Deconstructing a Haiku

A furry fury
rampaging in the bracken,
a wolverine's lair.

I posted this poem on Friday morning during a flurry of haiku written during my last break of my full-time overnight shift. I thought I would use it here, to illustrate the lightning-in-a-bottle process that is how I write poetry.

With less than two hours until the end of my shift as an overnight stocker, I realized it had been some time since I had written poetry independent of the myriad Twitter prompts I take advantage of, spurring my creativity. So I chose to forego the prompts for the nonce, using the opportunity to write several haiku.

As I wrote, my focus bifurcated, splitting between the words I was writing and
various seeds for poems. These seeds are thoughts, images, phrases, and other fragmentary bits that creep into my writing. One of the most common seeds comes in the form of plays on words - puns, double entendres, homonyms/homophones, paradoxes and oxymorons, and alliteration.

The alliterative phrase of a furry fury stood out to me, so I started thinking about what kind of creature would be considered as such.

Wolverines and badgers are, pound for pound, just about the most vicious mammals in existence. Especially when backed into a corner, when on the defensive.

From there, knowing I was going to write about a furry fury on the defensive, it was a matter of trial-and-error, looking for the correct words to fit the constraints of the classic haiku: Three lines; Seventeen syllables; First and third lines contain five syllables each.

I still needed to give the reason the wolverine was being such a fury. And that reason came, with the thought of its den. After trying a few combinations that didn't fit, I came to the final wording.

All in the matter of five minutes from initial seed to posting the poem on my Twitter timeline. Most of the process taking place subconsciously, or intuitively.

And now you see how I write!

Repost: About the Hypocrisy of Wordplay

Originally Posted to @TorturdCyclone via TwitLonger:

How many times have you heard someone on Twitter excuse a series of explicit, erotic, intimate posts as "just wordplay?"

Too many. Including from my own tweets.

The fact of the matter is that social media is intimate. Sometimes, frighteningly so. There are things I tell here in my Tweets that I would never say to someone in the real world.

So many times, a person denies that they would ever cheat upon their spouse/partner/et al... And then they participate in wordplay. Explicit wordplay. Erotic wordplay. Hyper-romantic wordplay. Wordplay that even causes the readers to have a sexual response...

The most powerful and enticing wordplay is when the participants make it more than two people being clever and agile with their words. The strongest instances have emotional context, sexual context.

They bring release at climax... sometimes including physical release from voluntary or involuntary responses and stimulation.

So what is the difference if a woman seeking a lover's touch, if it is real or virtual? Should there be a distinction?

I argue there should not be.

If I wordplay with a woman the way I want to, she will feel pleasure. All that I can give her. That is my aim.

And how many tweets are there about seducing a woman's mind, and her body following?

Slippery slope here. Think before you play.

What Am I Doing Here?

What am I doing here?

I'm forty-four years old, married for almost 13 years, have two children, and work an average 55 to 60 hours a week, to keep my family fed.

How can I have the time to pursue a writing career? How can I continue my evolution as a Polyamorous man, a Dominant, and maintain relationships over distance?

Many people would be daunted just by the real-world burdens I bear. Since my wife's stroke in 2012, and the subsequent series of car accidents she had as a driver, she is no longer insurable, which makes me the only legal driver in our family. Since 2007, my wife has been on kidney dialysis, which has left me as the breadwinner for the family.

With all my responsibility, how can I look at others, and have relationships that are in addition to that relationship with my wife and children?

My answer is simple. How can I not?

As an Empath. I sense the feelings of those around me, those I contact. Knowing their feelings, it becomes easy to care for the people I connect to, bonding emotionally. In this manner, I discovered the truth that, at least, for me, love is neither singular or exclusive.

I chose to pursue my long-term ambitions as a writer, using Twitter as springboard and inspiration for my poetry. The momentum and confidence gained have led into this year.

Building on sales of poetry for the second Poetry Project by Fray'd Tag Publishing and Neverlasting by Fiery Verse LLC, my plans for 2015 include multiple collections of poetry, a campaign on IndieGogo, and this blog.

I invite all of you along for the ride, dear Readers.

TC