Declaration

Declaration

The publisher says, “In order to be heard
these days, you need a platform
from which you network.
You are your own best trumpet.
There is no one way to do it right.
Think out of the box.”

 

I feel like I’m in a box
part of a vast herd
clambering for the right
to take centre stage on the platform
grab the trumpet
and become star of the network.

 

And where does Jesus’ network
fit inside this box?
He condemned the ones with the trumpet
eager to be seen and heard
on the synagogue and street platform.
He insisted on no personal privilege or right

 

ignored the added-on rule and rite
that interfered with His net work
of catching men, used hills and boats as platform.
The gatekeepers of His time couldn’t box
Him in. People came to Him in mighty herd.
The way He met their need was His trumpet.

 

Need is also our trump. It
spurs us on to find what is right
for us, to find what needs to be heard.
Finders tell seekers and grow an organic network
leading to the treasure box
from a divinely engineered platform.

 

Mr. Publisher, you can insist on a numbers platform
expect me to play the Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn trumpet
and all the megaphones found in the publicity box.
Getting a contract from you is not my reason to write.
If my words don’t fill a need, even a giant network
won’t make them worth being heard.

 

I hereby abandon the rite of building my platform
growing my network, sounding my trumpet.
God, engineer my words heard, or not, for I’m climbing out of this box.

© 2011 by Violet Nesdoly

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This sestina was the easiest poem in this form I have written. It kind of fell into place—perhaps because I’ve been thinking of platforms, networks and trumpets as they relate to writing for a long time. As you can tell, I’ve also been bothered by the insistence (of agents, publishers, editors et al) that a book is only worth the while of a publishing company if the writer delivers up her/his mighty platform of readers.

However, I understand the thinking and sympathize. I see the sense of not taking risks on unknown writers, especially at a time when your business is already struggling to survive.

So then I guess the ball is back in the writer’s court to build a platform. But the way I see people building a platform feels phoney to me. Or maybe I’m reading my own tendency toward phoniness into what I see others doing (friend, friend, friend on FB, follow, follow, follow on twitter).

On the other hand, there were writers who, without knowing they were doing it, picked up a following. I think of The Shack, written by unknown William P. Young selling in the thousands of copies. I think of the popularity of Ann Voskamp’s Holy Experience blog and her NY Times bestseller One Thousand Gifts book. I think of my fav little devotional My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers, still going strong through several generations. I ask, Why? I think the answer is — they fill a need.

And I believe there is also a divine element at work. When something is spiritually true and valuable and nourishing, in some unexplainable way God helps to spread the word.

I ask myself — does my writing fill a need? Do I have the patience to see whether it’s lasting enough to garner its own platform? And do I have the humility that will be content with never publishing a book if that’s the way things work out?

I submit this poem to Tweetspeak Poetry‘s challenge to capture a conversation in the sestina-form poem.

I also submit this to Seedlings in Stone‘s In “On and Around Monday” meme, where  this week L. L. Barkat expresses another aspect of the same sentiment — only far more subtly.

Light

Light

All galaxies and planets roaming free
In chaos through an undivided night
No creatures formed to know that they are blind
Only Creator knows what He will find
When blazing forth He parts the land from sea
Illuminates it with, “Let there be light”

 

The elements obey and there is light
Planets and stars within their orbits free
Earth’s budding beauty is a joy to see
Sun and moon undulate to day and night
Earth now becomes His treasured azure find
He sees its goodness from celestial blind

 

Guile snake with clever words desires to blind
Eve from the black and white command, makes light
of rule against eating that fruit, “You’ll find
Its succulence and sweetness sets you free”
She eats and gives to Adam, comes the night
Just like the serpent says, fruit helps them see

 

Both naked and ashamed is what they see
Fruit was to give them sight but made them blind
Now doomed by nature to a moral night
God is not stymied, brings His plan to light
He sends His perfect Son to loose, set free
Through thickest night of sin to seek and find

 

In all earth’s tumbling epochs still we find
Echoes of Eden’s story plain to see
Mankind’s rebellious efforts to stay free
From God’s effulgence, shielded by our blind
Of independence, we avoid His light
Roam earth’s confusing paths, stumble the night

 

Then like a mother, shepherd, prince or knight
He hears our cries, scales or descends to find
And bring us home to Him, eternal light
Like Saul of Tarsus, suddenly we see
And wonder how we could have been so blind
A former captive now could feel so free

 

Set free to plunge ourselves into earth’s night
Seek out the lost and blind to help them find
There is a way to see – Jesus is light

 

© 2011 by Violet Nesdoly
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This week I post another sestina. (For a definition of the form and links to more about it, see “Seasonal Sestina” below.) In “Light” I used three sets of rhyming words to see what the effect would be. I’m not sure it’s that pleasing. I’m also not completely satisfied with the somewhat ‘telling’ last line. It is what it is, I guess. I do believe its message with all my heart.

Seasonal Sestina

Snowdrops spring from graves between tree roots

The calendar announces it is spring
Our skies have lost their pallid arctic blue
Though wind still scatters puffs of icy flour
My garden boasts the spear-point of a plant
Can’t come too soon – this kinder, gentler reign
When all the world’s a’grin, even the ground

 

It’s lost its look of shrivel-parch – the ground
Grows sensuous, black and soft, as snowdrops spring
From graves between tree roots to drink the rain
Recall past years of late snow when wind blew
So hard almost uprooted every plant
In blusterous threat to pluck or maim each flower

 

Soon, soon the countryside’s abuzz with flowers
Warm sun has coaxed their secrets from the ground
My local garden center’s fat with plants
Apartment balconies announce the spring
With tubs of blooms magenta, yellow, blue
Quaint spouted cans that pour tap water rain

 

The days are hot, we need a soaking rain
Long sun-drenched hours sap life from every flower
Still hot sun burns a golden globe in blue
Long after dark warmth radiates from the ground
It dreams a shimmering mirage of springs
or even dew to fortify its plants

 

Fall air is sweet with smell of ripening plants
The burnished leaves make handprints in the rain
Twist stem of a new apple like a spring
Eat harvest soup and bread fragrant and floured
Pull turnips, carrots, spuds buried in ground
A pumpkin glows in sky of denim blue

 

First snow meringues the trees in softest blue
The roads are slippery coming from the plant
We need new winter tires to grip the ground
Remember sleigh and horse, just take the reins
To church, or work, or shop for eggs and flour
The roads all hard and glistening till the spring

 

We’ll hibernate till spring, cold hands turn blue
Scraping frost’s crystal flowers, the window plants
Of winter’s reign – wait springtime’s fertile ground

© 2011 by Violet Nesdoly

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July is the month TS PoetryPress is exploring the sestina.  The sestina is a form poem defined at About.com – Poetry:

Definition:
The sestina is a challenging form in which, rather than simply rhyming, the actual line-ending words are repeated in successive stanzas in a designated rotating order. A sestina consists of six 6-line stanzas, concluding with a 3-line “envoi” which incorporates all the line-ending words, some hidden inside the lines. The prescribed pattern for using the 6 line-ending words is:
1st stanza 1 2 3 4 5 6
2nd stanza 6 1 5 2 4 3
3rd stanza 3 6 4 1 2 5
4th stanza 5 3 2 6 1 4
5th stanza 4 5 1 3 6 2
6th stanza 2 4 6 5 3 1
envoi 2–5 4–3 6–1

And here’s the challenge to write a Sestina from L. L. Barkat (with more links to explain and teach the form).

I wrote this sestina several years ago during an April poem-a-day challenge.

Linked at One Shot Wednesday – Week 54