Poet

Roamoff Biography

My real name is Rodger Alan Moffett.

I composed my first poem in junior high when a teacher told us to go home and write a "cute little four-line poem about Thanksgiving". I wrote an obnoxious 24-line poem instead called " > Thanksgiving is Awful". Its admittedly imperfect meter and rhyme were patterned after "Old Mother Hubbard". Subsequently, I was asked to recite it at virtually all Thanksgiving gatherings.

In high school and college, I was exposed to so-called "free-form" poetry, usually from visiting lecturers. I was disturbed by its lack of sophistication. Virtually none of it had any meter whatsoever and of course there was no rhyme at all. Out of disgust I mockingly wrote some "free-form" stuff when assigned. I wrote pure trash and submitted it. Every single time, the teachers read my stuff in front of the class and praised the heck out of it. None of them realized that it was written as a mockery of their so-called art.

Later I wrote the 90-line " > Redemption: a Typical Christmas Morning" patterned after the Thanksgiving one but having better meter. It was sub-titled "Oh Christmas is Awful". I performed it on many occasions and even made it into a play. I won several talent shows with it. However, it showed that I did not have my own style and that I was probably too concerned about meter.

I then discovered Limericks. I fell in love with them. The first two lines start painting a story. The next two use a new meter and setup the reader for the punch line. The final line returns to the prior meter and rhyme and delivers the punch. I never thought of them as dirty poetry and discovered much later that they are often used for lewd or sexual purposes, ruining their innate beauty. I wrote literally dozens of Limericks over several years. Most were caricatures of people or spoofs about events surrounding me. I noticed that many others wrote Limericks too but they did not understand meter and simply threw in rhyming words at the end of unstructured phrases. On rare occasion I would break away from Limericks and use other meter/rhyme schemes. Most were patterned after schemes I had heard before (an occasional one was brand new).

One of the people that was caricatured in a Limerick took my poems to her neighbor who was an English professor. The neighbor said I had talent but that I needed to create my own styles and needed to be more loose in the meter.

I gradually began experimenting with new styles and finally invented a couple with " > A Day in the Life of the Hyperactive Hawaiian" and " > Soothing Scenes: a Conversation with Pat". From that time on, most Limericks I wrote were by request since I wanted to do my own styles instead. I'm fluent in Portuguese so I wrote one in that language, " > Eu Não Sou Brasileiro". It was the first time I had created a rhyme which carried across stanzas, something I now really like to do.

Poetry is not my life. I am a computer programmer and a Math teacher (I have several degrees including an advanced Math degree). (Warning, technical content ahead =>) I started developing an algorithm to do heuristic correlations instead of the popular least squares regression analysis (which is too structured and has lots of problems). I found that this new idea was not supported in the university community since it was somewhat novel and no professor I approached seemed willing to venture outside their comfort zone. And I noticed that the low-level Math being taught and the technology being used were not very related to the Math or technology needed in the real world. So I abandoned my dream of creating the algorithm. The possible analogy between free-form unstructured poetry and my algorithm was not lost on me. There was a difference, however. My algorithm was both structured and heuristic, thus breaking the mold of the too structured least squares analysis while not venturing into purely unstructured chaos. My slight departure from structure was causing rejection. Free-form poetry fought a similar battle and won, but went way too far away from structure. (<= End of technical content) I needed to do with poetry what I had tried to do with my algorithm: be creative and not so fixated on structure while not becoming totally chaotic.

I became very upset over the 2000th American death in Iraq and the pure stupidity and greed of our politicians. (Not to mention the thousands of Iraqis we slaughtered, including the innocent boys we killed that were brainwashed into joining the Iraqi military.) So, out of the blue, I wrote " > Sunrise?". I then decided that I could write more poetry and began channeling my thoughts toward it. Several more came out, many with completely new styles that I had never heard before. I went to a local Poetry Slam to present them, and was shocked to find that they did nothing but really crappy free-form junk. It had almost no talent at all. One of the winners of a nationwide slam was there and presented some of his stuff as well. Again, it was pure trash. I had thought that the free-form stuff was a fad that would have died long ago. But since it requires limited talent and receives high praise at these slams, it has thrived and true poetry seems to be under-appreciated. I was so disgusted that I decided to launch my own web site to publish real poetry. Since that time, I have tried to invent new meters or structures for each published poem (a daunting task...). The structures I "invent" may have been used before - but I did not consciously copy them from prior works. I'm pretty sure that I have invented some unique styles and structures in many of my more recent poems. Most lyrical poets reuse their invented meters or structures many times (because the creation of a successful new meter is very difficult).

In October of 2006, one of my poems (" > Vote Them Out") was published on another web site (though they changed some punctuation within the poem - which no one should do). See   > www.buzzflash.com/articles/mailbag/242.

Besides writing poetry, I have written two joke books. I submitted one many years ago and was told by the publisher that that they liked it and that I needed to illustrate it. I have tried to get an illustrator but have been unsuccessful. Also, I have written a children's book and the melody and lyrics to a song. I need an illustrator for the books and a musician for the song (I will pay or share profits). If you are interested, please send an email to  > Roamoff@JustPlainPoetry.com.

I am currently submitting my first book of poetry to publishers to try to get a first printing. The book is over 600 pages long. It has all of the poems on this site in it. It presents each poem from many perspectives, including a technical structural analysis of each poem. It also provides helps and hints to get you started writing your own structured poetry. I have obtained a copyright for the book and have submitted it to publishers. Until one of them publishes it, I am printing and binding it myself. You can buy it in that form from this site under  > Purchase - Products.

Please also check out my other web site  > www.highermath.com and my software product  > www.highermath.com/tango.htm. My brother developed the site and does the lion's share of its programming.

My favorites among the poems I have written are (most favorite first):

I love my daughter, Shannon, more than anything in the world. I wasn't there for most of her early childhood and teenage years. I wish I could have been there for her. She has inspired most of my best poetry. See all of those poems  > here. (This will open in a new window; most of the other links on this page simply open on top of this page.)

 > This Journey is a mini-epic of over 250 lines. It has 11 different rhyme schemes and meters within 10 major sections. One of its sections is the most powerful meter / rhyme scheme / lyric combination I have ever composed (see "inning" number 8 in the poem).

Three of the above share a common intensively alliterative theme, but each of them has its own unique elements as well (such as its own meter, rhyme scheme, or carry-forward structure), they are   > Pure Peace,  > Nature's Grand, and  > Desert Life.

 > Ninety Straight Days or So,  > Free for Flight,  > Growing Old, and  > My Life are also extremely alliterative (along with having very complex rhyme schemes and meters).

Two of the above share the same meter:  > Pomposity and  > The Wrong Side of the Bed. The meter sharing in this case was purposeful because I knew the meter worked for that kind of poem. However, I made sure they each have different rhyme schemes.

Three of the above share the same meter:  > Subtly Red,  > Oh Shannon, So Perfect, and  > This Journey (first "inning" only). I did not notice that I had used the same meter until later. (I don't stop in the middle of a poem to look around and make sure its meter is unique. If the poem is working, I don't want to spoil it with that type of arbitrary hurdle. However, my usual goal - since November of 2005 - is not to reuse the same structure ever again. If I purposely reuse a meter, I always try to incorporate a new structure of some type or a different rhyme scheme in the newer poem.) This meter is very adaptable. In  > Subtly Red and  > This Journey, the mood is light and cheery. In  > Oh Shannon, So Perfect, the mood is deeply serious. Many meters are only successful for one type of poem (like the typical meter used in silly Limericks probably cannot work with more serious lyrics). Amazingly enough, the rhyme scheme of these three poems, which is not a simple scheme, ended up being very similar as well.

You may also like some of the following:

About early infancy or toddlers (besides  > A Father's Lament and  > And Still the Baby Cries... above):

About wonders or places of the world (besides  > Cali-Four Seasons,  > Pomposity,  > Nature's Grand,   > Subtly Red, and  > Desert Life above):

Tongue-in-cheek (besides  > The Wrong Side of the Bed,  > Oh to Be a Bumblebee,  > It is Tough to Write,  > Redemption: a Typical Christmas Morning, and  > 10-4 above):

Possibly my best Limerick:

A slightly naughty Limerick (warning):

Slightly naughty (warning):

If you link to one of these poems and then want to see another, use the <Back button on your browser after viewing the poem and it will bring you back to this page.

Roamoff
 > Roamoff@JustPlainPoetry.com

Copyright © 2006-2009 by Roamoff

Everything on this page is copyrighted © 2006-2009 to Just Plain Poetry ( > JustPlainPoetry.com) unless the poet has posted a copyright for their work (in that case everything except those areas is copyrighted to Just Plain Poetry). Last modified: 2010-02-10.