New Desert Poems in "Inlandia: A Literary Journey"
 

I am pleased to find two poems of mine—‘High and Dry in the Mojave Desert,’ as well as ‘Rondeau Redouble: The Gun Among the Lawless’—included in the winter issue of Inlandia: A Literary Journey. Here is a link to them both.

As you may recall, the Rondeau had been workshopped not long ago here. Many thanks to you whose comments formed the spur, without which I would not have doubled down so as to drive it as far.

Congratulations, Erik!

John

Congrats, Erik. I enjoyed the poems very much. I also think your middle name "Lloyd" is cool.

Congratulations, Erik. I remember the Rondeau Redouble. I enjoyed both poems.

Congrats, Erik!

John,

I appreciate the kind word. Thank you for reading. The Rondeau poem was a long time coming but well worth it seemingly.


Aaron P,

Benigne dicis! I am glad to hear that you like the name. I have not prevented them since they started printing it thus; doubt I will any time soon, too loyal to Lloyd already I suppose.


Martin,

Stands to reason that you should remember a blue moon up like this from a Rondeau constellation far far away from anything like frequent use. Everyone will at least have seen a Rondeau before, as you yourself mentioned In Flanders Fields I think in your comments on this poem. Yet truth be told, this forme fixe would fail to suggest kinship with the Rondeau did not it include the name in its designation; in no way is it a doubled Rondeau, and it hardly suggests that form more than any that has limited rhyme sounds and more or less frequent reiterations of a refrain. So what on earth is it? The Rondeau Redouble, for the curious, is written in six quatrains, rhyming on two alternate rhymes, then a final hemistich line. Its one distinctive feature: Each line of the first quatrain is used again in the same order to serve for the last line of verses two, three, four, and five; while the last line of the sixth takes a final refrain of the first half of the initial line of the poem to conclude the whole in a hard to make unawkward hemistich. Phew! In any event, thank you for stopping by. I am glad that you enjoyed reading both of these poems.


Aaron N,

Thank you much. I figure Inlandia is as apt a home as any for these two poems. What, with the Mojave Desert being attached to Inland Empire, even if it extends so much beyond the greater Los Angeles area as to reach Las Vegas. The dogged commitment to this most obsessive form mirrored the mission of the personages under treatment. After many toilsome hours had been spent on a horse so remote from the promise of success, I would surely have quit then and there but for the round of shrewd and honest criticisms from you about, say, those of the repetends that still did not pull a Houdini. One thing I learned on Eratosphere is that assiduity long continued seldom fails of its reward. So I yielded all to that veritable devil of a form which rather directed me than the other way around. I am grateful for it.

Congrats Erik!

Awesome, Erik!!

Congratulations!

Congrats, Erik. I remember both of those poems fondly.

Best,

Aaron