Tube Amp On A Plank No. 2 + Compact Leslie Cabinet

Maybe I thrive on clutter. One thing's for sure- a sterile environment stifles creativity, unless you're more of a modern copy-and-paste "look wut I made!" person. Okay, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, the Conn organ amp on a plank.

Originally this tube amplifier salvaged from a defunct ‘50s Conn organ was a power amp only, no preamp, and also had a sizable secondary power transformer that provided a 12VAC filament supply via an umbilical cable to the organ’s tone generator and preamplifier chassis. Before I removed that unneeded 12V supply transformer, leaving a big rectangular hole, this thing weighed a ton. Prior to circuit re-imagining, I used it for impromptu weight training in the workshop (fun fact: a big old power transformer makes a great as-found shot put); even now this amp is a weighty piglet. In the four now-empty circular holes on top were three capacitor cans and one of those interesting 0A3 radioactive voltage regulator tubes.


The original circuit was:
After the audio line level input from the tone generator / preamp was a variable attenuator, a 25K pot with a locknut tightened screwdriver slot shaft. This was followed by a 7-pin 6C4 (like 1/2 a 12AU7) voltage amplifier, then into a 12AU7 wired as a paraphase inverter. The resultant phase-split signals powered a push/pull pair of 6L6G output current amplifiers. I forget what the B+ voltage after the 5U4G rectifier was, but it was very high, and there was a sizable wire wound resistor in line for voltage reduction and a bit of filtering, and the 0A3 regulator did its thing too - in whatever manner it does that, of which I have no clue. Doesn’t matter anyway, I removed all of the original circuitry and components except the main power and output transformers, and three tube sockets (7 pin, 9 pin, and the octal rectifier socket), which were still in fine shape 70 years after manufacture.

As rewired, the Conn’s new circuit is sort of based on a single input version of a 1950s Fender 5E5 Pro - which was like a much louder 5E3 Deluxe. Basically it’s a 1/4” shorting jack with a 1M to ground, through a 33K grid stopper into a 7 pin 6AV6 (which is 1/2 a 12AX7 plus two diodes, neither of which are connected here), into a volume potentiometer and a one-knob tone circuit pot (both 1M), then a 12AX7 cathodyne phase inverter section into a pair of cathode biased 6L6GC (or 6V6, 5881, plus modern Euro equivalents such as JJ 6L6 and the ubiquitous variants of Soviet 6P3S-E). The output tube sockets are wired up ‘60s Fender style, with 1.5K grid stopper and 470ohm screen grid load resistors on the dead pins. A very simple, efficient, and toneful circuit; all hail the visionary Saint Leo (Fender)!

My idea of fun, a true point to point scratch built tube amp wiring:

A 5AR4/GZ34 rectifier now produces even higher B+ potential than the previous 5U4, and I installed a paralleled pair of new 10W ceramic resistors (forgot the values, I bought a few to dial in the eventual B+) between the rectifier tube and the first filter capacitor. That cap is actually two giant 20uF capacitors in parallel ( = 40uF@600V) pulled from another project: a Dynaco Mark III that had been radically rewired by a genius amp guy, but something failed; I tried for years to troubleshoot it and eventually returned it to the original circuit (thanks Ron for your help).

After that, a Weber choke (mounted where one of the original capacitor cans was) and a couple more caps and resistors as per the usual Fender style Pi filter chain. The under load idling voltage at the output plates is close to 450VDC; I was shooting for that after being intrigued by a suggested circuit in an RCA tube manual for a pair of cathode biased EL34 putting out 40W with that speced anode voltage. I have no idea exactly how much power this boat anchor amp puts out, but it’s a damn lot, hurts my eardrums pushing a single Fender labeled Eminence Legend, and loud and sweet powering the compact Leslie cab’s vintage CTS 12”.  Wouldn’t be surprised if it actually is around 40 real watts!

The etching engraved brass Conn organ name plate isn’t original, it came in a bag of old ID plates and logo badges fortuitously found at a garage sale. Looks cool though; it’s attached with double sided tape. The very interesting pointer knobs are both one of a kind orphans; I call the black one (which is the tone control) "Dolphin Head" rather than chicken head, and the gray one (volume) is named "Fairchild" - I think it’s from a dead oscilloscope that a friend parted out.


The amp is mounted on a locally logged and milled tight-grained old growth Oregon alder board; it used to be an unpainted closet shelf in the utility room of a neighbor’s remodeled 1960s house. Ain’t no more of those trees around here anymore, logged out and never to be seen again - most of the hills in the Oregon Coast Range have been replanted in Douglas fir monoculture. Walking in those forests is a weird experience- without a biodiverse plant ecosystem the woods are eerily silent; very few birds, bugs or animal life of any kind. Compared to some other man made hellscapes, it’s a fairly benign eco dystopia, a cross between a normal temperate zone forest and a cornfield.


I sanded that alder plank smooth and put a coat of amber shellac on before mounting the amp on it. The two cream colored handles were luckily found at the Assistance League thrift store, usually mostly a higher end used clothing place. After putting the loaded amp chassis on the board a dowel was placed underneath and the plank rocked back and forth to find the balance point, and the handles were placed in that sweet spot. Four rubber feet (actually large cabinet door bumpers from the neighborhood True Value hardware store) were mounted underneath, and that was that: Tube Amp On a Plank #2.

The compact Leslie cabinet:

This cabinet was custom made... but not for me! The creator of this beauty, Jim Hobbs, put this together for himself, crafted from highest quality 13 ply birch, with the spinning rotor components from an ancient Model 25 Leslie. Or maybe it was a Model 125 (?) - I was so surprised and infatuated with it when Jim gifted it to me that I wasn't paying strict attention. Another post dedicated to this cab will soon arrive here on the Night Lamp blog, but not today.

*                 *                 *

Thanks to David for the ancient tube amplifier, and a big thank you to brother Jon-San for the vintage vacuum tubes.

Click on any photo to see larger, higher def images.

The photo of the circuit wiring was taken with a Lumix ZS-25 pocket camera; all the other images were shot yesterday with an Olympus OM-D E-M10 MkIII body w/ a Lumix 14-45mm lens. All editing done with the simple Preview app included with iMacs.

Desert Island Guitar

The concept of a desert island guitar is: If you were stuck on a small island somewhere in the middle of the vast Erehwon Ocean and had only one guitar with you, which one would that be? A tough choice for anyone with a large collection of six-string instruments, and even harder if you were given a chance to pick any guitar at all out of the thousands of models available in the modern world. Even for someone like me, with only one acoustic guitar plus three electrics - a Gibson, a Fender-ish Partscaster, and an old Danelectro - which would I pick to case up and board a slow boat to Nowhere with?

A Non- Collection

Most of this non-collection has been written about at length on this blog; so far the Les Paul Special, the Dano, and the FrankenCaster that evolves and morphs constantly with various parts added and subtracted, starting out as an early '90s Fender Stratocaster and currently with a knotty pine Tele body.

The cute Yamaha parlor acoustic would be a logical choice, with a sweet voice and compact size perfect for whiling away long hours either on the beach or in a little grass shack just above the high tide line. Either of the solid body electrics would only be ideal with an amp of some kind, and hopefully there's electricity or a good supply of batteries on my desert island. The Danelectro is a compromise choice, but it probably fits this imaginary need well: being semi hollow, it has a surprisingly nice and harmonious (although small) acoustic voice, and its electronics yield great tone - hopefully good enough for a desert island jam band or open mic nights under the palm trees and starry sky.

Lately I've been playing this '59 Dano almost exclusively, all the while imagining a journey to somewhere I've never been before. And where might that journey's end be? Recently I've been told that I have an incurable disease, and my remaining life span will be measured in months and possibly years, rather than decades. It took a while to process that info, but I've finally come to peace with it... after all, it's been a great life so far, full of many adventurous trips and good deeds done, with reliable friends and a wonderful loving family.

A desert island probably isn't listed as a destination on a travel brochure for any of the hundreds of afterlife descriptions imagined by followers of religions and creeds worldwide. I don't much care, having precious little control over what comes next for me in this life, let alone whatever happens afterwards. The only question I have is: Do I get to have a guitar with me in your particular heaven? If so, sign me up.

*               *               *

In the photo at the top of this post there are, besides the black and white Danelectro (a gift from my brother Jon-san), a 40 year old Shubb capo and equally ancient leather strap, a rather beautiful quilt made by my sister Susan, and a pin featuring the character Jiji from the 1989 Studio Ghibli film "Kiki's Delivery Service", a gift from my sister Helen:

Two Poems

Two Poems
J.Aoyama

Holding a Kodachrome slide up to light from a north facing window
While closing one eye
Is like peering through a low powered spyglass into the past:
A sort of magic

One fortune cookie in an unlikely place
My garage workbench, let’s say, or your project space
White corner of paper showing begs to be pulled
Gently without cracking the hard stale pastry
A length of papyrus typewriter ribbon emerges slowly
With free verse in tiny brushed ink characters

*               *               *

Author’s note:
The first poem is what is ink-brushed onto the paper in the second poem.

Low Cost Semi- Retro Bedroom Studio

A few months ago I bought an old (2008) iMac with the idea of using it as a basis for getting into home recording. The iMac was in near mint condition, ran fine, and at only $30 a great deal. The plan was to start off cheap with older equipment, and gradually update into newer apps and hardware as I gained proficiency. Coincidentally, all gear and software picked up for the first stage of this project was made in the mid 2000s.

One upside to having a relatively ancient iMac is the ability to run an older operating system (Mac OS 10.6.8) that supports obsolete yet otherwise fine sounding audio interfaces. For example, the M-Audio Firewire Solo that I picked up for $25 including a boxed Logic Studio disc. For a beginner the Logic recording app seemed a bit too advanced, but $5 at the local tech recycling place bought a set of iLife '08 discs, which includes GarageBand 4. That app, with its colorful "Fisher Price" graphic user interface, is an intuitive and easy to learn introduction to computer based multi-track recording.

Other recent purchases include a made in Illinois Shure KSM27 large diaphragm condenser microphone (like new, $120 from Music Go Round in MN), and a mint condition Utah made Bellari RP503 Tube Channel strip w/ tube preamp, optical compressor and EQ ($75 locally on c.l.).

From my gigging days I already had a few dynamic mics and cables and other misc stuff such as old junky instruments. Our teenage kid, who's taken a few audio production courses and is way ahead of me in all this, loaned an Akai MPK Mini keyboard controller and a microphone pop filter.

Older Japan made Sony MD7506 headphones, modded with BeyerDynamic velour ear pads, do monitoring duty. Yamaha RH1C open on-ear 'phones and Apple wired buds (real genuine ones, not Amazon fakes) are alternate references. In other rooms of the house high quality vintage speakers - 1970s JBL, '50s Electro-Voice, and '90s Boston Acoustics - are available for checking mixes. And a portable Firewire backup drive adds some digital security.

The recording equipment was first set up downstairs, but it's often noisy on street level during the day:

Diesel trash trucks and delivery vehicles accelerating up the hill can really kill a good recording buzz. The quietest spot in the house, aside from the bathrooms, is our recently re-painted and newly re-rugged upstairs bedroom. The thick all wool Scandinavian patterned rug really brought the room's ambient noise level down.

As far as bedrooms go it's not large, or small - basically 11' x 14' plus an alcove at one end with a sliding door to the bathroom on the left, cabinets and sink in the middle, and a roomy walk-in closet on the right. Between the big Victorian style chest of drawers and the foot of the bed is enough space for a cozy working area:

In the above picture a green camping towel draped over the end of the white duvet cover keeps things clean, and family life harmonious.

As well as being quiet enough the bedroom has a nice recorded sound, with a good balance of reflective and absorptive surfaces. Here's the alcove at the west end of the room - this mostly reflective surfaced space really lets an open back tube amp breathe:

New Converse sneakers and an old Shure condenser mic - a great combo:

Every night after putting the iMac to sleep all the odds and ends get picked up and put away, a 10 to 15 minute job, and the little table goes to its own bed-time spot.

We discussed moving the 1940s dresser chest and putting a studio desk along that wall, but the idea of having an easily taken down setup appealed to me.

I met a guy at a music store who had a cautionary tale: He'd gotten the studio bug, remodeled a spare bedroom into a recording space including sound treatment panels, and bought over $20,000 in equipment and software. After his studio sat mostly unused for 5 years he realized he didn't have many ideas to record, and ended up selling his gear for pennies.

In my case, no doubt an extra few $ worth of high end hardware would result in a better recorded sound. But it's only a fun hobby, and so far I've spent (checks notes) less than $300. That's low buck, and the audio quality is beyond good enough for my not very golden ears. Plus, I'm fairly sure my own imagination is at least equal to a very low budget.

*               *               *

Here's a demo level incomplete tune recorded with the above setup:

It was a lot of fun putting that together, but it's unfinished for a few reasons. This was recorded as a work-in-progress demo for myself, and after listening to it the lyrics were altered, the tempo sped slightly, a couple chords added and the melody changed somewhat, and I realized that the word "sakura" was being woefully mispronounced. One of these days I'll get around to recording a final version.

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Click or tap on any picture above to see larger, higher def images. All photos taken with a Lumix ZS25 travel zoom camera.

An Accidental Telecaster

 

On a lazy late winter afternoon recently I was sitting on the sofa in the sunlight, half dozing and half noodling on this Tele (a perfect couch electric), and I suddenly realized how accidental it was. As opposed to being a purely intentional or purpose built guitar.

I’ve put together several project electrics, but they've had a more or less specific end goal in sight, unlike this hodgepodge of random parts. It started with a tub full of various components tossed into it over the past ten years, some used, most new. Then along came a precision crafted pine plank Telecaster body from Canada and, rummaging though the parts bin, it looked like there might be enough bits and pieces to assemble a guitar.

 

A Rundown of All Those Unintentional Parts:

- ToneBomb knotty pine body. Made in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Two piece knotty pine, seam straight down the middle but not bookmatched. This was one of a limited run of knotty pine bodies ToneBomb made several years ago; luckily I was allowed my pick from a few available unrouted blanks (all unique and lovely), then had a choice of pickup configurations. Totally vintage early ‘50s spec in all dimensions except the P90 pickup rout, and wonderfully lightweight. It came pre-sanded to 150 weight, and I had a pleasant few days outdoors in early autumn weather doing finish sanding.

 

 

Started first with another 150 grit sanding (shown above), then a couple passes at 220, and then three with 400 paper: one run gets the pine plank to very smooth, followed by a water coat to raise the grain. A second 400 pass knocked the grain down, and after a final light 400 sanding the body was better then velvety smooth and ready for a finish. It got three double coats of Watco oil based varnish, their "Golden Oak Danish Oil", spaced out over two weeks and after that the body hung from the ceiling in the fairly dry garage work space over the winter, curing like a ham or bacon.

- Fender Classic Player ‘50s series Stratocaster neck, made in Mexico in 2022. Over a few months I bought five various Tele necks, and I’ll cut that long story short to say they each had flaws, fit issues, or been misrepresented by the sellers. One day I took the neck off my Strat project guitar, put it on the ToneBomb body - it fit perfectly - and that’s where it stayed. Fender calls it a “soft V” back profile, I've always liked the shape. My first good quality guitar, a 1947 Martin D18, had a similar feel neck - the guy I bought that Martin from, a pro player in L.A., had sanded its original harder V-shape neck down a bit, and it was a great guitar to learn to play on. Until recently most Yamaha acoustics have had that neck shape; this Fender neck and the one on my 2005 Yam parlor are very similar.

 

It's basically a fine neck, but it has one aggravating issue. I bought it brand new in a factory sealed box, and yeah, they said it would take some work before it was in playable shape. But I wasn't expecting all the frets to be completely covered in the same super tough and hardened polyester that the rest of the neck was coated in. Some AI generated websites suggest you can simply and easily chip this finish off, but that's a 'bot concocted lie - it's hours of careful labor to remove the tenacious poly without damaging the rest of the fretboard. Once again, many thanks to friend David for not only his expert work and extensive knowledge, but also having the right tool for the job.

 

Here's the same neck, mounted on a Strat project:

 

 

Currently this Japan Fender Strat body sits unplayed in its case; after getting the Tale of Two Cities guillotine treatment, it's without a neck or a head.

 

- Gotoh vintage type tuning machines. Nickel plated steel, with “butterbean” Waverly style buttons. Japan

 

- Fender vintage style round string guide, nickel plated steel. USA

- Gotoh nickel plated steel neck plate. Japan

- Fender nickel plated steel strap pegs. USA

- Gotoh Les Paul style output jack plate. Curved nickel plated brass or nickel. Japan

 

If you're thinking that only an insane person would put a Les Paul jack plate on a Tele body, well...  here I stand, guilty as charged. The rather beautiful brass screws are from our local neighborhood True Value hardware store.

 

- Switchcraft output jack, new old stock, unknown date, possibly 1970s. USA

- Gotoh control plate, nickel plated brass or nickel. It’s reverse mounted, a bit easier to grab the volume knob. Japan

- Gotoh bridge plate, nickel plated brass. Cutaway sides for comfort, and cutaway rear for possible use with a Bigsby tailpiece. Japan

 

 

- Fender “Vintage ‘58” bridge saddles. Solid and smooth unthreaded and unplated steel. No intonation compensation, but my not so secret Tele adjustment seems to work: keep messing with the string length until chords sound okay, and you’re done. Most of the Telecasters I borrowed when I started doing country bar gigs had these same style smooth steel barrel saddles. To my ears, better tone and sustain than either brass or the thinner threaded steel types, and amazing they're still made today. USA

- Fender vintage-type rear body string ferrules, nickel plated steel. USA

- Gotoh “Gibson Speed” style volume control knob. Japan

- Gotoh “dome” Tele style tone control knob, heavy knurled nickel plated brass. Japan

- CTS (Chicago Telephone Supply) 250k audio taper potentiometers; one with a splined split shaft, one with a solid shaft. Both new current production. Mexico

 

- Sprague .039uF capacitor. It's old, maybe late '50s, I don't really know; a vintage sized large tube, possibly mylar composition construction. I have a limited stock of old and new caps, and tried a few of them with a home built external (yet in-circuit) tone capacitor tester. This one worked well with both of the two disparate type pickups: smooth jazzy tones rolled back with the neck pickup, and tames any tendency toward harshness in the bridge pickup. USA

 - Oak Grigsby 3-way blade switch. NOS (New Old Stock), spring loaded. It's mid '90s, old enough, and cheaper than a new production one. USA

- DakaWare switch knob, NOS 1950s, maroon barrel style. Chicago, Illinois, USA. A gift from David in Massachusetts, who has a genius ability to find cool old stuff. Or maybe they find him.

- Mighty Mite neck pickup; Gibson single coil “P-90” style. Made in Korea mid 1990s, Alnico magnet, 8.5k. Bought this from a seller named Martha; Martha, it turned out, was a really cute Labrador puppy!

 

- Philadelphia Luthier Supply P-90 cover, unplated and non polished solid nickel; what Phil Luthier calls "Raw" - plenty of character right out of the box. USA.

- MojoTone bridge pickup. “Broadcaster” model, flat top magnets, string-wrapped and wax potted coil, 9.6K. Made in Georgia, USA

- WD pickguard, thick one ply, 5 screw. USA

- Wherever possible, all screws are nickel plated flat blade type, not phillips. Various makes; Fender, Philly Luthier etc. USA

- Currently the strings are a GHS Gilmour set, gauges .010, .012, .016, .028, .038, .048. Next string change I’ll go back to my old fave Hybrid Slinky set: .009, .011, .016, .026, .036, .046. A very minor difference; hopefully the slightly lighter gauges will have a bit better couch noodle-ability.

 

A Low Power Couch Noodling Amplifier

 

Here's a photo of my living room amp, along with another piece of vintage furniture:

 

 

A quick description: a modified 1950s 5F2A circuit built into a small early '60s Bogen PA amp chassis (I'm guessing maybe 3 or 4 actual watts at most), bolted to an old-growth alder plank and sitting atop a Hammond M3 organ external speaker cabinet with an Altec Lansing 417-8C 12" inside. This cab, without the Altec, was a gift from Nashville Tele slinger extraordinaire Chris Wade, from whom I also got the mid '90s Japan Fender Stratocaster body shown above.

Accidental Addendum:

 

 

Luckily there was a set in the string stash box of what Ernie Ball calls Hybrid Slinky (.009 - .046), in this case GHS Custom Light. From geographic necessity in a past life, I learned to be mostly agnostic regarding string brands, and always used whatever I could find. After the string swap, the unintentional Pinecaster and I retired to the ancient Flexsteel sofa, and there it was: all the wiggly couch noodle-ability I could ever ask for.

 

Besides feeling pretty darn good, a final question might be: Does this mess of random componentry sound any good or not? One might say: The sum total of all these quality parts has to end up sounding good, maybe even great. On the other hand, you could think "Meh, tone comes from the fingers, not the hardware, so who cares!" Both those viewpoints are correct.

 

More subjectively, and based upon years of extensive gigging with borrowed guitars, I'd say this one sounds and plays as well as any Tele that ever found its way into my hands. Then again and honestly, the days of plugging into a pair of cranked Super Reverbs (or an early '60s Princeton and a then-new 1980s Super Champ for low power gigs) are in the distant past, so any comparisons are meaningless. At a very basic level though, this accidental guitar feels and sounds just like a Telecaster, so - alright!

*               *               *

Photo of the living room amp was taken with an Olympus PL-5 w/ a Lumix 14-45mm zoom lens, and the Strat project guitar was shot with a Lumix ZS-25 pocket camera. All other images were taken with a 2016 iPhone SE (Special Edition).

ps - One last photo:

 

 

A rear view of the Accidental Tele, showing off its knotty pine ToneBomb body and the vintage style recessed flush mount string ferrules.

 

Note: click or tap on any photo to see detailed higher res images.

 

Poetry Week, Day 7, Song Lyric: "In Redondo"

 
In Redondo

J.Aoyama

Walking on a windy beach with headphones on
I've got a beat up iPod full of Elliot Smith songs
Foaming waves run up the sand in the shimmering heat
The cool polluted water feels good upon my feet
In Redondo


In the hazy distance mountains rise above the sea
Coming slowly closer, a runner on the beach
Shore birds scatter, wheeling above me as I get near
I look away for awhile, and they've all disappeared


Picked up a spiral shell and suddenly woke up from a dream
Blurring the line between illusion and reality
In Redondo


I shake the sand out of my shoes and walk in the door
You left another note but I can't read them anymore


We tried to hold on to a ghost of the life we once knew
Someday I may lose the memory of you
In Redondo


- Instrumental interlude -


Nothing lasts forever, and I know it's true
That someday I will lose the memory of you
The memory of you
In Redondo, Redondo
You and me in Redondo
In Redondo

*               *               *

Author's note:

All the best songs have snappy, direct and hard hitting lyrics; a great example of this is Bruce Channel's smash hit (on Smash Records!) "Hey! Baby", which topped the charts at #1 for three weeks in 1962. The first verse of that song is:

"Hey, hey baby
I wanna know woh oh
If you'll be my girl"

And the second verse is:

"Hey, hey baby
I wanna know woh oh
If you'll be my girl"

Doesn't get more direct and to the point than that, and success speaks for itself. The songs that come to me, however, aren't close to being in the same league, but we do have fun playing them anyway. 

Song lyrics need music to be complete, and "In Redondo" has an accompaniment, with liberal use of fragmented and vague sounding chords neither major nor minor, which attempts to convey some of the feeling of isolation, uncertainty and loss that we were going for. But although incomplete without the score, do the lyrics by themselves have any poetic value? Possibly.

It's set in a mythical, imaginary place called Redondo, located somewhere between here and nowhere. I've always liked the sound of that word or name; my sister says it's a colloquial translation of "fat round one" from Spanish or Portuguese. And no, it's not Redondo Beach, which is also a poetic place but in a daytime nightmare kind of way.

Wow- a fat round one... Hey, hey baby, roll me a Redondo, would you? And is there any beer left over from our last beach party?

*               *               *

Thanks to David for the beat up iPod, without which this song, and poem, wouldn't be possible.

 

Poetry Week, Day 6, Refrigerator Word Magnet Poem: "Bridget, Midge, Gidget, Rutledge, Rodger, and Madge"

Bridget, Midge, Gidget, Rutledge, Rodger, and Madge

J.Aoyama

Bridget cadged a ride to the lodge with a badger in a Dodge

And trudged to put wedges of fudge in the fridge

Midge was a lodger on a budget with a ledger and a gadget:

A hodgepodge of kludges and widgets made by a hedgehog named Gidget

Rutledge, a fidgety curmudgeon with knowledge of didgeridoos

And Rodger the judge, a full fledged midget with a badge and a grudge

Nudged budgerigars with cudgels and pledged not to budge

Not even a smidge

From a smudge on a hedge made of sedge on the ridge

But Madge grabbed a sledge from a ledge by the kedge of her dredge

And bludgeoned both drudges off the edge of a bridge…

Into sludge

 

*               *               * 

Author's note:
 

A fairly new form of poetry came along a few years ago: the really fun Refrigerator Word Magnet Poem. In a family or roommate or visiting friends setting, a poem or story created becomes ever evolving; anyone who comes to the fridge can be an instant editor or co-creator, just by swapping or rearranging words.

As a writing tool, the basic premise is intriguing: starting with a preset limited, finite vocabulary, move those few words around until some sort of narrative emerges. During a period of reading mostly murder mysteries set in the UK and written by British authors, I noticed how many words and names there were that had the consecutive grouping of three letters: d, g, and e.

With an initial gathering of 39 "dge" words, combined with a bare minimum of others thrown in, a very short story emerged. Eventually this became 56 words, in one of which the grouping occurs twice; every time a new dge word was added, the plot changed a bit. The funnest part was creating and describing the villains, and the heroine that saves all in the end, using only those few words.

Probably there's a lot more "dge" words in our basically English language, and as they make themselves known this pretend word magnet poem done on an imaginary refrigerator will grow.

Poetry Week, Day 5, Limerick: "Love, Geometrically"

π Are Squared, ≥ ∞

A young man from Greece named Pythagoras
Was feeling philosophically amorous
To his love he said "I
Have made you a Pi,
'Though its form and its function aren't obvious!"

*               *               *

Author's note:

A Limerick, according to Oxford, is "a humorous, frequently bawdy, verse of three long and two short lines rhyming aabba, popularized by Edward Lear". Why this poetic form is named after the Irish city or county of Limerick is unclear. Possibly because a high percentage of its residents are humorous and frequently bawdy?

Poetry Week, Day 4, Broadside Ballade: "Near Crystal Lakes"

Near Crystal Lakes
Being a Broadside Ballade in 14 1/2 Quatrains,
By Frederick Thomas and James Aoyama
Half term project assignment
Grade 11 Creative writing class, room 218, Mr Warfield

*            *            *


Near Crystal Lakes where the tall trees grow
A mounted horseman rides
To meet his love ‘neath a shady grove
And there to be his bride


Ride, ride, ride
Your lover does await
And from her eye doth fall a tear
Long awaiting your arrival


The high road is long and the way is hard
Over vale and sward
Strong beats the heart of an honest man
Riding ever onward


His thoughts did dwell on a lady far away
In that shady grove
He longed for her lovely face to see
And her hand to hold


Ride, ride, ride
Your lover does await
And from her eye doth fall a tear
Long awaiting your arrival


In a misty copse appeared three desperate men
Of allegiance unknown
Fled from the field of honor they be
Fugitives of the Crown


They cried out “For your money we have stopped you here,
Give us all your gold!”
The honest man replied “I’ve naught but silver in my pouch,
And I sleep out in the cold!"


He sprang from the saddle and unsheathed his sword,
Saying "Come! Who e'er thou art!"
An arrow from behind, and the horseman fell
The bolt had pierced his heart


The varlets rushed forth to where the rider lay
To rob while his life ebbed out
In her anger and grief his steed reared up
To bring the shrieking cowards down


One knave crawled away, to walk again no more
The others paid in blood
Mighty blows of iron shod hooves did leave
Them broken and dying in the mud


His faithful mare went to her master then
With lowered head she stood
His last breath came slowly as he bid farewell
And she departed through the silent wood


Miles away in the shady grove
His true lover cried
In that same instant her own heart had gone cold
She knew he would never arrive


Ride, ride, ride
Your lover does await
And from her eye doth fall a tear
Long awaiting your arrival


Near Crystal Lakes where the tall trees grow
A mounted horseman rides


Ride, ride, ride
Your lover does await
And from her eye doth fall a tear
Long awaiting your arrival
Long awaiting your arrival


Finis.

*               *               *


Instructor's grading comment:
Overall, a good piece of work, and shows a lot of time and effort put into it. I'll have to deduct a couple points due to your occasional slipping between Elizabethan or Shakespearean idiom and modern English, and I believe that a quatrain is a form of verse, so the correct term should have been "14 1/2 stanzas". Also your depiction of the action scene was a bit too detailed and could be considered blood-thirsty; on the other hand I'm pleased your telling of the protagonist's longing for his bride-to-be wasn't quite so lurid. Good work boys! A solid A-.
Note: Your titling this as a "Broadside Ballade" would imply a song form, and you might consider performing it for the class on an upcoming Free Form Friday session.


Me to Fred: "A-minus?! I think Old Man Warfield needs to wake up!”
Fred: “Hey Jim! We could toss a firecracker in his trash can on Free Form Friday!"
Me: “Let's do it!"
Narrator: This did not end well.

Poetry Week, Day 3, Free Verse: "Wondrous Things"

 

Wondrous Things

J.Aoyama

Late as usual, rushing through the square on an unsettled morning
There, ahead, an almost familiar face-
Perched on the edge of a park bench
A someone who could be me
But for wild hair, bent spectacles, undone buttons, mismatched socks
Staring about, or listening
Intently


I should stop, I'm thinking
Say hello, maybe talk awhile
Of whatever wondrous things this someone sees or hears:

About god -like rumbling threats from yet-unseen clouds
Tortured eyes staring from wooden fence boards
The baroque languages of dogs
Leering demon faces grinning up from puddles of rain
The unbearable shrieking pain of newly mown grass

A fantastic world easily entered
Possibly, impossible to leave
I should not ask where the doorway is, and yet
I would


But not this morning, I must hurry on
For I also imagine
Many things to do, places I must go
And meetings
With important people

*               *               *

Author's note:

One hundred years ago and more, this would not have been considered poetry, since there are no rhymes, and a cadence only an insane person could sense. Until recently, when there were such things, organized poetry recitals and beat poet slams were occasions to hear or declaim thought worthy bits of free verse. Now we can only go around muttering stuff to ourselves while most others are staring into their portable entertainment devices as they walk into oncoming traffic. So who actually are the crazy ones?