you. I've had friends say I have a gift or talent and that I should publish, but I wouldn't begin to know how to go about that. Clearly, though, there is much about poetry to be learned that I had no idea of.

I also do not know how to properly punctuate my poetry, having a tendency to place a comma at any slight pause. Because of that I usually remove most or all punctuation before posting, preferring to have none rather than to show all my errors, lol.

[aeglyn]

Hi Ron!

I look forward to posting soon as well. Happy to have followed you over to this site. :)

[Ron65]

The more the merrier. Thank you Chris.

[Ron65]

Thank you. I've had friends say I have a gift or talent and that I should publish, but I wouldn't begin to know how to go about that. Clearly, though, there is much about poetry to be learned that I had no idea of.

I also do not know how to properly punctuate my poetry, having a tendency to place a comma at any slight pause. Because of that I usually remove most or all punctuation before posting, preferring to have none rather than to show all my errors, lol.

You are not the only one who feels they have a problem with punctuation; most people do to some degree, including myself. Using punctuation in poetry is about 'feeling' rather than 'correctness'. Some poets ignore punctuation and grammar all together in their poetry, but there are still a few rules that needs to be considered so as to make the poem read with the right flow and pace. For example, where you feel a comma may be needed, instead of using a comma, you could break the line and begun a new one. Poetry is written line upon line, whereas prose is not, it's written in paragraphs, much like this message.

As for publishing some of your poetry in a book, you can do it without any cost to yourself, yes, really; apart form buying a copy or two for your own bookshelf. It can be done through LULU or AMAZON. The slight drawback to that however is, you will need to compose the enire book yourself from title page, contents page and on to the very last page plus front and back covers. It is time consuming but worth it - I do all my own book creating and cover designing. But having said that, they do have what's called preset books; all you need to do so is to paste your poems onto each page and set up a sale price. The only drawback with that is, all the books sold by the company look very much alike rather than something individual and unique. But then, some don't mind that idea.

Edited January 28, 2014 by Ron65

[Roseslipper]

Yes, I wrote it about two months ago. I have been writing poetry for about 40 years and am a member of three poetry forums.

Cool!:)