Sure, no prob. These thing are sometimes easier to present in person.
Remember these are the two kinds:
• 50 percent mesostics: between any two mesoletters, you can't have
the second
and
• 100 percent mesostics: between any two mesoletters, you can't have
either.
Let's use "The Gettysburg Address" as the source text and LINCOLN as
the spine:
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation
or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are
met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a
portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here
gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether
fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we
cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.
The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated it
far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little
note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what
they did here.
It is for us the living rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished
work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It
is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining
before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to
that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--
that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in
vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom,
and that government of the people, by the people, for the people
shall not perish from the earth.
OK, so we start from the beginning of the text and look for a word
that has an "L" (our first mesoletter)
but no "I" because the next instance of an "I" will be the next
mesoletter. We find the word "aLl" - notice that we can't use
"liberty" because an "i" follows in the same word. OK, so we start
our mesostic with "aLl"
...now, continuing in the text, we find the next word that has an
"I", remembering that our following letter "N"
will be in the next line...and so on...
As for the "wing words", you can have as many as you want as long as
they don't break the rules.
Wing words on the right of your spine can't have the FOLLOWING
mesoletter included anywhere in it's phrase
and wing words on the left of the spine cannot have the PREVIOUS
mesoletter included anywhere in it's phrase.
So, let's do "LINCOLN" just once and only use one word for each line
(no wing words - we can add those later),
we get (if I can line the letters up - MUCH easier on paper!):
aLl
cIvil
testiNg
dediCated
lOng
battLefield
portioN
By the way, when you come to the last letter in your spine,
you act as if you are going to start your spine word over.
In other words, for "LINCOLN" when you come to the last letter - "N" -
you are searching for a word that has an "N", that is not followed by
a "L" (your first letter in "LINCOLN").
OK, so let's add some "wing words". There are some exceptions in a
few of his works, but, generally, John made no rules about length of
the wing words. You can have none...or you can have lots...as long as
it doesn't break the mesostic rule that we've been speaking of -
repeated letters before the mesoletters. Wing words can be added to
make a particular point or create your own special slant on what is
or can be said. Punctuation can be implied by it's absence. For example:
aLl men are created
cIvil
testiNg whether that nation
so dediCated
can lOng endure
a great battLefield
a portioN of that
fieLd [and so on...]
This is an example of choosing wing words that
allows you to convey, let's say, a patriotic meaning,
but, in another instance, you may be able to add just enough wing
words to
give some *other* implied meaning to the text.
and so it goes...
Rod
---
Now playing: Clarence Wheeler & The Enforcers - Right On
