Mesostics a discovery

You have all heard of an acrostic, but do you know what a mesostic is? A mesostic builds around a spine with the spine of the mesostic running down the middle of the poem rather than the front. The spine and the text chosen to find the mesostic do not need to be related but it is often good if they do.

To construct a mesostic identify your spine word or words

Find a source text

Use the first word in your text that has the spine letter in any position other than the first or ultimate letter.

If you want to you can use wings where more than one word is used to encapsulate the spine

An example is shown below using MBSPOET as the spine and one of my poems "Saturday Morning" as the text.

The original poem is:

In bed

With iPad
Looking through
Poetry
And
Vocabulary
Just for you.

What is it
About poetry
That captivates me?
The power of
Words to mesmerise

The mesostic looks like this

Captivates Me
             In Bed
    MesmeriSe in
                iPad
           LoOking through
           PoEtry
          capTivates

The mesostic changes the meaning but reveals a truth that I am mesmerised by my iPad and poetry.

Ciao
DK

Help The MBSPoet fund his poetry

The Poetic Mathematics

Like mathematics, poetry is capable of building another world. Mathematicians often live in a theoretical construct, an alternative mathematical universe which they find to be very satisfying. I believe that poetry also can be used to build a theoretical world where we can escape to. The connecting thread is idealism. Both mathematicians and poets are looking for a perfect world, a world of the ideal. This drive for the sublime is what makes poetry special for me.

Agree or disagree?

DK

Help The MBSPoet fund his poetry

Rain Soaked Walk

Yikes a meeting across campus
and its pouring with rain
If the coffee was not so good
I would abstain

Wish me well
as I storm the weather
or the weather
storms me.

Help The MBSPoet fund his poetry

Team Meeting

Clustered around the plotter printer
We meet
The Monday Morning ritual
Post weekend torpor
reigns

An unlikely fellowship
a meeting of the minds
of opinions
and deliverables
shared and digested

In the knowledge that
$0 hours
must pass
Til we meet again.

DK

Help The MBSPoet fund his poetry

If Poems were Bonds I'd be Rich

If poems were bonds
I'd be rich
No more work for me

If poems were bonds
I'd write
and cash them in

If poems were bonds
I'd write more poems
And live the dreamers
Life

But alas
Poems are poems
legal tender only
with other poets
But not with banks
or bourses

And that my friend is why poets are not usually rich, in monetary terms, but rich in life experience and expression.

Keep well

DK
Help The MBSPoet fund his poetry

Why is Business a Forbidden Poetry Subject?

Many of us, poets included, spend our daily life working in or running businesses yet there is a paucity of poems around this important subject area. Love, marriage, money, animals, family, travel and scenery are all used in poems but humble business is neglected.

So here is another business poem entitled Late Night at the Office

I'm here again
working late at the office
The rain falls noisily on the roof
while the cadences of my typing
Fill the empty air.

So much for work life balance
More like work and more work imbalance..oops
Nearly fell off
my hobby horse
A business related accident.

Still, and stillness, late at night
Have their benefits
I can think more clearly about
Love, marriage, money, animals,
Family, travel and scenery.

Right I'm out of here,
Home, hearth and books
are beckoning

Have a great day/night/morning/afternoon (delete non applicable items)

DK

Help The MBSPoet fund his poetry

A Poem on the MBS Acronym

The acronym MBS in my blog name stands for Master of Business Studies. The poem below comes up with some alternatives:

Mad - madly in love with poetry
Bad - purveyor of trashy and terribly bad poems
Safe - because on average a bad poet earns as much as a good poet i.e. $0.00

Maudlin - the feeling when that poem just won't come
Blah - the feeling when it still won't come
Serendipity - the inspiration that falls from above to solve M&B above

Muse - she that comes but not when called
Bouyant - the feeling when she does arrive
Satisfaction - the feeling about the end product.

Ciao

Grant aka drkelp

Help The MBSPoet fund his poetry

ePoetry a new genre?

Now that poets can freely publish their work on the web are we looking at a new genre or approach to poetry?

Would Dickinson have been discovered if she had been able to publish herself on the Net? Or would she have been just as obscure, lost in the enormity of the web?

The great thing about the web is that there are no financial barriers to entry. I guess the purists would say that there is now no quality gateway but I suspect that view is elitist. It's not like there are legions of poets on the Net.

The immediacy of publication allows the raw edge of emotion to be explored. We can write and publish anywhere. I am on my teabreak writing this missive from my iPhone which I will publish shortly.

We can also explore multimedia and hypertextual poetry on the Net. This is an extension from the written page and allows for the development of what I would call visual poetry.

All in all I love cyberpoetry and the communities of poets that I collaborate with in the poetic e-Ther.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

The Poetics of Change

As in life
So in poetry
Change creeps
In
Or jumps out of
Hiding and yells
Surprise

Whether our
Changes be
lingering
Or mayfly life
Short

Stanza by stanza
Line by line
Word by word
Poetry
Reshapes and defines
Makes meaning of
The changes
Behind us
Weaving them
Into a wrought
beauty.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

I and You are We

Between I and You
A Powerful Team
Is made

The Royal We
My friend
Is Us

And if you
Want to stretch
A point
For that is what
I and you
And we may do

Then the awesome
Famous
Infamous
They
Is us as well
In other eyes

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]

Winter Contemplation

Winter creeps in slowly
turning the sky grey
but my spirit
remaains undaunted
because
every season rewards
the watchful
business person

Snow rakes
toboggans
hot mead
skis
tropical holidays
and the list goes on
and on
and
on

At the End of the Day

At the end of the day
Go home and forget
Your work
its trials
troubles
and triumphs

Go home to the wife of
your youth
and enjoy
the company
of
familes
and friends

Life is just like Business

Life like a business
has a beginning
and an end.
Birth, growth
and senescence.

The same rules apply.
Be honest,
treasure others,
work together,
for the common good.

And remember that life is
a journey
and not a destination,
and business is a way
to do good
make a profit
but also to nurture the
human soul
the Invisible hand

The Team

The synergy of a team
works well
for one and all

Beware the primadonna
who saps
the energy and

sucks the life away from
success and joy
and team cohesion

A team is
worth much
more than
anyone of
its component parts

Go forth O team
and conquer all

Life is Good

Each morning
my waking refrain
is this:
That Life is Good

Before the
minds caged
mouse begins to tread
I stick a pencil
through the bars
to stop the rolling
mill

Life is good
Very good
Enjoy
it while
you have breath
and while
you can

DK

First published on Qassia

Edinburgh by Day and Night

By day the city
Looks grey and bleak
A Presbyterians
Dream place
Cold overcast pall
Of unrelenting
Dulness

But by night
The city
Transforms itself
Into a place
Of light
Beautiful and
Bathed in
Golden hue

Mentoring

Generation by generation
they arise
from the midst of
the young

Alert, keen
and ready to grow
ready for the mentors
skillful art

As I grow old
I have many
friends and colleagues
nurtured from
the seed of potential

DK

A Colonial Reflects on Living in the Old Country

It looks the same
but is not the same
12000 miles from home
But very close to the roots
of my family tree
I settle in

I feel comfortable here
up North
Friendly Folks
with cold, wet weather
Home of the Geordie
and mince and dumplings

Business terms
and styles differ
but the human dimension
and office politics
are the same the
wide world over

Life is a Poem

Poetry is simply a commentary on life in all of its richness. Every aspect of human and business life can be captured in a poem, an anthem to human progress. While not every one can write poetry, we can all read and appreciate it. I have been reading some of Wordsworth's poems this week and have been impressed with how attached he was to nature and life. His poetry paints a picture using words.

You don't have to wait on the muse to move you, just let everyday life have its way...

DK

The Interview

Having a job interview can be a traumatic experience. Having been on both sides of the interview process, I can sympathize with the candidate.

The Interview

The pure joy
of the call
or email
"You have an
interview
on Tuesday at 10".

But then the questions begin,
how many am I up against?
I won't have a chance!!
I will have an excellent chance
back and forth according
to the
fluctuating mood

What shall I wear?
How shall I speak?
What do they want?
What do I want?
the questions multiply until
Tuesday at 10

At last Tuesday am comes
out of bed
get dressed
breakfast if you dare!
Worry
Whats the time
Its time to go
blind panic
rush
rush
rush

The wait to go in
the minutes
that seem to stretch for hours
until the dulcet,
"Would you like to come in?"

How are you, this is X, Y, Z
God, how will I remember such
tricky names?
Try not to shake, tremble
or grip the proffered hand to tightly...

The questions begin
Tell us why
Tell us what
Tell us when
Tell us what
output, output
output without break

Thank God its over
home to relax and stew
to replay countless times,
"Why did I say that!"
What did they mean by...
until the answer comes
You have been successful
when can you start...


Copyright G Goodman September 2008

First published on Qassia