Tim Stelly Invents the Stellku
February 13, 2008 – 10:47 amPosted Under: technology
Sometimes you run across great technology on the internet, and sometimes you just discover something, by complete accident.
Tim, I told you that when you’ve gone ahead and created your own poetry form I’d have to immortalize you on my pop culture blog. So tell us, what is a Stellku?
Let me begin by saying that I am partial to form poetry. Trying to say as much as possible within a limited framework of meter and syllables is challenging, and for me, stimulating. As a fan of Japanese verse, in particular, haiku and tanka, I sought to pay homage by creating something similar in style, but that allowed me a little more wiggle room, hence, what I call “stellku” came to life.
The form is six lines made up of of two (usually) unrhymed tercets. The first line of the first stanza has 4 syllables, the second has 6 and the third has 8. The first line of the second stanza has 3 syllables, the second has 5 and the third line has 7.
Can you give us a few samples?
Our kids need books
and not video games
teach them 2 love 1 another
Don’t say I
“Talk like a white man”
I’m just educated, bro…
A more difficult test was writing a stellku that rhymes
Heat
Absence of light
and you wrap your legs tight
synchronized, fervent, pelvic thrusts
gyrate; push
you make me shiver
your insides moisten; quiver.
One of my favorite Stellkus is:
Where’s her father?
Her mother works two jobs
Her baby’s daddy’s a rapist
I must say that as an advocate against abuse of any kind the stellku above touched me very deeply. Lots of things inspire poetry in me, but I wanted to know for you, what inspired this particular selection?
I know two woman who were the victim of such abuse. One day we were discussing “The Queen Bee Syndrome” (when the mother is envious of her mates relationship with the daughter, and there is subsequent tension between the two females). The result was pregnancies and children who were abandoned by their fathers. It dawned on me that perhaps this wasn’t as rare as I first imagined.
Furthermore, we have a generation of young ladies who are the victims of older and irresponsible men, who impregnate them and then abandon the child borne from that tryst. I don’t think pregnancy should be an “Alan Smithee” production. After some thought, the aforementioned piece came to life.
How long have you been writing and is poetry your first love?
I’ve been writing “rhymes” since third grade. That didn’t evolve into poetry writing until I got to college and realized that poetry is more than form, but feeling and message as well. I was introduced to the various European forms through one of my college instructors, Gus Gustafson. At the time, I thought it was largely irrelevant, especially since most poets I knew were writing free and blank verse.
Now I understand the challenge and beauty in such work.
I’ve also experimented with a version of the etheree, which is made up of ten lines, each with an incremental increase of syllables. For instance, the first line has one syllable, the second has two syllables, etc. I’ve “invented” a form I call the “mixed etheree,” made up of ten lines, each with a different number of syllables from one to ten; only they do not have to be in ascending or descending order.
This is becoming one of my favorite styles. Here is an example of what I mean:
Failed Relationship
A muddled beginning, sagging middle…
Damn…
No matter
how carefully we
construct the phraseology of
this collaborative love story
we keep cutting
pasting
finally deleting
‘til we’re back to a blank page
Poetry is not my first love. I prefer writing novels, in particular, what I call “hip-hop poli-sat,” which is my way of saying political satire with a strong urban tenor. I oftentimes write poetry when my novel muse has forsaken me. She’s moody7 that way.
Aside from you own what is your favorite form of poetry?
I love the sonnet. There is something romantic about it. I also like a French form called kyrielle, which is written in stanzas of four, with one line appearing as a refrain in each subsequent stanza, usually the last one. Also, each line contains 8 syllables.
I’ll occasionally use some of the olde English language, such as “ebon,” “alas,” and using “’ere,” rather than before (but this is usually when I need to keep a line in synch). Still, I like the feel of the piece and gives it a different twist.
Tell the readers a little bit more about you, what you’re working on now and where they can read more of your work?
I’ve finished adding some new pieces to my first book of poetry, Stories From The Black Side of the Rainbow, which I hope will drop by July. It is an eclectic mix of love poems, social and political pieces and that runs the gamut from joy to tragedy. I am also pushing to get two novels print-ready, one a sci-fi piece titled Human Trial, and the other a love-gone-estremely-bad piece, Drownin’ In A Sea Of Love.
I am now a regular contributor to the erotic e-zine, Oysters and Chocolate. Several of my essays can be found at afroknowledge.blogspot.com, e-zinearticles.com (most of which focus on poetry,
presidential politics and film noir) and more than 300 humorous and political food for thought at useless-knowledge.com.
I am currently revising my baby, a 600-page coming of age story, Darker Than Blue set against the backdrop of an integrated high school in the mid 1970s. Furthermore, I’m still polishing up a few screenplays, so I’m pretty busy these days.
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