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Saturday, November 20, 2021

My Bestiary

I have an imaginary bestiary called Hodges’ Bestiary. Or maybe Hodges’s Bestiary? I’m never sure of the rule concerning that crux of the biscuit. Anyway, the bestiary contains 50 beasts, thus 50 poems. Here is the first:

Glowworms, Glowworms

We called them “lightning bugs,” special creatures.
“Fireflies,” said the outsiders instead.
“Glowworms,” said some mad kids, as if features
 like “glow” were hiding deepest secrets in each head.

And they’ve yet to solve the problem of just how
such worms take leave of earth and take to air.
Let’s leave them with that mystery, for now,
as though there were no emptiness still there.

I’m never sure of the rule concerning apostrophes, as I said, but I’ll get a lot of practice on it since I intend to turn my bestiary into a book of poems. My poems are currently in Carter Kaplan's Emanations (ninth edition, pp. 205-221).
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8 comments:

  1. Kevin Kim10:55 PM

    There's some debate and some leeway regarding apostrophes and names, but the rule of thumb I go by—and I think the Chicago Manual of Style backs me up on this—is that if a name ends with an "s" (or an "s" sound), you add apostrophe-s.

    Mr. Jones's cat
    Mrs. Williams's house
    Hans's orchestral score
    Marx's comedy

    The major exception is if you're dealing with names from antiquity:

    Jesus' precepts
    Xerxes' armies
    Moses' promises

    But what about a Latino boy in 2021 named Jesus? I don't know the rule for that one. I'd be inclined toward "Jesus's Pontiac" simply because this Jesus isn't an ancient figure.

    I may need to go back and consult CMOS on the above, but I think what I wrote is right. However, as I said, there's room to maneuver, and few will penalize you for writing "Mr. Jones' cat." I think it mainly comes down to "pick a style and stick to it."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Horace Jeffery Hodges11:08 PM

    I also think you're right. And you usually are.

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carter Kaplan11:02 AM

    I go by Fowler. I haven't looked it up, but in English we do what we *want* to do. As Anthony Burgess said, "English is a language without a Grammar."

    Orwell put it best, perhaps, in "Politics in the English Language" where, after setting forth a list of rules, he says something to the effect "Sooner break any of these rules than say anything barbaric."

    And so... Drum roll.. Wait for it... Wait for it...

    We use 's or s's based on how it sounds. If s's makes you sound as if you are hissing like a snake, for goodness sake use s'. If it sounds like something is missing when you use s', then use s's.

    For goodness sake

    For goodness' sake...

    For goodness's sake...

    Ha. Ha. Ha.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Carter Kaplan11:09 AM

    I am happy *Emanations: When a Planet was a Planet* has arrived!

    Thanks for these posts! Keep them coming, please!

    And pics! Please!

    BTW, did you see the *other* bestiary in Emanations 9? We have bestiaries coming out of our bestiaries. In theory-speak, that means "Our cup of inter-textuality runneth over!"

    The whole volume is like that! Mystery, sudden thematic emergencies, symbolic reflections and sub-textual refractions blurring together... Kind of like a heuristic/hermeneutic word find!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Bienvenido Bones Banez Jr11:19 AM

    "��'s��" Mrs.Yuko's cat
    Mr.Terrance's WAH
    Satan's orchestral score
    Bones's comedy.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Horace Jeffery Hodges5:38 PM

    Carter, yes, I saw it. I now need to read it.

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    ReplyDelete
  7. Horace Jeffery Hodges5:49 PM

    And Hodges?

    Jeffery Hodges

    * * *

    ReplyDelete
  8. Carter Kaplan4:54 AM

    Hodges' Bestiary is brilliant.

    In all sorts of ways.

    Reading through Emanations is "something like" reading an obscure abstract experimental novel. Things reflect, refract, trace off and return...

    ReplyDelete

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