Anthony Etherin
@anthonyetherin
Songwriter, wordplayer, constrained/formal poet, editor, bassist and guitarist, backgrounds in physics and publishing. KNIT INK (AND OTHER POEMS): AnthonyEtherin.com
I had a vest made, such is my commitment to the Penguin. Mission statement and submission details below.
WORD FACT The “minim” is a short vertical stroke used in handwriting. In Gothic scripts, many letters — such as m, n, and u — were made up of minims joined by fine connecting strokes. As a result, words like minimum could appear as a confusing row of vertical lines. [1/3]
Coming in 2027. A journal for people who love words for more than just their meaning.
This was our home for the last three days. Yes, we played big chess.
Here I am, looking small against the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank.
The very wonky — and apparently very haunted (I saw no ghosts) — Little Moreton Hall, Cheshire.
Today, I visited Sandbach to see these Anglo-Saxon crosses. They've survived for around 1,200 years — through Viking raids, the Norman Conquest, the Reformation, and Puritan iconoclasm. It's extraordinary that they are still standing. Sandbach is a lovely town, by the way.
I'm back in Stratford-upon-Avon with my old mate Falstaff, looking forward to tonight's performance of The Tempest.
BLOOD FOR THE MUMMY A sonnet in amphibrachic tetrameter, also employing the principles of alliterative verse: The two beats in each hemistich (or half-line) alliterate. Thus, in line 1, ‘read’ alliterates with ‘rite’, and ‘form-’ alliterates with ‘frees’.
THE RISE OF CTHULHU The sonnet contains one pre-selected Lovecraftian word in each line. (The words are: Stygian, Cyclopean, Gibbous, Chthonian, Squamous, Foetid, Lurking, Tenebrous, Nameless, Eldritch, Loathsome, Shadow, Iridescent, & Ululating.)
And it is, of course, the favourite literary device of this little weirdo:
GREAT FIRE OF LONDON (Chronogram*-Sonnet) *In each line, the Roman Numeral letters (i, v, x, l, c, d, & m) add up to 119. Thus, the total Roman Numeral count for this sonnet is 119 x 14 = 1666.
Tomb selfie, w/ @claraetherin.bsky.social (Tomb of Ramesses IV)
Sunset in Aswan, with gin. (@Claraetherin.bsky.social's photo)
LADY OF THE LAKE (Triolet) A triolet in anapaestic tetrameter, with alliterative beats in each hemistich (all lines rhyming):
WORD FACT This is the Sator Square. A true word square, the Sator Square reads the same horizontally top left to bottom right as it does vertically top left to bottom right. [1/4]
HALT ME A line-for-line perfect anagram of Hamlet’s "To Be or Not to Be" soliloquy.