Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page: The Man with the Twisted Lip

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Welcome once again to my poetry page!

I hope each week you will read Dr. Watson’s delightful narrative and then go on to write a poem related to it in some way. All forms of poetry are permitted, and further down the page there is a selection you might like to consider using over the coming weeks.

And here, courtesy of my housemaid Rachel, is this week’s suggested poem to read—a suggestion inspired by the themes and subjects in this week's story. Hopefully you will enjoy the poem, and perhaps it may give you some ideas for a poem of your own or allow you to look at Dr. Watson's story in a new way.



Still Life

by Katie Ford


Note from Rachel: This poem reminds me of Mr. St. Clair, who seemed addicted to his double life and convinced it was no crime. 'What can you accuse me of?' the poem asks.



Thank you so much to Rachel. And here is my suggested form to revisit this week: the ghazal. (The link takes you back to a previous poetry page.)

But you do not have to use that form. Any form of poetry is welcome this week—and every week! Here are a few suggestions for you:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, ballad, beeswing, blackout poetry, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, colour poems, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, epigram, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, limerick, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, quintilla, renga, riddle, rime couée, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, sonnet, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle


Please leave all your poems inspired by The Man with the Twisted Lip in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!


Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson

Comments

Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

A middle-class husband is missed.
A slum-den holds child’s building-bricks.
Beggar Boone’s in a cell
Till a sponge makes him tell –
And the tale, like his lip, has a twist.

Re: Limerick

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Oh, I like that last line. Excellent stuff.

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It's always a challenge to encapsulate a whole story in 5 lines.

Re: Limerick

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Very neat, especially that last line.

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Couldn't resist. It was a twist ending, after all!

Re: Limerick

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Very well done. Echo the kudos for the last line.

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Twist ending for a twisted lip - how could I resist?

RE: Limerick

[debriswoman]

Very nice:-)

Re: Limerick

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much. I do like this particular story.

A ghazal

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Holmes starts off the case in disguise
Doyle’s clue to the solution, in disguise.

She must not show her fear to the world.
Dark stuff, black veil acts as a disguise.

Folk flock to the lighthouse’s shelter:
A caring heart she doesn’t disguise.

Interests in the city, and a man in need.
Both sides revealed to be a disguise.

The writer hides her everyday self.
Frankles: an edited, online disguise.

Re: A ghazal

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I do like that last line - very clever use.

Re: A ghazal

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Thank you ^^ I thought it worked well.

Re: A ghazal

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Very nice. I think you do the bit about every couplet being a pearl on a chain very well. Each stands alone but relates to the other.

Re: A ghazal

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Thank you ^^ I'm very pleased you thought that aspect worked.

Re: A ghazal

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Another very well thought, and so well written, poem. I love that last couplet! And the double disguise in the couplet before is also great.

Re: A ghazal

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

RE: A ghazal

[debriswoman]

Very neat, and a proper ghazal with the poet's name in the last couplet:-)

Re: A ghazal

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I'm so pleased you noticed that ^_^ I didn't start off planning to use my own name in the poem but the concept fitted so neatly ^^

RE: Re: A ghazal

[debriswoman]

Worked well:-)

Re: A ghazal

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Tee hee. Beautifully done. And very much in keeping with the whole story's theme of nothing being as it seems.

Re: A ghazal

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Thank you ^_^

Yes, the story seems to be full of disguises once you start looking for them.

A Ghazal

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

A problem could best be solved by having a smoke
Despite the comfortable room he turns to smoke

He removes his jacket and then also his waistcoat
Puts on his blue dressing gown in order to smoke

He wanders around the room gathering up pillows
To make himself comfortable while he has a smoke

Briar pipe between his lips, his eyes fixed vacantly
He ponders as towards the ceiling curls the smoke

Watson wakes to find the summer sun shining in
And breaking through the tobacco haze of smoke

Re: A Ghazal

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

Very nice. I like the progression of the scene.

Re: A Ghazal

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much.

Re: A Ghazal

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I really like those last two couplets - especially the very last. The change from Holmes to Watson, and just that image of the sun shining through the smoke.

Re: A Ghazal

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I realised it wasn't quite correct as a ghazal, but Watson was the author of the original tale, so I thought it should count.

Re: A Ghazal

[laurose8.livejournal.com]

Besides the lovely rhythm, this is so solid. Well done, that smallhobbit.

Re: A Ghazal

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much.

RE: A Ghazal

[debriswoman]

This is lovely:-)
The last couplet in particular:-)

Re: A Ghazal

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Thank you. I wanted to bring in some contrast.

Re: A Ghazal

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Smoke, smoke everywhere. Well, at least he's not an OPIUM addict, eh?

Re: A Ghazal

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Exactly. And he knows how the time is passing ...

Re: A sort of ghazal: Isa Whitney

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

I do like the way you show Whitney sinking into the opium oblivion.

RE: Re: A sort of ghazal: Isa Whitney

[debriswoman]

Thank you...a bit grim though...

Re: A sort of ghazal: Isa Whitney

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

Poor Isa. If only he'd stuck to good honest stuff like cocaine, tobacco and liquor.

RE: Re: A sort of ghazal: Isa Whitney

[debriswoman]

How times change...

Re: A sort of ghazal: Isa Whitney

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

Looks like a very definite ghazal to me ^^ I noticed your use of kaafiyah, by the way ^^

And that last line really packs a punch.

RE: Re: A sort of ghazal: Isa Whitney

[debriswoman]

Thank you...and yes:-p
Well spotted.

A ghazal (with extra line)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

A foolish freak to lace an ounce of shag
with laudanum, replace an ounce of shag
with shame, with pain, with strife, a life’s own worth.

A silly choice: a beggar’s Boone. To waste
love’s trust as one’d displace an ounce of shag
with pounds and pence of lies disguised, misspent.

A Lascar’s pocket brims: with secrets, coins,
and post to soon misplace. An ounce of shag
is all that he may call his own, not bought.

A doctor’s flaw: to fear the worst of one
near opiate’s embrace. An ounce of shag,
a sleight of hand, in fog, the hound doth hide.

A case resolved on pillows five. A haze
of smoke the only trace an ounce of shag
has left, of kindled-mind and prose inside.

Re: A ghazal (with extra line)

[scfrankles.livejournal.com]

I really like what you've done with the form ^_^

I see like debriswoman, you've used kaafiyah. But it's so subtly done - I noticed it was there in the first verse but it took me a while to realise it was there all the way through.

I love a beggar's Boone and pounds and pence of lies disguised, misspent. Also An ounce of shag,/ a sleight of hand, in fog, the hound doth hide, and that final beautiful of kindled-mind and prose inside.

Re: A ghazal (with extra line)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

I like the form a lot. I will definitely put it in Inky's repertoire, if the right prompt arises.

Yes, that was the challenge, but a good one.

So glad you caught my acrostic signature! I was hoping it wasn't too obscure. After much thought, I couldn’t think of how to work an actual okapi in.

Thank you!

Re: A ghazal (with extra line)

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Beautiful wording - and very clever with it. I am so impressed with your poetic ability - I battle with the basic form and yours truly dances.

Re: A ghazal (with extra line)

[okapi1895.livejournal.com]

You're very kind (and poetic!). I am more intrigued by this form than, say, your friend the villanelle. I don't know why. Sometimes I am in the mood for a brain challenge, which I think these complicated forms are, but I think debriswoman said once the trick is not to let form take over function, so you still have to say something. I have to remind myself it isn't just a metre puzzle, I have to communicate something and the description was poetic (pearls on a chain) and resonated with me.

This form will be add to the possibilities for Inky, too.

Re: A ghazal (with extra line)

[thesmallhobbit.livejournal.com]

Poetry is probably the only form where I write emotions, and where I don't want the brain challenge. Which isn't to say all my poems are full of emotions ;) but if I am expressing something I don't want to battle the metre at the same time. You however do it very well. And I can see the form suiting Inky.