On 'PoetScribing': Two Sonnets and An Invitation

Join a virtual poetry community connected with actual, physical paper

view from my living room window Christmas Eve morning, 2023

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Sonnet One

Grammar

The world's replete with prepositions. Speech

parsed just so bids me gaze beyond my reach

beneath, within, away and through

illimited by my feet and the earthbound view--

words, phrases, paragraphs written on the blue.

Rabbi's voice reminds that parables abound

above, and here where I walk, the ground

reveals to my attentive gaze the Kingdom

awaits in mossy cracks and rain-dript ways

penned with earthly sights and sounds.

Roguish clouds play at the edge of sky

write of a kingdom beyond my sight

luring my vision over sodden ground, high

atop feathered evergreens where God is found.

My heart overflows with a pleasing theme; I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe. Psalm 45:1 ESV

Hundreds of years ago when Celtic monks cloistered themselves away copying the Gospels, weilding their pens as “ready scribes,” they produced for the world some of the most beautiful manuscripts ever seen. This work, The Book of Kells¹, is an illustrated work from the medieval period that still astonishes with its beauty.

As a former teacher and a writer, I know the importance and power of copying down words and how doing so helps me remember. My journals are full of just such words—I imagine your journals are as well.

With this in mind, I thought I’d make you something—an aid to scribing and remembering, poetry in particular.

Introducing PoetScribe

Here’s my big little idea to help you read, remember and maybe recite (without all the 8th grade butterflies) twelve wonderful poems.

The Details:

Using the template I’ve created you can simply download and print the pages and begin scribing the weekly poems I share here on Poetry & Made Things, gathering them into your own Poetry Notebook.

In the weeks ahead I will offer 12 poems I have either permission from the poets to share or that are found in the public domain.

The first poem for copying is my sonnet “Grammar” above, from my book Hearts on Pilgrimage Poems and Prayers.

The second poem is from my friend K.C. Ireton, fiction author at Evensong Stories here on Substack and lay liturgist. You’ll find her sonnet ‘October’ below. ((Kimberlee has included sonnets in each of the chapters of her newest book, “A Yellow Wood and other stories.” Do search it out—the book is a “quiet love story of redemption.”))

PoetScribing-What to Expect

Every other week I’ll share two more poems—12 in all—contemporary or classical-ish—to copy onto the PoetScribe pages, hole punch and collect in your own Poetry Notebook. And of course you can add poems of your own choosing along the way.

The beauty of keeping a Poetry Notebook² of favorite poems is a meaningful way to chronicle the words we want to remember, serving as touchstones of just where we were, physically or spiritually or emotionally, when we read a particular piece.

A bit of Show & Tell

Sonnet Two

VII         October

-K.C. Ireton, from her book “A Yellow Wood and Other Stories”

No Mary am I, but Joseph you are—

To see beyond my sin and fear and shame

And place upon my finger your ringed star

And shelter me—this child—beneath your name

As Salmon Rahab took and loved though she

Was crimson as the cord that saved her kin—

As Boaz sheltered Ruth, redeemed to be

His wife. Hosea loved despite her sin

His faithless wife, and faithful did remain,

As God above His people loved—and loves

Us still. However far we flee in pain

And shame and sunken rage He moves

To seek and find and hold and heal—His grace

A vast and wide and high and deep embrace.

I highly recommend searching out “A Yellow Wood and Other Stories” to see how Ireton weaves these sonnets into her novella.

Next

In the weeks ahead I will feature poems I have either permission to share or poems in the public domain. See the list below³. After you’ve copied each poem on paper, committing them to memory is the next step, should you so choose. For that reason, I am featuring poems written in rhyme or meter, because rhythm and cadence are the best ways the brain remembers.

The download includes 12 PoetScribe pages to print out, one page for every poem, 2 poems every other week for 6 weeks for a total of 12 poems.

I think. Words are my thing—not math.

At any rate, the download is yours—print as many pages as you’d like and scribe some of your favorite poems along with those offered here. CLICK HERE FOR THE DOWNLOAD OF POETSCRIBE PAGES. Begin your scribing now and copy “Grammar” and “October" into your pages.

There’s no trick to getting the PoetScribe download—it’s simply a link to a Google doc. However, you’ll need to subscribe to Poetry & Made Things in order to receive the poems for scribing. There’s a Subscribe button at the bottom of this email.

Also, this letter is free for you to read, but it took time (and at least one cup of coffee) to write. If you’d like to support this work, please leave a comment or share with a friend. And if you’d like to donate to said coffee or my supply of fancy pencils (Blackwing Pearls) you can upgrade to a paid subscription or leave me a tip. Should you do so, I offer my humble thanks.

Also, dear readers, tell me in the Comments what you think—I’d love your feedback on how this landed for you. Perhaps we’ll have a little PoetScribe community here on the ‘Stack when all is said and done.

And if you encounter any glitches simply email me at heyjode70 (at) yahoo dot com. Or hit ‘Reply’ on this email.

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1. Poet Barbara Crooker has written a lovely book of poems based on the Book of Kells

2. I was first introduced to the idea of a Poetry Notebook by my friend Megan Willome at Poetry for Life who encourages readers to gather poems they like and write down their responses to each one. You could also do this with your PoetScribe pages, using them like a blank journal page.

3. Poetry by: Phillis Wheatley, Emily Dickinson, George Herbert, Sara Teasdale, C.S. Lewis, John Milton, Richard Wilbur, Christina Rosetti and more.