Tag: nature
I Am Struck
of all absurd notions,
i am struck how love
for forests or the trees
can be tied up in delusion and
compared to racist thoughts –
as if rain pulls over drivers
of a different color or
snow falls only with the
line of poverty –
we share the world
and forget that is living
off insurance with a high
deductible.
___
© Ben Ditmars 2017
#NEWRELEASE Sleeping with Earth
My new poetry collection Sleeping with Earth is available for pre-order! I’ve been working on it for sometime. The release date is September 29th.
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Here’s a sample:
Procreation
in the beginning,
before heavy elements
or stars
magnetism rested in
the dark sensation
of a solar breath.
Sleeping with Earth
Cold sweat, saliva
While the door slammed beneath us
My lips never left.
“Resist and she dies”
He told me as a hangman
Mocks the innocent.
And I surrendered
Like she was nothing less than
My entire world.
Kat at Aeternum Designs did an amazing job on the cover. It really goes with the message of my collection: the power and emotion behind nature.
Nature calls from the depths of itself, heating embers of a flame lost to global warming and withering romance. Hear voices find their truth as weeds tangle with free-verse and haiku poetry.
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Available on Amazon:
US: https://www.amazon.com/Sleeping-Earth-Ben-Ditmars-ebook/dp/B01M0EI7MQ/
UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sleeping-Earth-Ben-Ditmars-ebook/dp/B01M0EI7MQ/
Lost & Mellow
Robin Williams and Dolphins
I found an episode of In the Wild with Robin Williams about dolphins, where he swims and bonds with them. It is absolutely beautiful and I’d like to share the last part:
There’s Romeo, he’s a grandfather. And that’s Knuckles. But the dolphin I was to know best was Stubby: an older, darker male. He got his name from his chopped off dorsal fin….
Over the days we had several encounters but there was still one thing I wanted to do: find the wise old dolphin called stubby. I was really hoping he’d reappear. At the eleventh hour I got my wish….
After a while they peeled elegantly off the bow like blue angels and they just waited for us. And all the sudden there was Stubby inviting me to swim with him. I tried some tricks: sometimes he swam with me and sometimes I swam with him. Sometimes we just swam eye to eye, mutually curious. Being in the company of Stubby is a lot different than being in the company of the young teenage dolphins who seemed to be kind of laughing at me. It was like being the in the presence of someone wise; someone who’s seen years of life in the ocean: a lot of hard times and good times and survived it all. Another intelligence. I felt very peaceful: maybe he could detect my mood, ‘cause he seemed to be too. It’s getting late: you know that peaceful time just before twilight: the water was calm and it seemed like we were too. Maybe he was picking up my emotion, you know dolphins can see right through you with their sonar: maybe he was picking up my heartbeat. Maybe it was something else: I really would love to know. I’d love to figure out his language, understand what his clicking and whistling meant: make contact. But this is pretty nice: very close, very, very nice: the mutual observation.
– Robin Williams, 1994
Sunset Woods
Magnetic Midnight
green waves scratch
the surface of our sky,
igniting inlets, crescent
moons of ecstasy, swept
over foam.
© Ben Ditmars 2014
Red Lights
I decided to write a poem inspired by William Carlos Williams’ The Red Wheelbarrow. Natasha Head has also allowed me to use her breathtaking photograph.
Red Lights
red light contradicts
blue sky and so much
depends on makeshift branches
set in stone, and her translucence
glazed with ice.
© Ben Ditmars 2014
The Joy of Writing: Haiku
It is my firm belief that anyone can write poetry. It is not an art reserved for the learned or the few. Much like painting it can be taught. I want to walk you through a process today much like Bob Ross did in his series, Joy of Painting. We will have colors on our palette much the same comprising nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Follow along, express yourself, and above all, have fun.
The Joy of Writing
It’s a wonderful day to write poetry and today is about haiku. I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about it. It has to have 5-7-5 syllables or it must be about nature. These are guidelines at best. Modern haiku can be any combination of three verses under 17 syllables.
Let’s start out and run all the words across the screen that you need to write along.
First off, we have some basic nouns. Let’s make them about nature, though it is not a requirement:
Snow; flower; midnight; moon
Now, that you’ve got those, let’s consider what nature is doing by looking at verbs:
Whisper; sleep; fall; gaze
And finally, I’d like you to imagine how you will describe nature with adjectives:
brilliant; white; effervescent; swift
The first thing you’ll want to do with these nouns is pair them with verbs. Think: how am I like nature? I’ll give examples but you can put them anyway you like.
Sleeping flowers
Whisper Midnight
Falling snow
Remember our adjectives? We haven’t forgotten about them. Take them from the list and pair them up: brilliant, white, effervescent, swift.
Sleeping white flowers
Whisper swift Midnights
Effervescent snow
Feeling confident? There’s one more step. Feel free to change and rearrange verse in any way you see fit. Every line doesn’t necessarily need an adjective.
Whispering moons
Gaze on swift snowfall
Sleeping white flowers
Now, you’re a haiku poet. That’s all there is to it. Let me know how it turned out and be sure and share poems on your blog or in the comment section.
Until next time: stay confident and stay writing!
The Midnight Writer 