Thursday, February 23, 2006

Snapshot 22 February 02006


I am preoccupied with faith,
its dangers and its solace,
as this snow falls, a drift
of fist-sized flakes that sift
from a dim sky, then change
to sleetish rain. An hour,
I'm told, for the average flake
to fall. This stone is filled
with galaxies; this child is held
with love. This earth is
baptized, not by god, but by
neutrinos. In dreams I am
stalked by elephants and dragons.
I put my hand to the wild
boar's neck. I feel its pulse, its
coarse fur. Its eye on me.



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Indented lines appear to be impossible on Blogger? How frustrating!

EDITED: I'll tell how in the comments.

2 comments:

Lyle Daggett said...

To do indented lines in Blogger:

You might try using the "pre" tag. I type most of my poems with uneven margins on both the left and right sides, and although the process is cumbersome and a major pain, I've been able to make it work.

Here's the way I've found that's simplest:

1. First, type the complete poem in the Compose window in Blogger. **** Don't do the indents yet. **** Also don't put any line spaces for stanza breaks, or after the title.

2. Now go to the Edit HTML window, and at the top of the poem, before the title, put the "pre" tag: type the < bracket, then type "pre" (without the quote marks), then type the > bracket. No spaces inside the brackets.

3. At the end of the title, type the < bracket, then type "/pre" (without quote marks), then type the > bracket.

4. Now (stay in the Edit HTML window) insert the same "pre" tags at the beginning and end of each stanza in the poem. (If there are no stanzas, just do it at the beginning and end of the body of the poem.)

5. The "pre" tags should have the result of creating line spaces. So don't add any additional line spaces, or that could mess up the formatting.

6. The "pre" tags will change the font, so you'll need to select a font again. You should be able to do this in the Compose window. In the Compose window, you can also now do any boldface and italics the poem needs, any font size, font color, etc.

7. Now, go back to the Edit HTML window, and go through and type the indents with the spacebar, just like on a typewriter. (If a left indent is on a line that has one of the "pre" tags at the beginning of it, type the spaces to the right of the tag.)

8. You'll need to use the Preview window to see how the indents will actually look. You won't be able to tell this accurately from the Edit HTML window. You may have to fuss with this a little while, hopping back and forth between Preview and Edit HTML, to get the indents to look the way you want them.

That, as nearly as I can remember, is what worked for me the last time I posted a poem here. Did I mention that it's cumbersome and a major pain?

Other people may be able to suggest simpler ways of doing it. Please jump in.

Lyle Daggett said...

And by the way, I like the poem.