#146 Prose & Poetry
Click image to view full size or download poster for gallery-quality printing & framing.
This is a high-resolution pdf & may take a few minutes to download.
Find printing tips & framing ideas here.
#146 Prose & Poetry — inspired by an ampersand fan
I just finished one of my very favorite AmperArt pieces ever, thanks to the inspiration of a talented poet & fellow ampersand fan. Several years ago Samanthi Fernando, a subscriber, left a special comment on an AmperArt post. That led to my discovery of her poetic ministry of hope & healing — & the perfect poem for an AmperArt piece, as it contained an ampersand! More about that piece below.
A novel set in poetry
& the legend lives on — in the poet’s love song.
Most novels are written in prose. But one particular writer surprises & delights. I am pleased to announce that Samanthi Fernando recently completed her first novel — composed entirely in poetry. As she says, “I wrote the romance I dreamed of writing when I was a kid.”
Samanthi invites you to take a journey through nature with rhyme & romance.
A garland for love.
A romantic epic.
A moving love song.
Samanthi Fernando’s ninth poetry book, her sixth themed in nature, & finally after many years…the one romance she dreamed of writing as a kid.
Silver Lotus Song: Romance in Nature
Silver lotus
we meet again
in flow between
reality and dream
Symbol of love
passion and pain
your seed gave life
to this song of mine
This book is a set of lyrical poems arranged with the aura of a romantic epic.
You can sample & purchase Silver Lotus Song on amazon.com
Love & Be Loved
Back when I first discovered her poetry, Samanthi Fernando had written a poem which contained an ampersand, so of course I asked to feature it as an AmperArt piece. #79 Love & Be Loved was issued for Valentine’s Day 2015.
Just like this issue’s #146 Prose & Poetry, it too is one of my favorite pieces. Samanthi even contributed to the design, as she introduced me to the color rose gold.
Feel the warmth & uplifting spirit of Samanthi Fernando’s lyrical poetry on her blog. Just like her writing, Samanthi’s visual composition is stunning — the photography complementing each poem is hers as well.
Read poetry of hope & healing by Samanthi Fernando here.
Prose & Poetry & Verse
For those of you who write prose & poetry, or simply enjoy reading it, here is a great website: poetryfoundation.org. Of particular interest is an article “Is It Poetry or Is It Verse?”
Concept & Design
The illustration for AmperArt #146 Prose & Poetry is a reproduction of a chap book from the nineteenth century. This is the original reproduction:
A couple elements were modified for this piece:
The original title “The Chap Book” was replaced by a custom-designed masthead “Prose & Poetry” featuring a typestyle that I felt was reflective of the period, Antique No. 14.
I like to give a special treatment to our friend the ampersand whenever feasible, so here I took the original form of the ampersand set in Germanica, shown at left, & extended the flat top & bottom elements into long horizontal rules.
Note that there is another ampersand in the lower paragraph in the original illustration, forming the contraction “&c.” In the past, this was a common way of abbreviating the term “et cetera.” It is seldom used today (but one of us still uses it frequently).
On the other hand, another type of contraction is never used anymore. That contraction is “annex’d,” seen in the same paragraph, where the apostrophe substitutes for a missing letter; it used to be applied to any number of words in a document, correctly or not. There is the exception to this type of contraction falling out of style, as we see everyday in ubiquitous contractions such as “don’t” & “can’t” & “del’d”…&c.
The other change to the original illustration is where you see a chap book within the chap book illustration, held by the dude reading to his hot date. There was a human character on the cover of the little book in his hand. This was replaced by a more interesting character: an ampersand, of course.
The original illustration showed the texture of the substrate it was printed on. I sampled the texture & applied it to my new artwork. Then a photo of old paper, suitable in the shape of a chap book, was placed behind the cover art. I guess you could say I turned the chap book into a chaz book.
Ampersand Land
by Chaz the Poet
There once was a composition of land
Where each neighbor was an ampersand
Mr. Garamond & the Bodonis & Miss Helvetica Neue
Fritz Quadrata & Arnold Bocklin & even Comic Sans too
Every type of character was stylishly grand!
This is my attempt at a limerick. However, “The Structure of a Limerick” states:
Limericks are short poems of five lines having rhyme structure AABBA. It is officially described as a form of ‘anapestic trimeter’.
The ‘anapest’ is a foot of poetic verse consisting of three syllables, the third longer (or accentuated to a greater degree) than the first two: da-da-DA. The word ‘anapest’ shows its own metric: anaPEST.
Lines 1, 2 & 5 of a limerick should ideally consist of three anapests each, concluding with an identical or similar phoneme to create the rhyme.
Lines 3 & 4 are shorter, constructed of two anapests each & again rhyming with each other with the overall rhyme structure of AABBA.
That is all too confusing for me, so I’ll just let my little rhyme be & concede:
I’m not a poet
But I don’t know it
Please comment here.
Want more?
Rants & raves mostly about design, sometimes about the universe.
An occasional bit of useful advice.
desimonedesign.com/chaz-sez
Production notes for #146 Prose & Poetry:
Original size: 20x30 inches
Program: Adobe Photoshop
Fonts: Antique No. 14, Germanica, Attic (all modified)
Ampersands: Germanica (title), Attic (illustration) (both modified)
Credits:
Chap book cover: Will H. Bradley, 19th century; depositphotos.com; vector by Morphart
Paper background: depositphotos.com
Note: “&” replaces “and” in most or all text, including quotations, headlines & titles.
You may repost the image & article. Please credit AmperArt.com.
To download a full-size high-resolution 11x17-inch poster, click on the image.
For professional graphic design, you absolutely, positively* must visit Desimone Design.
*Thanks, FedEx.