Admin Post: The Poetry Page: Social Distancing with Mrs. Hudson

[scfrankles]

Now, last time we were lent Mr. Holmes’ telescope. This time, Mrs. Frankles has used her contacts to supply us with another interesting object: Dr George Merryweather’s Tempest Prognosticator!

Though it never went into full production, I believe it was shown at the Great Exhibition of 1851 to much excitement. It is a form of barometer to warn when a storm is coming, and we have been allowed to keep it for the month to study it and to use it for creative stimulation.

Would you like to explain more, Mrs. Frankles...? These twelve bottles at the bottom for instance—what do they contain?

I’m sorry, did you say “leeches”?

And they do what, dear? Climb up the bottle when a storm threatens and set off a bell?

Where did you hear about this again? Via a… tumbler. Was it full of gin, by chance?

(Great heavens…) Anyway, they’re here now and we must be thoughtful towards our guests. What do leeches eat, Mrs. Frankles? Oh, they don’t need to be fed for at least another month! Pity. I was thinking Mr. Holmes might have been of some use for once…

But please, everyone, gather forward and examine this fascinating device.



As added inspiration here is a quotation from Dr. Watson’s story, “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez”:


As I turn over the pages I see my notes upon the repulsive story of the red leech and the terrible death of Crosby the banker.



Here as usual is the list of poetry forms:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, ballad, barzelletta, beeswing, blackout poetry, blitz poem, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cherita, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, clogyrnach, colour poems, compound word verse, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, débat, décima, descort, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, echo verse, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, enuig, epigram, epistle, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, hay(na)ku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, lies, limerick, line messaging, list poem, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, nonsense verse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, puente, quatern, quintilla, renga, rhyming alliterisen, riddle, rimas dissolutas, rime couée, rispetto, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, shadorma, sonnet, stream of consciousness, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, tricube, trine, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle, xenolith

And so, let us talk about the weather!

Comments

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Where did you hear about this again? Via a… tumbler. Was it full of gin, by chance?

Oh, Frankles, this is why you're a Supreme Commander. :)

And, FYI, the red leech, according to The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes, a pastiche of what Holmes was up to in the Hiatus, is a Hirudinea Himalayaca Giganticus or The Giant Red Leech of the Lower Himalayas.

[happyeverafter72]

A blackout poem showing Watson's feelings after Holmes's death (actual blacking-out shown on tumblr here)

gales with exceptional violence
the wind screamed
elemental forces shriek untamed
the wind cried Holmes

I was deep in the howl of the gale
and the splash of the rain
my old quarters do not encourage visitors

vacant

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Very, very well done. I am always impressed with poets who can do blackout poetry and this is a great example.

[happyeverafter72]

Thank you so much!

[smallhobbit]

As Okapi says, that's very clever.

(Also a great opportunity to use my Reichenbach icon!)

A heartfelt rhyme

[smallhobbit]

I’m tired of all this rain
Even the Regent’s Park duck
Can no longer give a cluck
Which goes against the grain

I’m tired of all this rain
The buckets are full of drips
Overflowing and causing slips
Before disappearing down the drain

I’m tired of all this rain
The pavements are awash
The cabs splash plain and posh
It really is a pain

I’m tired of all this rain
The only way to win
Is to fill my glass with gin
And then top it up again

[happyeverafter72]

Thank you! And I love the icon.

Re: A heartfelt rhyme

[happyeverafter72]

Very good!

Re: A heartfelt rhyme

[smallhobbit]

Thank you :)

Re: A heartfelt rhyme

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Oh, gosh. I love the refrain. It's so evocatively weary. Though I am envious, too. It's suppose to get past 34 degrees today--not a cloud in sight!

English sonnet, Tempest prognasticator

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

a silence roars before the storm; ignored
by creatures gross and frank, its reckoning
is a stealth shift of air, the bored
rush, heedless of the change that’s beckoning

but residents of twelve clear jars begin
to stir, to sense, to turn awareness up
towards cabled sky; though gross and frank, the thin
disruption heralds tea in tempest’s cup

to bulbous gobs of prognostication;
they edge and ooze with sensitivity,
then rise above their much-maligned station
displaying gross and frank proclivity

they climb to peal, to selves themselves conform;
the bloodful, thus, ascend to toll the storm

Re: A heartfelt rhyme

[smallhobbit]

Thank you very much. I'm looking out of my window at yet more heavy rain - I'd send you some if I could, 34 degrees is far too hot!

Re: English sonnet, Tempest prognasticator

[smallhobbit]

Rarely have leeches been so beautifully expressed!

Re: English sonnet, Tempest prognasticator

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Sort of gross but very interesting creatures! Thank you!

Re: A heartfelt rhyme

[debriswoman]

*Applause*

Re: English sonnet, Tempest prognasticator

[debriswoman]

Very well put:-)

Re: A heartfelt rhyme

[smallhobbit]

Thank you.

Re: English sonnet, Tempest prognasticator

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you! Not every day you write a sonnet about leeches.

Re: English sonnet, Tempest prognasticator

[theemdash]

This is amazing. I love it.

Re: English sonnet, Tempest prognasticator

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you very much!!

[scfrankles]

Supreme Commander of Puns ^___^

And, FYI, the red leech, according to The Mandala of Sherlock Holmes, a pastiche of what Holmes was up to in the Hiatus, is a Hirudinea Himalayaca Giganticus or The Giant Red Leech of the Lower Himalayas. I hadn't heard of that pastiche before - I've just been looking at a review of it. Sounds like spooky stuff ^__^

[scfrankles]

That is such an inspired idea. Taking one of their more poignant adventures FIVE and removing words from it to echo the way Holmes has been removed from Watson's life.

I was particularly moved by the lines: the wind cried Holmes/ I was deep in the howl of the gale/ and the splash of the rain

Re: English sonnet, Tempest prognasticator

[scfrankles]

That is beautiful ^___^ I particularly like the lines: though gross and frank, the thin/ disruption heralds tea in tempest’s cup/ to bulbous gobs of prognostication; and the bloodful, thus, ascend to toll the storm

Re: English sonnet, Tempest prognasticator

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

Thank you, thank you. A singular point of inspiration!

[stonepicnicking_okapi]

I enjoyed the first half but once they get to Tibet it starts to veer into the supernatural and the author loses me. Really, the Leech was the highlight.

[happyeverafter72]

Thank you so much! I really wanted to highlight the emptiness that Watson must have felt during the hiatus.