MYKUWorld BlogFor Language Lovers Who Converse Poetically

I am transfixed with the Vancouver Olympics. I just watched the Chinese married couple, Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, who finished first in the short program. Theirs is a beautiful story. They were paired together when Zhao was 13 and Shen was only 8. Then, just a few years ago, their relationship evolved to a new level and they were married. After so many years together! And their skating is such an expression of power, lyricism, elegance, and symmetry, that I am moved. Who are you watching? What is moving you? Let’s myku about the Olympics this week. I look forward to hearing from you!

Welcome to MYKUWorld! The site is growing and to be honest, we’re a little surprised about it. The site’s owner and founder, Neal Mayerson can’t believe it’s taking off the way it is. Imagine. There are almost 15,000 mykus on the site! That’s a lot of 4-line poems! Let’s see, if we stacked them from here to outerspace…. O.K. Here’s how it all began…

When Neal was in college, he wrote haiku and other short-form poetry. As he moved into graduate school, he got busy and eased the formal rules of traditional poetry. He wrote simple four line poems, trying to strike a balance between heart and simplicity. Some of his friends joined in and the true myku form was born — verses shared in conversation. But they weren’t called mykus until Neal’s brother, Fred, named them. When the buddies graduated and moved across country, they sent mykus first by mail and then by email. Then, about a year ago, we launched the website and the rest is history.

We certainly hope you like it, like we do. Share it with your friends and do let us know if there are improvements you want us to make. Enjoy!

….Summer

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you’re wrong, admit it;
Whenever you’re right, shut up.
- Ogden Nash

What a great myku! Even life-lessons can come packaged in four short lines… with laughs to boot. Are your myku often humorous, enlightening, or perhaps both? What takes priority in your poetry?
-Logi

This is one of my favorite poems by Countee Cullen:
Incident

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee;
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, “Nigger.”

I saw the whole of Balimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That’s all that I remember.

To me, I see three simple mykus strung together. In the first stanza he sets the scene and the mood in only four short lines. In the second he give us the “incident”, and in the third, the impact. I’m struck by how much can be said with so few words. This frugality of word choice is what makes a myku so interesting to me. What makes a good myku in your opinion? Let me know in your comments.

And, I’m a new blogger on the myku site. Hope you like what I write. Keep in touch.

…………Akel7

The Holiday Myku Contest starts today! It’s simple: write a myku that contains the words thanksgiving, thanks or giving. Just write it and we’ll find it! This madness starts now and ends on November 15th. Our winner will get a coveted Myku mug and T-shirt! Family is not allowed to compete as this is a fair competition. You know who you are….

All the best to you!

….Summer, Akel7 and Linda P

Bradley S. Hartman retired from a career as a truck driver to become a writer of both fiction and poetry. Two of Brad’s books are now available on Amazon.com: his first published novel, “U.S. Avengers,” a fantasy-adventure tale about Officer Cody Sandler and his alter ego, the crime fighting U.S. Avenger. Amazon also carries a volume of Brad’s poetry called “Just Like Dad: A Poetic Life.” Brad credits his writing to his wife, Andrea Hartman, who encouraged him and believed in his writing right from the start. Brad had dabbled in writing years ago, and when he began to write again, he found just a page of an old story in his desk drawer. He read it over and it seemed like a good idea still, so he sat down and began to write. Six months later, the first draft of U.S. Avengers was complete.

Like Charles Dickens, Brad is exploring the world of serial story telling. Brad’s local paper is publishing two pages a week of “Jessie,” a fantasy book about a woman who seems to possess powers beyond those of mortal women. Another strong female character of Brad’s is Jessie Hunter, the main character in another book Brad’s in the middle of writing called “The Strange Adventures of Jesse Hunter.” Jesse Hunter hunts vampires! I won’t tell you more as I don’t want to ruin any suspense - which is one of the things that Brad is really great a writing!

Recently, Brad and Andrea moved to Morocco, Indiana, a town of less than 2000 people, and launched their new venture, a publishing company called Hartfelt Books http://hartfeltbooks.com The focus of their publishing company is twofold, to give authors a publishing company that truly values their work, to create jobs, and to support the charities they care about such as Habitat for Humanities and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Stop by the site to see what they’re up to but also to download a copy of “A Cut Above,” the sequel to “U.S. Avengers.” The download is free but do consider donating to one of the charities Brad and Andrea support that are listed on the charities page of the website.

When asked what appeals to him about mykuworld, Brad said, “I thought at first that myku was haiku but then I saw the poetry and liked the idea of replying to poems so that eventually each board becomes a multi-authored poem. Three myku Brad enjoyed writing is on the ‘My Dog’ board, and were written in dialogue with starbucksthief and cobaltcat09.

With great leaps and bounds,
He chases them around,
As they flitter low to the ground,
Looking like a crazy hound.

My dog chases moths,
In the dark,
Little light colored ones,
Which flit and dart.

My dog chases moths,
He does this a lot,
Leaving behind soggy bugs,
Who don’t seem to mind it much,
As they rise again to be chased in the dark.

I asked Andrea to describe Brad’s writing style. “Non-conformist,” she said, and laughed “Brad has weird thoughts! He’s unconventional, and not afraid to take risks or to challenge someone else’s view of the world.” She went on to say that part of what attracted her to Brad was his poetry, “As a poet, Brad is very emotional in his poetry where he expresses emotions he doesn’t normally show.” Andrea and Brad both support literacy programs that put books into the hands of kindergarten students.

Join us from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. EST on October 20, 2009 to write poetry with Brad. He’ll be responding to the subjects your start in addition to starting a board where mykupoets can try their hand at writing in Brad’s favorite genres - adventure and fantasy. Come write myku about superheroes, alter egos, murder and mayhem. It’ll be a great myku conversation!

Last night Mykuworld was on fire as we held our first myku party! In a little more than two hours we wrote 200 mykus. People sent in emails afterward saying they were afraid to jump in before the party, but just launched themselves during the event and wrote up a storm. We had writers from New Hampshire, North Carolina, Kentucky, Ohio, California and who knows.

We plan to have these events every month. October 20, 7-8:30 we’ll be on with Author Bradley Hartman, author of U.S. Avengers, poet laureate and MYKUWorld member.

I was asked about the names of MYKUWorld Islands. Each is from a different language. What do you think? What new islands should we create on our island? (not promising more than six, but who knows….)

Guda means fire in the Aboriginal Language.
Temiti means sea in Tahitian.
Enyeye means self in Swahili.
Kjole means cool in Norwegian.
Anana means beautiful in Inuit.
Temne Nebe means dark skies in Slavic.

See you there!

Summer

Just wanted to remind you that tonight is our MYKU Slam — a party where everyone logs in around the same time to mingle and write mykus together. Jump on mykuworld.com between 7 and 8:30 EST– later if we want to stay. Anyone who writes 5 mykus during that time can send a message to debpinger@gmail.com with size and your mailing address and we’ll send you a free, 100% cotton MykuWorld t-shirt.

Please come, write, and make our first event a resounding success.

Then watch the blog tomorrow – we have another new event coming up in October and we’ll be announcing it.

So, see you this evening! Let’s make myku conversations happen before our eyes! We’ll hopscotch from board to board together.

Meet you at MykuWorld!

Kit

katepoet

Myku Matters: The MykuGhazal

The ghazal is an ancient Arabic poetic form. Modern English ghazals are poems of five to fifteen stanzas or couplets. All the lines have the same end rhyme and are of the same length or syllable count. Meter does not matter. The standard pattern of the end words is as follows:

Stanza 1: aa
Stanza 2: ba
Stanza 3: ca
Stanza 4: da
Stanza 5: ea
Stanza 6: fa
and so on.

The subject of a ghazal is usually love, and they are often about love lost or love at a distance or some other misery of love. There is always beauty in love in spite of the pain or perhaps, because of it. The couplets may change focus although the mood should be consistent throughout. Another variation occurs when the a word stays the same, but the other words do not rhyme and change with each couplet.
Here’s a link to a ghazal called “Even the Rain” by Agha Shahid Ali on poets.org http://poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16450

Mykughazals are like myku sestinas, each couplet is written by another poet or alternating poets. In addition, a mykughazal may have up to 25 couplets to fill a mykuboard.
Here’s an intitial couplet of 14 syllables per line, and a mykughazal board to get us started. Your turn!
When you left me, the full wolf moon shone in deep winter love.
Cold chill fills my heart, wondering if you will return love.

Let’s have a mykuconversation!
Mykuworld awaits!

Kit
katepoet
Mykuworld Team Member

The sestina is a challenging poetic form in which the end words rotate in a specific pattern through each of six verses and an envoi. The first six verses or stanzas have six lines each, and the envoi has three lines. The envoi has three lines, and the non-rhyming end words are repeated halfway through and at the ends of the envoi lines. End words repeat in the following pattern:

Stanza 1: abcdef

Stanza 2: faebdc

Stanza 3: cfdabe

Stanza 4: ecbfad

Stanza 5: deacfb

Stanza 6: bdfeca

Envoi: be, dc, fa

Each line has the same number of syllables although the number can vary from one poet’s sestina to another.

What I love about the sestina is that the six words I choose at the beginning end up forcing the story I tell. I may imagine a certain concept for my poem but by virtue of the forced line endings, the story takes off on its own path.

A mykusestina is a community written sestina. The first poet posts a stanza, the next poet picks the next rotating pattern and writes the next stanza, and so on, until all seven stanzas are written. One poet might write more than one verse, of course, but to be true myku, at least two authors must be involved.

Sestina can range from serious to the humorous depending on the words and the way they are used. The end words are often those that can be used as more than one part of speech such as verb and noun. For example, good is an adjective and a noun, shoe is a verb and a noun. Some sestina writers don’t stick to the same words but warp them as they go. One can also use words that have the same ending such as ending and ding and plodding. Or, words that sound the same but have different spellings such as doe and dough. I Modern sestinas allow a lot of flexibility.

I’ve chosen six words to start a mykusestina about a poet and will post a stanza on mykuworld. It’s your turn now to take the next stanza and find out what story we are writing.

http://mykuworld.com/MyKu.mvc/Board/981

He practiced poetry as a fine art,
drawing on paper with words as his paint,
the colors of words were of his choosing;
he dabbled in sestinas and myku,
transporting his readers to foreign realms,
castles afloat on clouds of lavender.

Let’s have a mykuconversation!
Mykuworld awaits!

Kit
katepoet
Mykuworld Team Member

You are invited to attend our first MykuWorld Event, Meeting of the MykuMinds. On Tuesday September 15, 2009, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. (EST), MykuTeam Members and long time members will be ready and waiting to respond to your myku.

Myku is a great form of poetry for romance or commentary on daily life. It is also excellent for highlighting and discussing social issues. Scanning through the news on the Net, there are plenty of issues to go around. Each one can be a writer’s prompt that keeps you in the practice of being a poet and that invites the community to think and to write with you.

One article that a friend on facebook posted recently focuses on the lack of value of women and girls in some countries. “Saving the World’s Women” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23Women-t.html Women often have no legal rights and are owned by the men in their families. They may be beaten or even burned alive if they do not produce sons or for no particular reason than a husband’s dissatisfaction with his lot in life. One of the amazing statistics in the article is that the imbalance in the world population between men and women shows that there are over 100 million women missing from the population. Many were left to die at childbirth or in childbirth. Girls and women are not given the same resources as boys and men. Less food and less medical care result in a higher death rate.

Some programs succeed in changing the view of women. The article focuses on the use of microfinance loans which help poor women start businesses of their own, creating incomes that make them more valuable to their families and communities.

Even in developed countries, the imbalance between men and women continues. Today, President Obama spoke of a new law called the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009. Ledbetter is one of hundreds of women who were not receiving equal pay for equal work. The practice continues today, but the new law and a Supreme Court decision will make it easier for women to address the problem.

What does all this have to do with poetry? Myku can be about the horrors of the missing girls. They can also be about the successes and new laws. As you write about something that is political or social, you may find that you eventually reach the part of you that connects emotionally to the issue. Beautiful poetry will be born at the same time that you share your thoughts and teach about an issue.

For example, a myku about the missing girls could be about the plain facts:

In India and China,
in Pakistan and Bangladesh,
when babies are not the sons desired
the girls are put to death.

Or they could be about one child. My friends adopted a little girl whose mother managed to leave her where she would be found so that she would go to an orphanage instead of being left to die in a field alone.

In Korea, she bore a daughter fair with heart so sweet and mild,
but none would allow her to keep this tiny, dear girl child;
She crept into the police station in the dark of the winter evening,
tucked the baby where she’d be found, and kissed her softly before leaving.

I posted these on mykuworld

What issues are important to you? Start a mykuboard about one, find some articles on the Net that you can cite in your notes section so other folks can read and understand. Once you get going, you may end up with something to post back on the news site that helps others grasp the heart and soul through myku poetry.

Let’s have a mykuconversation!
Mykuworld awaits!

Kit
katepoet
Mykuworld Team Member

You are invited to attend our first MykuWorld Event, Meeting of the MykuMinds. On Tuesday September 15, 2009, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. (EST), MykuTeam Members and long time members will be ready and waiting to respond to your myku.