St. Paul's poet laureate: It could be verse

It could be verse

The puck is out there — somewhere.

But finding the Pioneer Press Treasure Hunt medallion demands deciphering up to a dozen clues written by the cloaked-in-anonymity clue writer. To a hunter, the daily poems can be infuriating bits of rhymed antagonism.

But what would a real poet think?

For fun, we thought we’d see how the clues hold up as pure verse — putting aside the $10,000 booty that unlocking their secrets can provide — and had some critiqued by St. Paul’s poet laureate, Carol Connolly.

She was game for the challenge.

‘I’d love to,’ she said, ‘even though I was always completely clueless about what the clues meant.’

So are we, Ms. Connolly. Have at it.

— John Brewer

By Carol Connolly

St. Paul Poet Laureate

It takes a certain turn of mind to create poems that rhyme. This talent is possessed, in a big way, by the Pioneer Press writers who create the Winter Carnival Treasure Hunt clues. At the risk of waxing technical, allow me to say these clues seem to be written in ballad form. This requires the second and fourth lines in a poem to end in rhyme, and this rule lives large in the witty and entertaining poetic clues. Poet Kevin FitzPatrick suggests the clues’ poems might be quatrains, a form used by Chaucer, but for this writer, ballads it is.

The world’s oldest ballads are said to come from border countries (think Scotland and Ireland), where families lived in clans, often warring, and not many miles apart, not unlike St. Paul and Minneapolis. Poet Margot Galt suggests that, as ballads, “… the clues should be sung.” A clues opera, perhaps.

The ballad form also is used in blues music. Along with our treasure hunt clues writers, Langston Hughes was also a poet who most successfully used this form. The blues clues aspect does seem particularly suitable, since treasure hunters can find themselves, sadly, digging in the wrong spot.
Poet Phebe Hanson advises us that this form can also be found in religious hymns. In some instances, a hymn could be helpful.

Over the many decades of clues writing, some writers take the liberty of going beyond the four-line form to using eight lines in one clue. This creates a sort of double-deck ballad. Many also engage in what can be called interior rhymes. Not easy. These appear midclue. For example: “… planted is taken for granted; … north of town so come on down; …water’s quite frozen at this park we have chosen,” etc. Good stuff, which should win a Pulitzer.

Beyond the talent of the clues poets, I bow, also, to the extraterrestrial wisdom of those who are able to decipher these clues. Decipher they do, and dig they do near what they are sure is the winning place. Sometimes the strobe light shines on them. Sometimes not. I applaud these diggers, as the treasure hunt clues leave this writer completely and hopelessly, well, clueless

No inside info have I, none, to divulge about the 2011 clues. I do, however, know this. A first-ever carnival event takes place this year. Dorothy Furlong, 1955 queen, and Charlie Hall, 1983 King XLVII, both widowed, seem to have found their treasure. They will be married Feb. 5 in Rice Park. Perhaps they will include clues poems in their ceremony? Or not. Lawyer Neill O’Neil, 2006 King LXX, says they will “… bring romance and magic, once again, into the carnival.”

Stay warm.

Copyright 2011 Pioneer Press.