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Parting Words from Moristotle” (07/31/2023)
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Showing posts with label sestina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sestina. Show all posts

Sunday, January 11, 2026

Goines Muses
on His Creator’s Two Books

In Sestina

By Moristotle


Eyeing the two books’ mosaic of covers, Goines
pined to read in print his creator’s vignettes
about himself and learn of the man’s musings,
reveries, fantasies, dreams, and perusings,
whose volume was twice as long of writings,
its cover even showing a face to readers.

He wanted to show his own face to readers
and see theirs as well and learn of their goings-
on and where to look to find their writings.
Had any of them written anything—vignettes,
essays, reviews, reports of their perusings,
interviews, poems, stories, random musings?

He did not and never would know their musings,
but his creator’s were there for any reader
who added the second book to their perusings,
and in the first they’d see in fiction Goines’
creator from the outside, a man in vignette
seen by a man outside himself through writing.

His creator knew from his many forays in writing
that working with words facilitated musing.
Arranging words was like painting a vignette,
producing pictures in words, portraits for readers,
moving pictures of comings and goings,
transforming into movie-goers their perusers.

He wondered now, having begun his perusings
of that other volume of his creator’s writings,
whether his creator would also be going
through its pages, to revisit his many musings—
all writers need to become their own readers,
to see themselves, as though in vignette.

Not all his creator’s writings were vignettes:
philosophical essays called on perusers
to become Socratically probing readers;
light verse and wordplay accompanied his writings;
self-reflections brought readers to introspective musing
along paths they had not planned to be going.

He favored the vignettes of all the writings:
they showed him also perusing and musing;
their readers would see that Goines was going on.


Copyright © 2026 by Moristotle

Friday, April 14, 2023

What Did You and Your Wife
Do on Monday? (a poem)

Near Southport's Provision Company
10 Anniversaries
Ago Tomorrow, 
Again Celebrated
in Sestina


By Moristotle

[I wrote the sestina below to commemorate my wife’s and my 47th wedding anniversary. In the form of an interview, it was published on April 17, 2013, under the heading “Ask Wednesday: A husband on what he and his wife did Monday.”
    According to one of the 14 comments on the original post, this sestina was nearly the 10th I had written in the short time since I discovered the form.
]


Monday, January 2, 2023

​Quartina in Orbital Harness
(a poem)

Click image to visit the
Highland Park Poetry website
For Jennifer Dotson,
my adopted bosun


By Moristotle

When I republished the quartina “Love your enemies deciphered in quartina” on November 29, 2022, I also submitted it to poet Jennifer Dotson, the founder and program coordinator for Highland Park Poetry, up in Highland Park, Illinois, for possible publication. Jennifer promptly let me know that she would publish it.

Tuesday, November 29, 2022

Love your enemies
deciphered in quartina

Click to enlarge
10 Years Ago Today

By Moristotle

[Published originally on November 29, 2012.]

According to the Gospel of Matthew (5:44, King James Version), Jesus said:
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.

Monday, May 23, 2022

Goines On: Hard thing to question
soft love and desire (a sestina)

Click image for more vignettes
Sometimes, passing that house, Goines felt a thing
whispering in his ear that he found hard
to dismiss, something he felt strong desire
to contemplate – a ghostly fragrance, soft,
a haunting presence, like an absent love,
like a note reminding him to question,

Monday, May 16, 2022

14 Years Ago Today: ​
Sometimes, if rarely,
smoking saves your life

By Moristotle

[This spot was originally occupied by a premature “Goines On” piece, “What about This Thing />called ‘Having a Thing’? (a sestina).” I realized a day or two later that it was far from ready – so far from ready that I felt ashamed to have posted it…so, I unpublished it and let the spot remain open for a couple of days. Today’s repeat of a 14-year-old post is offered in recompense. 
    I will publish a better version of that sestina in a week or two. Thank you for being kind.]

I found Bertrand Russell’s History of Western Philosophy such a good read, I decided to read his Autobiography as well. I’m enjoying it even more than his history of philosophy, and there have been many, many passages I’d have liked to share, and might have shared if I hadn’t been so preoccupied lately with moving out of our house of twenty-five years. Last night, for the first time in several weeks, I felt relatively relaxed, and today I feel up to reporting the following amusing passage. Soon after World War II, when Russell was about 75 years old, and

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Reflections on a Hugging Sestina

Photo by @MichelleEvansArt
By André Duvall

[Note from Moristotle: When I asked André to please read and comment on a sestina I had written, his response was so thoughtful I asked him for permission to share his response publicly. The sestina appeared yesterdayI wrote it in September of last year, the same month André wrote his reflections, and I presented it to Dennis & Jan Huggins in October.]

I wanted to wait to comment on your sestina until after I had time to re-read it slowly and savor it. I do believe it “approaches perfection,” as you yourself felt. What a wonderful tribute to your friends – I feel the poem is successful on many levels:

Monday, October 4, 2021

Romance of the Huggins, in Sestina

Together
they worked,
raised family,
gardened,
walked,
befriended....
By Moristotle

In gratitude to my neighbors and friends Dennis Huggins and his wife, Jan (née Mayberry) Huggins, for a handsome house-number sign they had made for my wife and me, I composed this sestina in September last year and presented it to them in recitation and by framed printed copy. The Huggins kindly gave me permission to post the sestina here.


It was of course his fam’ly, Dennis’s,
that gave his wife her surname. And so, Jan,
for better (not worse), is ‘Huggins’ in life.
Together they raised family, kept house,
retired together to almost daily walks
with their Betty Lou, who joined them in their garden.

Their hands together worked: In the garden
digging, hoeing, raking, tilling, Dennis
maybe more the heavy stuff. On their walks,
either’s hand holds leash of Betty Lou. Jan’s
hands may be the ones do most inside the house,
as they did with children too – such is life.

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

Independence from procrastination, or what?

And does writing this take care of it?

By Moristotle

Months ago (a year?) I told colleague Bob Boldt and others that I planned to write a sestina on the theme of my being discovered dead under the persimmon tree (near our bird feeders). I’ve been saddened to discover a few dead birds there, and I identify with birds (and many individual creatures generally). And we are all mortal....
​    But I have not yet written this sestina....


Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Five Years Ago Today: Homicide detective on a case

Blog-related murder in sestina

By Moristotle

[Editor’s Note: Originally published on December 26, 2012, in the Ask Wednesday slot for an interview. Yes, in those days I was actually doing a regular weekly interview.]

You knew it would happen sooner or later. We’d not have an interview back in time from any or our prospective interviewees.
    I knew it would happen too. Fortunately, I had thought of an idea for a sestina that I wanted to try. And here it is [questions in italics]:

Tells us first, what was the crime, detective?

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Near and far in sestina

Piedmont eye chart

By Moristotle

[This poem was originally published on June 8, 2013.]

Questions have arisen about sunsets.
Why is one beautiful to me but plain
to the next person? Some want horizons
spread out under a big sky at a far
distance over vast space, but I want near
displays set against trees and local piedmont


Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Why so much sestina?

Psychiatry session in sestina

By Moristotle

[This poem was originally published on June 12, 2013, in a time during which I fairly frequently wrote sestinas. As I don’t seem to have written another, the question might now be, “Why no more sestinas?” – a question I intend to answer soon, in my first sestina in three and a half years. I miss writing them!]

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Thor's Day: Love your enemies

Saint Victor Catholic Church, West Hollywood, CA
By Morris Dean

[Originally published November 29, 2012]

According to the Gospel of Matthew (5:44, King James Version), Jesus said:
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Thor's Day: Of humans and animals

Animal Protection Society of Durham, NC
Trestina on species relations

By Morris Dean

Who calls someone an animal lover?

Friday, September 27, 2013

Fish for Friday

Edited by Morris Dean

[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]

I am sitting here enjoying a beautiful rain and reflecting on Elizabeth Bishop's "Sestina," which I pull out every September on a rainy day. I was hoping it would rain this week, both for the cooling effect it brings, and so that I could experience reading the poem near the Equinox hearing the rain.
    I imagine this cold front will eventually make it to the Piedmont. Knowing how this was the sestina that partially inspired you to produce many sestinas of your own, I suggest you also read it anew on a rainy equinoctial day!


Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Ask Wednesday:
Why so much sestina?

Psychiatry session in sestina

By Morris Dean

Doctor, Why do I so much sestina?
I think you like the poem's imposed order.
They're a lot like the Sudoku puzzles
in the morning paper. You like to piece
the numbers together and keep busy
and prove once again the solution's safe.

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Piedmont eye chart

Near and far in sestina

By Morris Dean

Questions have arisen about sunsets.
Why is one beautiful to me but plain
to the next person? Some want horizons
spread out under a big sky at a far
distance over vast space, but I want near
displays set against trees and local piedmont

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Ask Wednesday: Do you plan to attend your 50th college class reunion?

Doubts about a class reunion in sestina

By Morris Dean

On this very day next year the Yale Class of 1964's 50th Reunion will begin in New Haven. Its members are of an age now that I wasn't surprised to see a box marked "Deceased" on the response form. When I mentioned this to my wife, she asked me how could I return the form if I was deceased? I told her she could return it, couldn't she? Otherwise, how would they know I've died?
    But when she looked at the form, the box was labeled "Divorced" and positioned under "Marital status."
    I told her if I were divorced I might as well be deceased.

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Ask Wednesday: The husband yet again on the calendar

Fourteen calendars in sestina

By Morris Dean

The last time we interviewed the husband who last month with his wife celebrated their 47th wedding anniversary, he explained why a particular date recurs on the same day of the week according to a pattern, using for example the date April 29, which occurred on Monday this year (see calendar above right). As you may recall from that interview, April 29 falls on Monday again in the years 2019, 2024, 2030, and 2041. Note the number of intervening years, or intervals:
2013 [6 yrs] 2019 [5 yrs] 2024 [6 yrs] 2030 [11 yrs] 2041

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Ask Wednesday: The husband again on when a date repeats on the same day of the week

Leaping calendar in sestina

By Morris Dean

We wanted to follow up today with the husband interviewed last week (in "Anniversary in sestina"). That interview mentioned that the couple's wedding anniversary follows a pattern in the day of the week on which it recurs year after year. We realized that the same applies to all other dates: they'll recur in certain future years on the same day of the week. By what pattern will they recur? [Our questions are in italics, but the interviewee starts talking first.]