May 25 The Romanian inventor Petrache Poenaru received a French patent on May 25, 1827, for the invention of a fountain pen with a barrel made from a large swan quill. While studying in France, Poenaru needed an instrument that ould save him time. Early incarnations of the fountain pen tended to leak at inopportune times. Eventually disposable cartridges came into use. The pen became more commonly referred as the cartridge pen. I remain a fan. I love writing with my beautifully balanced Lamy Pen. It gives the comforting illusion of being a relatively fast writer, such is its flow across the pages of my notebook.     Inkblot   Born into a world of blotting paper Ink wells and fountain pens A left hander In a writing minefield   Ink wells and fountain pens Held the black-blue liquid Providing shape to letters and words   A left hander- Forever scared of smudges Afraid of blots and blobs on pristine pages   In a writing minefield He remained forever ner...

Trimeric Poems Today it gives me great pleasure to share a Trimeric Poem. A poetry form I have recently discovered. A poetry form I really like... The poem begins to build seamlessly as you go, due to its expectation for the writer to repeat lines used in the first four line stanza in order to launch each subsequent three line stanza.   The Trimeric poetry form was invented by Charles A. Stone, and the rules are quite straightforward : A Trimeric poem consists of 4 stanzas The first stanza has 4 lines The other three stanzas have 3 lines each The first line of each 3 line stanza is a refrain of the corresponding line in the first stanza (so 2nd stanza starts with the second line, third stanza starts with the third line, etc.) No rules apply for line length, meter, or rhyme. I've coloured coded my poem so you can see how the structure has been informed. Inkblot I was born into a world of blotting paper Ink wells and fountain pens A left handed writer ...