Spring fever
three strands
...of geese
......flying north
the feel of skin
...warm in sun
......this first day
of almost spring,
...the soft smell
......that rises
from the ready earth
...beneath our feet,
......I look at you — yes!
(Does anyone know how to format text in Blogger so that lines can be indented?) Update: Rexroth's Daughter is brilliant! ...And thanks to whiskey for sharing an eye for the finer points of good design.
...of geese
......flying north
the feel of skin
...warm in sun
......this first day
of almost spring,
...the soft smell
......that rises
from the ready earth
...beneath our feet,
......I look at you — yes!
(Does anyone know how to format text in Blogger so that lines can be indented?) Update: Rexroth's Daughter is brilliant! ...And thanks to whiskey for sharing an eye for the finer points of good design.
posted by MB at 9:54 AM
18 Comments:
Yes! Only I drag myself, weary and sun-deprived, towards Spring. But with as much joy when it finally arrives...
With indentation, I've tried everything, codes for tabs, spaces, even indents for whole paragraphs, Blogger strips them when it publishes the blog. Doesn't seem any way around it. You create your poem in photoshop & save it as a .jpg and publish that, and then the lines will be where you want them to be. But that's not really a solution because of size and readability.
Maybe some technically savvy person will have a better solution...
Your blog is a pleasure to visit!
Yes, the hint of spring is everywhere these days. There are open purple and white crocus right outside my window. Your poem is so light and full of the spring promise.
I had a thought about blogger and indentation. I was wondering if it could be accomplished by creating text (say a 5-letter word) that you make white, and leave it in the poem invisible as a placeholder that would give you the indent you want. I haven't tried it, but I wonder if that would work. I don't know how else to indent a line of text.
I use the same method for indenting, only I just use white dots.
I am only now learning a small amount of code (my hubby is the expert), but I read something recently that indicated indentation can be done via creating a "table" and coding appropriately for that as well as coding per paragraph. I doubt blogger will accept table codes though. Looks like you found a great fix! Smart one she is!
As always I enjoy your poetry immensely and I, too, am so ready for spring I dream about it! Yesterday we spent all afternoon planting new goodies which will drape our landscape in blooms soon. And, today I catch myself doing occasional walks through the garden as if something new will show its face hourly! :))
love the way the poem looks/reads with the indents. surprising to see how it really augments the words in achieving the feeling of this poem. so lovely! thanks!
your writing is a joy to read, I sneak in and peek often.
That's brilliant, I agree! And the indentation does make a difference to the flow of the poem~ lovely.
I have read this three times now I smell the spring in it
MB,
I suspect that manually indenting the lines once you're in the blogger format might be the easiest way to do it. It's possible, I think, to input the html code to make it happen, but that sounds like it might be more work than it's worth.
I've struggled with the same issue, because I like to use alterations in line placement sometimes, as well. I have generally just shrugged and gone without, though. I'm not very good about troubleshooting Blogger. Most of my energy goes to just posting and keeping up with blogs I like. Pretty bad, though, for someone who works with computers. Maybe it's a "mechanic whose care always breaks down" issue.
Growing up in Maine, I always remember seeing the geese flying in that distincitive, north-facing "V".
Brenda, I know what it is to drag oneself through a winter, waiting impatiently for the light. I hope the sun arrives soon for you. And yes, in this case I think the indentation does make a difference.
tica, thank you very much! I'm glad you find it so.
RD & whiskey, your thoughts provided the perfect solution. Thanks!! Whiskey, you do have a very nice sense of design and attention to detail, by the way, which I appreciate.
Sky, gardens in your area of the country can be absolutely marvelous. I hope you will consider posting some photographs when the time comes. I know what you mean about looking for things — I'm doing it all the time now, head down, eyes scanning for some wisp of green...
Snowsparkle, this poem was written with indents and I felt a little sad when I saw what happened to it in Blogger without the indents... a little deflating. I'm very happy to have found a solution!
Cindy, welcome! and thanks for letting me know. I'm pleased you enjoy my poems. I'll be stopping by to visit you.
Sue, we're not really quite to spring yet here, but things have warmed enough that I can smell the soil and that makes all the difference to me. That and a bit more light in the morning and evening!
Firehawk, you must have posted your comment right when I did!
I've tried manually indenting the lines in every way I can think of (spaces, tabs, tags), but Blogger has stripped out or not accepted everything I've tried! The suggestion of using a white character as a placeholder is the only thing I've found that works (short of a div tag, but that only works in certain instances since it also adds vertical space).
Most of the time I've just lived with it, but in this case it really bugged me because I felt that the use of indentation made a noticeable difference to the reading of the poem.
...The geese haven't been flying north over you recently? I think you're not that far from me, though you are a long way from Maine these days!
MB,
(On a personal note, I see she told you. Thank you for being wonderfully discreet.)
And on the indenting matter - I think it's an integral part of certain poems. I did exactly what you did, tried everything and nothing worked. Using white font works, unless someone does a cut and paste, and then, of course, the font reverts back to default. But it's the best solution I've found.
whiskey, I'm realizing we've had similar experiences on several fronts. Thanks for your help with the indentation problem!
Yes ... I use the white-dots method too. Or rather the black dots, in my case, because the background of my blog is black.
Just today I noticed the cold, wet smell of early Spring, kind of an exhalation of winter through the fermented life of last summer...
A lovely thought, David, thank you.
MB, I attempted to show you an alternate way of spacing using HTML (not time-consuming at all), but typed it in all wrong and it displayed incorrectly. If you're interested, you can send me an email at portrait_of_amalie@yahoo.com . Looks like the white on white is working just fine for you, though.
Post a Comment
<< Home