Haircut

I just walked into Mahoney's in woburn center. This is one of those places where you feel you stepped back in time. The ceramic looking tile floor is browned by age, cracked in places missing segments in others. The entire place seems like early nineteen hundreds, or even as young as nineteen forties. I suspect a nineteenth century lineage though. There is always a line because Charlie the owner does good work.  Nit far from where I'm sitting hangs a nice large photo of president John f Kennedy.
The brick facade out side, and large wooden pane windows, and the finish of a haircut with a straight edge razor are partly why I love this place.
  Maybe some day people will visit woburn, like they visit boston, salem and concord.

Cover design

This was a picture I took on Derby Warf in Salem, Ma. and I had wanted to use for the cover of my poetry collection. But, the publisher does not like the fact there are unknown people walking through. It is an artistic shot, and photography as art sometimes has unknown people in it.  So I have hired a local artist to design me a cover for my next book.
#booklaunch  

       Well no one said it would be easy any ways. As soon as I get the cover the project will move forward. Too bad, this photo would have made a swell cover.

A Creative Take On A Sonnet

A sonnet is a traditional poetic form of fourteen lines, set in iambic-pentameter. There are many variations of this Italian form. The first sonnets had an octave and a setset. The poem's subject would turn or give a different perspective at in the setset. And also had a rhyming variation. abababab cdecde is one of these.
  
    The Shakesperian version or English model had three quatrains followed by a couplet, and the Spenserian had four tercets followed by a couplet. And the Austrailian version has an enveloping rhyme pattern to it.
Italian Sonnet

     My version of the sonnet (an American model), is quite different and has a unique feel to it. It starts with a couplet followed by a tercet, followed by a quatrain, adding the turn with a following tercet and then reversing the order of the repeated couplet as a sort of refrain. This can create an introspective feel to the whole. I will give a few examples, and you can try this sonnet and post yours below.

In Elder Wood

He watches snow fall through the night and sighs
The cave will hide him from the storm's full-size.

He gathers wood and builds a smoky fire
And dreams inside the flames and green wet wood,
A feeling steals him, prodding crackling choir.

His shelter warms, and holds away the storm
And dreams return of her, a girl in snow
She dances near the winsome elm aglow,
And beckons him out near her tree and form.

He casts a glance to warm his soul's desire
And wanders out, on through the dark and stood
Beside a lithe-pale ginger girl so dire.

The cave will hide him from the storm's full-size
He watches snow fall through the night and sighs.

The Summer of 1985 (In The Murmuring Trees, Xlibris 2012)

In wisps of fog, remember castle grounds
I walked among the ruins on walls and sounds.

Two weeks we camped outside, in pouring rain
Irish boys played in mud, we ran and slid
In Portumna I wish I could remain.

Tallaght, we stayed a couple days and nights
A dance to haunt my life, my heart undid
I left a girl, my love behind, a kid
To dream of dancing with her then, delights.

A song to take away the dreams and pain
She came to me, I pushed away amid
I feel the loss, my faults in broken chain.

I walked among the ruins on walls and sounds
In wisps of fog, remember castle grounds.

Notice the rhyming patterns and how they differ between my two examples.
Now try your hand at my sonnet version and post it below for the enjoyment of all.
Please check out this link for more info on sonnet's Poetic Asides Blog 
In The Murmuring Trees

Why Hello...

           Hi, My pen name is R. Tirrell Leonard Jr. My first collection of poetry was titled, "In The Murmuring Trees." It is available at rtleonard.com, where you can also read the reviews on it, it's also available at Amazon.com, and you can buy a signed copy from the book rack in the loby of the Hawthorne Hotel.

        I just went back to school to procure my degree in creative writing. I am attending Southern New Hampshire University, and working my regular full time job as a banquet waiter for the Hawthorne Hotel in Salem, Ma. and some how still finding time to write with a hectic schedule.

       I am also about to release a new book, which will be called, "In Season's Dream." I worked with an editor on this one, Tanya Gold.

       I will post some poetry here, and detail the journey from here to book launch and beyond. I may also post other ramblings and perhaps an essay or two..maybe though...
     
       But in all I may just post before coffee here or there if I remember to, I am going to make a better effort than my last blog, I think the last time I posted to it was five years ago. It's been nice chatting with you, so very glad to have met, and just maybe you'll check out my website, http://rtleonard.com. And yes as the Title of this blog goes, R is for Robert.

            Sincerely, Robert Tirrell Leonard Jr.