Poetry in Real Life

When I was working on my master's degree, I took a class in teaching poetry. Though I personally dislike poetry, I really loved this class. I think I liked it because I have never really gotten poetry. Little limericks are funny, but unless it rhymes and is clever, what's the point? Wouldn't it be easier to just say what you mean?

Forcing myself to figure out what it means, and finding a way to explain that to others made me appreciate poetry a little more.

One of the wonderful forms of poetry that I didn't know about before I took this class was the villanelle. From Wikipedia:

A villanelle is a poetic form which entered English-language poetry in the 1800s from the imitation of French models.[1] A villanelle has only two rhyme sounds. The first and third lines of the first stanza are rhyming refrains that alternate as the third line in each successive stanza and form a couplet at the close. A villanelle is nineteen lines long, consisting of five tercets and one concluding quatrain. [2]

That sounds complex and doesn't make any sense, right? Well, one of the very clever people in my class found this comic strip, which explains it in a lovely entertaining way. (It's by Cat and Girl, which is lovely and entertaining. Sometimes the link seems to go to a random page. So, I'm trying to put the strip in here. If you can't read it, go to Cat & Girl's archives and search for "sandwich" I believe it is called "sandwich are cheap.")

This is all a long way of saying that it warmed the cockles of my English Lit heart to hear that someone at Planet Money wrote a villanelle about the economy. Awesome.

Welcome!

I started making sock monkeys on accident. I had some extra fabric which I thought would make a good teddy bear for a friend's baby shower. As it turns out, teddy bears are kind of tough to make. I stumbled upon instructions for making sock monkeys and decided to give it a try. The first monkey was a little ugly, but I love him nonetheless. The second one was excellent, and still one of the best I've made.

That second monkey was the start of a trend. Someone at the baby shower wanted one for her kid. I made two more monkeys for a friend at work having twins, and then people at work started asking for them. I like making them and people seem to want them, so I set up an etsy store. www.funnymonkeys.etsy.com

I am getting close to putting some monkeys up for sale on etsy. So far, every monkey I've made has been claimed long before I have a chance to add it to my etsy store. I am close to finishing another monkey, which may or may not be claimed, but I have pre-made a bunch of monkey bodies, so I'm hoping my morning commute becomes a little more productive, and I can get more monkeys made before people request them.

Since etsy only lets me post pictures of things for sale, I created this blog so people can see some of the things I've done in the past. Pictures coming soon.