Seasonings
poems by Clarence A. Eden, Jr.
ISBN 1-59948-032-8, 70 pps. $8.95
This book is a collection of small form poems and to the pages have been cut to a 5 X 5 square to favor this new form.
Introduction / Samples / Author bio
something old to begin anew,
one girl friend to the next,
old year, new year.
Let’s try
a different way,
not just looking forward
but seeing change is sometimes slow.
Winter is still here, spring is not ready .
until temperatures quickly sink –
bite of a mongrel cur
on one’s ankle
of hope.
The old folks said,
This is the sign of spring.
It makes the blackberries blossom,
will fill pie pans with the finest cobbler.
eleven stout bodies intent
on running all the way,
eleven charge
to stop
the run, and take
the ball, two teams intent
on measured mayhem legalized,
game of fleet feet, passing arms, giant legs.
ORIGIN OF CEDENA
Having written poems for many years, I have become interested in the familiar forms of poetry and have crafted poems in many of them. One day in the middle of 2003, I was leafing through The Book of Forms by Lewis Turco (University Press of New England, 2002) and read a brief note about a “rubliw,” created by Richard Wilbur (named by the author, Turco). I wrote a few of these, though I seldom followed the illustrated rhyme scheme. The form is very close to a diamond in appearance on the page. Two examples follow:
is the blinding
sense of nothing to see,
and of nothing that can be seen..
Darkness, some say, is the absence of light.
Or is it the black hole of pain,
the void within the heart
left there by a
lost love.
DETAILS AT ELEVEN
is much like love,
sometimes hot, warm, cool, cold,
perhaps mild, though seldom certain.
Best clime gives changing seasons to keep
heart stirred, mind alert, spirit young.
Advice – live in one place
with faithful mate,
good dog.
Some time later, I was looking over my rubliw poems, and wondered what a poem designed as an opposite to rubliw might look like. A couple of hours produced my first poem in this form, as far as I knew. I asked many poet friends if they had seen this form, and none seemed familiar with it. Therefore, I felt that, at least for the moment, it was my creation. I gave it the name of Cedena, which flows lightly on the tongue and is derived from my last name and two initials. I have published one of these under the designation of Cedena. An example:
two from second and eight are shorn.
Six in third, seventh fine,
from four is torn
two more,
add to this line.
You need not be forlorn,
add rhyme and you will also find
cedena’s twin – cedena pryme is born.
Quite recently, I was surprised to find in An Exaltation of Forms
by Annie Finch and Kathrine Varnes (University of Michigan Press), a discussion
of “Carmina Figurata” which includes poems written in the shape
of something such as a stork, a vase, a person, etc, and deals with no
single shape. This included a poem by George Herbert (1593-1633) called
Easter Wings. This is a two stanza poem in a shape similar to Cedena. His
poem has two two-syllable lines in the middle of ten lines while the Cedena
has a single such line in the middle of nine lines. Both stanzas of Herbert’s
poem have a rhyme scheme: ababacdcdc.
There is apparently no record of Herbert’s having named his form,
and considering that the Cedena differs from his in at least some degree,
I am choosing to retain my name for this form. Most of my Cedenas are not
rhymed. The few that are I have called Cedena Pryme. I hope that others
will write Cedenas and find them as challenging and enjoyable as I do,
and also will develop new forms of their own. I close with an example of
a poem I found satisfying to write:
mysteries found within our selves,
curious sights we see,
a world so rich
with wit
we have to laugh
and let our thoughts produce
the priceless grace of words that paint
clear scenes of our wisdom and our folly.
Clarence Eden was born in Gastonia,
NC. He graduated from Wake Forest University, Southeastern Baptist Theological
Seminary in Wake Forest, NC. He received CLU and ChFC degrees from The
American College, Bryn Mawr, PA. He lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife.
They have two daughters and four grandchildren. He has published prose
in several venues and his poetry has appeared in a number of journals,
including Pinesong, Kakalak, Iodine Poetry Journal,
Beginnings, Apostrophe, Thrift, Spinning Words
Into Gold by Maureen Ryan Griffin (Main Street Rag, 2006), and others.