This year we devised a sequence of manageable challenges to steer participants away from the terror of the empty page. It was a simple idea: inspired by experiences in the workshop, complete a specific series of short poems, calibrated for difficulty, each with a manageable deadline. The contests: a Golden Line, a Metrical Haiku and an Epigram. A fourth, unplanned contest emerged from the proceedings: Complete-the-Couplet. We were keen on having participants approach our three afternoon Field Trips as explicit opportunities for poetic inspiration. The three trips this year were: “M-M-M” (Mazara, Marsala and Motya), Mt. Erice and Segesta. To inject a little fun (bordering on absurdity), we created a game, Gradus ad Ericem, the objective of which was to amass stickers: one for every challenge surmounted. Of course other meters and topics (Aliud) were warmly welcome and generously rewarded.

A self-contained line of dactylic hexameter with:

• a verb in the middle
• 2 nouns
• 2 adjectives as follows:

adj. adj. verb. noun. noun.

These features make the poetry zip along with a bit of enthusiasm. Add your little layer of wit at the end.

VERSIFICATIO

Quantula terribili compono carmina nisu!
How small are the poems I’m producing with frightful effort!

Horrida non duros detorquet dextera versus.
(My) rough hand will not twist the strict lines.

DE MODIS METRICIS/ ON METER
Plurima inaspectis generantur praemia mendis.
Many rewards are born from unseen mistakes.

NOTA POETAE/ A NOTE TO THE POET:
Ingeniosa piger faciet non carmina vates.
A lazy bard will not write ingenious verses.

SICILY/FIELD TRIPS

Candida vivifices evitant bracchia soles
White arms avoid life-giving sunshine

Indomita antiquum pulsabant maria litus
The ancient shore is beaten by the untamed seas.

DEADLY DAEDALUS
Daedalium victam delevit crimen Acestam.
Daedalian crime annihilated conquered Segesta.

GOLDEN PASTURES, GOLDEN LINE
Mollia perveteres cingebant pascua olivas
Soft pastures fringed ancient olive trees.

FONTANASALSA

Insomnes calido deplorant aere puellae
The sleepless girls lament because of the hot air

MICHAEL, CANIS
Lamentabilis afflictos tollit canis artus
The mournful dog lifts his broken limbs.

AD LACUNAM SUPER OLEUM
O viridis, veteri nunc cresce, lacuna, papyro!
Oh pool, now grow green with ancient papyrus!

FICTA ANIMO (IMAGININGS)

Robustus mustos portat flores adolescens
The strong youth carries fresh flowers

Silvicolus parvos agitat ranunculus ulmos.
The little wood-dwelling frog shakes the young elm trees.

VACATION IN GAUL
Gallica formosa cognoscam gaudia catta
May I get to know Gallic pleasures with a pretty cat.

A 3-line, 17 syllable poem, following the guidelines of Stephen Coombs:

• line 1: 5 syllables, iambic
• line 2: 7 syllables, dactylic
• line 3: 5 syllables, iambic

A four-line poem in Elegiac Couplets having:

• no elisions in the second half of the pentameters
• each pentameter ending with a 2-syllable word to produce:
• a coincidence of ictus and accent in the penultimate word
• a conflict of ictus and accent in the final word
• a twist, ideally in the 2nd line of each couplet, certainly in the 4th line

VERSIFICATIO

Scribere candida ubi conans ego carmina quare
   perdita sum? Quis me leviget arte rudem?
Quomodo? Thesauris, sociis iam consiliandis?
   Libris volvendis? Aurea vatis ero.

Whenever I try to write beautiful poetry, why
   am I lost? Who might skillfully polish foolish me?
How? Now by thesauri, by friends advice consulted?
   By books read? I will be a golden poet.

DE VERSIBUS COMPONENDIS
Infelix qui non potui cognoscere rhythmi
   causas, sed sedeo stultus ineptus hebes,
erodens unguis, papyrum et calamos male dicens,
   calvitium pulsans, iudiciumque tremens.

ON VERSE COMPOSITION
Unfortunate I, who don’t yet know the causes
   of rhythm, but sit foolish, incompetent, dull,
gnawing my fingernails, cursing my paper and pens,
   beating my bald head, and trembling at judgment.

CAMPAIGNING FOR THE MUSE
Commixtus breviter belleque exercitus Musae
   arma pedesque vibrans orat opemque petit.
Victo Erice immani ascensu pedites requiescunt
   emeritis reditus percalefactus erit

Briefly and beautifully mixed, the army of the Muse
   Wielding arms and feet prays and seeks aid.
Once Erice’s vanquished by a mammoth climb, the troops relax
   After they’re discharged, a warm homecoming awaits.

FIELD TRIPS/SICILY

CACUMEN MUNDI
In cathedra sedeo celsa orbem despicioque,
   Obscuro jugulo mundus apertus erit.
Sin subito caelum cadet ostendens nemorosum,
   Aspectum videam; sim sapientior hoc.

ON TOP OF THE WORLD
I sit on the lofty throne and look down upon the world,
   From the obscured throat, the world will be clear.
If the sky should fall revealing the groved land,
   I would see that sight; in this I would be a wiser man

O SCHOLA!
Quam mirabilis, O Schola, ac insula parva videris!
   Umquam homines aderant? Qualia pulchra tenes?
Quamquam fama tenet sic te notam Ciceroni,
   Nusquam scripta manent; heu, sine more locus.

O Schola, how tiny and marvelous an island you seem!
   Were ever men present? What sort of beautiful things do you hold?
Although rumor has it in such a way that you were known to Cicero,
   Nowhere do writings remain; alas, a place without a custom.

CHAPEL BAKERY
Trinacriae scopulis superatis nos peregrini
   Oremus tristes invalidique fame:
“Intuita effigies matris dulcissima sanctae
   E fanis Ericis crustula nostra bea!”

Having scaled the crags of Sicily, we wayfarers
   Gloomy and weakened with hunger, let us pray:
“Most sweet protecting statue of our Holy Mother,
   From your sacred precincts of Eryx, bless our pastries!”

NAUTAE ORBICULUS
Ad telam assidens mater sub vespere sola,
   Omnino lacrimis flet tunicamque rigat,
Fila secans gemitu, circum assurgentibus umbris,
   Quare liquisti me sine luce tua?

THE SAILOR’S BUTTON
A mother sitting alone at her loom as evening falls,
   weeps and thoroughly drenches the tunic with her tears,
with a groan cutting the threads, as the shadows rise all around,
   “Why have you left me without your light?”

MARSALAE LACUNA SALSA
Proni desaliunt homines e nubibus altis,
   Piscibus humani praeda petuntur aquae.
Infimus unda summa quo nunc misceat aer,
   Dimidiae mundi conveniantque duae.

THE SALT LAGOON OF MARSALA
Downward people jump from the high clouds,
   And are sought as prey by the fish of the water.
Where the bottom of the air now mixes with the top of the wave,
   Let two halves of the world meet.

METUS ALTITUDINUM
Deplorata humilis mortalis ego propre turrim
   ingentem graduum paula verens cadere:
marcida pertineo fletu sublime cacumen;
   est trepidatio non, sicuti celsa dea.

FEAR OF HEIGHTS
Weeping, I, a lowly mortal near a huge tower
   of steps, fearing to fall:
Withered, I reach the lofty summit with a tear;
   there is no fear now, just as a high goddess.

Signata amphora vina potestne profundere numquam
   Ancto aut subere de gutture ferre solet?
Tam cupio gutum iugulareque carmine plenum
   Exhaurire gulam. Irrita signa manent.

Is a sealed amphora never able to pour out wine?
   Is it accustomed to bring forth from a throat choked by a cork?
I so long to cut the throat of this long necked jar filled with song
   and to empty (its) throat. The useless seals remain.

FONTANASALSA

MONUMENTA
Tempore contritas has contemplare ruinas.
   Aedificata hominum posthabitura cadunt.
En! Nodosa tenax quam saecula oliva perennat;
   Naturae lente diu monumenta manent.

MONUMENTS
Consider these ruins eroded by time;
   the disregarded constructions of men fall.
Lo! the knotty olive, how tenacious she survives;
   Pliantly the monuments of nature last and last.

Felix ille canis tota spectatus in urbe
   Quo pueri ducunt assolet ire vigens
O si sic validis pedibus mihi pergere detur!
   Hic namque in stabulo claudicus usque moror.

That lucky dog, respected all over the city,
   Wherever the boys take him he can go full of life.
If only I had strong feet and were allowed to go on walks like that.
   I stay here in the stable all the time, the lame one.

CULEX
Ecce culex sedit, sculptura tenellula spinae.
   Rostello tacito perforat ista manum.
Sed, potu poto, propria ebriolast fuga namque
   venula sanguinis est propria plena meri.

Behold, the mosquito has sat, a delicate little sculpture of a needle.
   With its silent little beak that mosquito punctures my hand.
But, drink having been drunk, its own flight is now drunk, for
   my own little vein is full of undiluted blood.

FONTANASALSA
Agro, sermones efflorescunt quasi flores;
   vina cibumque parat filia regis, era.
Latratus catuli, risus operis modulati;
   vati, vini fit magna ruina satis!

On the farm, conversations bloom just like the flowers;
   the daughter of a king, mistress of the house, prepares wine and food.
The barking of the little dog, the laughter of the work are rhythmic;
   for a poet, a great enough tumbling down of wine occurs!

QUIDLIBET

AD VIATORES A NATIS COMITATOS
Aëria in navi, cum me vix somnus habebat,
   Voces horribiles edidit iste puer.
Είς κόρακας adeant omnes quicumque molestis
   (Hercule!) cum natis aëre nave volent!

TO THOSE TRAVELING WITH CHILDREN
“On the airplane, when sleep was only just beginning to take me,
   That damn kid let out terrible screams.
To the crows with all who would fly through the air
   (by Hercules!) with noxious children in a plane!”

During his lecture introducing the Elegiac Couplet, David’s advice was to begin with the second line, the pentameter. This called for a demonstration. For subject matter, he turned to the Petasus Musarum (Inspiration Hat).

THE INSPIRATION:

“A poem about the chickens drowned by P. Claudius Pulcher before the 1st Battle of Drepanum in 249 B.C.E: ‘If they will not eat, let them drink.'”

(Cicero, in De Natura Deorum II.7, quotes Pulcher before the battle: bibant quoniam esse nolunt. He explains that when the auspices were taken, the sacred chickens refused the offered grain, so he pitched them into the sea. Needless to say, the battle was an unmitigated disaster for the Romans.)

THE PENTAMETER

Si pulli nolunt ulla vorare bibant!
If the chickens won’t eat, let them drink!

This is as far as we got by the end of the hour. David invited participants to compose a hexameter that would serve as an introduction to the pentameter. Most kept to the historic underpinnings of the story, but a few went off in an entirely new direction.