by Christina Watkins | Jul 5, 2022 | Uncategorized
We were in Buena Vista over Memorial Day Weekend on the first warm day of the year as a party of six –
– four senior adult people, two couples, and our friends’ two dogs. The older dog was a senior chocolate
lab and the other a young black lab and pointer mix. We were all respectfully friendly with the young
and older hikers we met on the trails. They were all extraordinarily outgoing and welcoming to us. It
was remarkable to me, a Canadian living in British Columbia. I admired the outgoing energy of these
beautiful people in their late afternoon activity.
When we all reached the parking lot below, a boy of 8 or 9 was standing near our vehicle holding a
white and red toy assault weapon. He was watching us. He wore an unattractive grin on his face. We
saw the boy raise his plastic AR-15 toy to his shoulder. He fired at the adults first – streams of red light
which landed on us one after the other in a rush. Then he shot the dogs.
I looked around to see if there was a second toy shooter in sight. If there was a second shooter I
couldn’t see him. Perhaps his brother was out of sight. I saw a group of people who might have been
the boy’s parents. I thought of going and speaking with them but instantly knew that would not be the
appropriate thing to do.
Instead, I am writing this piece and thinking of how like the 18 or 19 year old shooters of real AR-15
grown ups’ assault weapons we see in TV footage these days move like this 8 or 9 year old boy.
Auden’s tribute to Herman Melville says:
Evil is unspectacular and always human,
and shares our bed and eats at our table.
I hope that the boy we saw that sunny day will have some experience which will make him want to
work towards peace. I hope he meets people with fire in their hearts about peace. Perhaps peace will
come to him on the wind in the mystery of love.
See my poem titled ‘Peace’ in English and ‘Paz’ in Spanish on pages 80 and 81 in Poems~Poemas.
by Christina Watkins | May 26, 2020 | Poems
DIAMONDS AND SUTRAS: A Sestina, written June 21, 2013.
‘Diamonds and Sutras’ is in Poems for the Journey.
Read my tutorial on how to write a Sestina here. I hope you will enjoy it.
Some people make their fortunes finding diamonds.
Others practice knowledge of the sutras.
Everyone loves listening to stories.
Many forget their worries watching baseball.
I wonder how we all live into surrender
know that all shall be well beyond space and time.
In a game with rules and the mystery of time-
out, played in an open field shaped like a diamond,
playing together requires a kind of surrender.
Commentary for this could be based on the sutras.
Long afternoons richly spent focused on baseball
bring on dreams and become the stuff of stories.
From the beginning I read our children stories.
Those were the final innings of every bedtime.
My own childhood was enriched by the game of baseball.
It was lovely to spend that time focused on diamonds.
Now I’m writing poems and reading the sutras.
Batting and running help me balance surrender.
Lack of balance leads to uncentered surrender.
Practice and play take us home again to our stories.
Some things can be explained best through the sutras.
A practice of love is active over time.
Many assume that all of us are diamonds.
Groups of three can remind us of more than baseball.
Evenings spent under the stars watching baseball –
with overtime the splendid surrender
to freedom from clocks — a treat as rare as diamonds —
replay in my heart as memory that has become story.
One day I’ll write a poem about the time
when ‘It ain’t over till it’s over’ became my sutra.
Playing is more precious even than sutras.
Plenty has come to me through games like baseball.
Nothing moves more relentlessly than time.
Now I gather my strength for what seems like surrender
while praying and paying close attention to stories
about lives of fire and ice brighter than diamonds.
Our grandchildren now play baseball on diamonds.
We make up sutras to help them with surrender —
enrichment for us and our stories over time.
by Christina Watkins | May 11, 2020 | Poems
‘The Way Things Are Is Large,’ is a villanelle in Poems for the Journey p.19. I like writing poems that have some form. It helps get me started with words on the page. Two strong lines about things the poet cares deeply about give energy for finding the other lines. For a while this poem was called ‘Earth Suffused With Light,’ when I saw it again I knew to go back to this original title, ‘The Way Things Are Is Large.’ Hope people try this and have fun with it. The lines can be one very silly and one serious.
VILLANELLE FORM
A, REFRAIN 1
B
A, REFRAIN 2
A
B
A, REFRAIN 1
A
B
A, REFRAIN 2
A
B
B. REFRAIN 1
A
B
REFRAIN 2
A
B
A, REFRAIN 1
A. REFRAIN 2
by Christina Watkins | May 4, 2020 | Poems
There are three pantoums in Poems ~ Poemas:
- ‘Wind Whispers,’ p.10, ‘El viento susurra,’ p.11
- ‘Far Traveler,’ p.30, Un viajero lejano,’p.31
- ‘East Says,’p.52,’ El este dice,’p.53
Here is the pantoum ‘East Says:’
East Says
East says set the second half of life aside for ecstasy.
What better prospect than to be a dancer?
Some say St. Paul was reading in the roadside shade
I have begun to feel the urge to drown my books.
What better prospect than to be a dancer?
Wind is handing out invitations at the door.
I have begun to feel the urge to drown my books.
Retreats are being offered in wild-mind.
Wind is handing out invitations at the door.
Some say St. Paul was reading in the roadside shade.
Retreats are being offered in wild-mind.
East says set the second half of life aside for ecstasy
‘East Says’ is a pantoum. Pantoums can be fun to write. I find them fun to write because
of the repeating lines. I also like that the first line of the poem is the same as the last line.
Here is the outline of the form from Ron Padgett’s The Teachers & Writers Handbook of
Poetic Forms.
”The Western version of the pantoum is a poem of indefinite length made up of stanzas
whose four lines are repeated in a pattern: lines 2 and 4 of each stanza are repeated as
lines 1 and 3 of the next stanza.
line 1
line 2
line 3
line 4
line 5 same as line 2
line 6
line 7 same as line 4
line 8
line 9 same as line 6
line 10
line 11 same as line 8
line 12”
Have fun!
by Christina Watkins | May 3, 2020 | Poems
It is fun and easy to write a sestina. There are two sestinas in Poems for the Journey: ‘Waves,’ p.11 and ‘Diamonds and Sutras, ’p.15.
The sestina form allows the poet to get lines up on the screen and then play around with the words that come before the end word in every line. During a period of ‘writer’s block,’ a sestina can help writers have something to work with.
It is fun and easy to write a sestina and the form allows the poet to put something up on the computer screen and play with the words. In a time of writer’s block a sestina can sometimes help the writer have something to work with.
Sestina is a verse form with six unrhymed sestets (six line stanzas), each with the same set of final words arranged in different order. The sestina concludes with a three-line stanza that incorporates all six repeated words.
Choose six words with energy for you. Two or three of the words will have less energy than the other words and that is good. Once you have written the first stanza you are on your way.
You can either mix up the six words in each stanza or follow this form.
1 st stanza: 123456
2 nd stanza: 615243
3 rd stanza: 364125
4 th stanza: 532614
5 th stanza: 451362
6 th stanza: 246531
Write a final three line stanza with one of the core words in the middle of each line and another at the end. Read my poem, Diamonds and Sutras which is an example of a sestina.
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