Monday, January 08, 2007

Writing again

I've been writing again - a new poem which you can find over at frankenstina. The subject matter had been swirling gently in my head for a few days - since driving round the Holy Loch on one of these days when you're always looking out for the next downpour, heralded usually by the sudden disappearance of some landmark which had been perfectly visible two minutes previously. A smidgin of blue sky reminded me that above the clouds it's always a sunny day - a revelation that still amazes me every time I take off in a plane. The poem finally appeared at half past midnight last night, so sleep proved elusive.

I'm having bothers, however, in formatting my poems for satisfactory layout on the screen. The short half-line at the beginning of the second section of this poem should appear below where it would have been had it stayed on the line above, where rhythmically speaking it belongs. If anyone can supply an idiot's guide to the correct html to achieve this, I'd be grateful. (I've tried centering, but this sticks it miles away in mid-screen.)

However, I am decidedly pleased by the fact that this poem came to me in the form in which it appears. After being hung up with a regular metre for some months now, it was with a grateful bow to the memory of RST that I felt free once more to go with the words and my inner ear. It's early days yet to see if I think it's a success, but I enjoyed the process.

7 comments:

  1. Would using the preformatted element work? I'm not sure if blogger accepts it.

    You create the text as you want it and place it between "pre" and "/pre" (replacing the " with angle brackets as per normal html commands).

    You could try!

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  2. Anonymous6:16 PM

    bother, an honest man got there first. Your rector so wanted so show of her new html skills. Just be warned that once you do this it will be in an ugly font that you just have to live with.

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  3. I had also suggested the use of "blockquote", but I've just checked that and it won't do what is needed.

    In theory one can change font etc using the "span class" element, but that probably means defining a "style" at the page head level.

    I'll have a play around on my other 'non-active' blog and see what I can achieve. I'll really need to look up my html element definitions!

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  4. Ugly font? Can't have that. It's as well I don't have a host of subscribers or I'd drive them nuts with my fiddling ......

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  5. I've sent you an email with code included which will work in Blogger and allow you to set font, size and color on preformatted text.

    You might want to pass the mail on to Kimberley for her information.

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  6. Anonymous11:10 PM

    Hi Chris
    Dorothy here again, unable to post except as anonymous. Sorry.

    Very interesting and thought-provoking poem.

    I'm not sure what your formatting idea is. Will it mean that the appearance of the poem resembles a tall cloud?

    I really liked the premise.

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  7. Dorothy - glad you liked it. I wasn't so bothered by the physical appearance of the poem (who was it wrote "butterfly wings"?) but by the fact that the half - line belonged with the first half rhythmically but needed the separation. Does that make sense? Mind - the idea of a tall cloud ....hmmm..:-)

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