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The Form Poetry Thread (no it doesn't all rhyme)

UnderYourSpell

UnderYourSpell

Gerund Whore
Joined
May 20, 2007
Posts
15,794
Without battling through hundreds of threads, I'm not sure if we have an individual thread for Form Poetry. Oh sure we've had Challenges and Teach Ins and we've also got Tzara's wonderful Thread of Forms or Invented Poetry Forms but not an actual thread to write in (Champagne will probably prove me wrong!) So even if I have to write alone, although I hope I won't, this is it! :)
If you're unsure what constitutes Forms do read the links above, and yes Free style is a Form before anyone reminds me of the fact :)
 
I'll start us off with my infamous Ode to a Dung Beetle which until greenmountaineer sussed it out held a message for years in the first two and last two letters of the last line!

Higgledy piggledy everso squiggerdly
rolls the dung beetle all over the land
picking up masses and even morasses
making the most of whatever's at hand.
Little dung beetle, oh little dung beetle
why does your heart sing for buckets of it
life rolling onwards backwards and forwards
shovelling up elephants bit after bit.
 
Tapestry .... Double Acrostic

Take tiny stitches and you'll find
Hopefully that very soon an idea
Reveals an exquisite woven life,
Entirely created from blended colour
And through it all run enough
Daydreams to bring it all to light.
 
These are excellent examples Annie. You know I especially love your dung beetle poem. šŸ˜„ I think choosing to write form poems is great practice for developing one's poetry-writing skills. And once one learns a particular form it's easier to understand how to manipulate the rules to fit one's own style. Well that's how it works for me.

Here is the Tanka I wrote yesterday. Not sure if it's any good, but I tried to conform to the rules. And, more important, I like it!


Hanami Tanka*

Sun opens its eyes
like me it's flower watching,
cream, pink, magenta
petals fallen on my hair.
Even the clouds are smiling.

*Hanami refers to the Japanese cherry blossom festival. The term translates to "flower watching."
 
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Angeline said:
Hanami Tanka*

Sun opens its eyes
like me it's flower watching,
cream, pink, magenta
petals fallen on my hair.
​


*Hanami refers to the Japanese cherry blossom festival. The term translates to "flower watching."
Click to expand...


You may call it

Hanami slim tanka​

Regards,
 
Angeline said:
These are excellent examples Annie. You know I especially love your dung beetle poem. šŸ˜„ I think choosing to write form poems is great practice for developing one's poetry-writing skills. And once one learns a particular form it's easier to understand how to manipulate the rules to fit one's own style. Well that's how it works for me.

Here is the Tanka I wrote yesterday. Not sure if it's any good, but I tried to conform to the rules. And, more important, I like it!


Hanami Tanka*

Sun opens its eyes
like me it's flower watching,
cream, pink, magenta
petals fallen on my hair.

*Hanami refers to the Japanese cherry blossom festival. The term translates to "flower watching."
Click to expand...

I am dreadful at any of the Japanese forms, all Sonnets and the Onegin Stanza, (which I used all my Immunities on in Survivor! :) )
 
UnderYourSpell said:
I am dreadful at any of the Japanese forms, all Sonnets and the Onegin Stanza, (which I used all my Immunities on in Survivor! :) )
Click to expand...

I've not written many of the Japanese forms because I've felt a) I don't really understand them; and b) I'm not so sure they translate well to English. I'm more comfortable with the American Sentence, which is also often misunderstood but at least I'm comfortable with the vernacular.

The Onegin Stanza (with all due respect and love to Tzara), I have never really wanted to try. Maybe it would be easier for me now. I can't recall if I wrote one for Survivor or not. I think I skipped it. :eek:
 
What Is the Onegin Stanza?

A form that's best used writing clever
verse filigreed with tricks and tropes.
When is it serious? Well, neverā€”
it's civil as a cantaloupe,
with rhythms quirky and quite wavy
that taste as swell as turkey gravy
but leave you hungry in an hour
for lines more weighty and more dour.
In short, it's like poetic candy:
a form that's sweet, but bad for you.
So try an elegy or two
for Artistryā€”you'll find them dandy.
But when for liveliness you plead,
Onegin is a worthy steed.



Pretty silly, but it does illustrate the form.
 
Angeline said:
I fixed it in my post above.
Click to expand...

Thus, you've added back the forgotten line L5. Another (lazy) way to fix it
was to remove L4. You could call the surviving first three lines, Hanami Haiku (thus getting a nice alliteration).
 
Last edited:
Tzara said:
What Is the Onegin Stanza?

A form that's best used writing clever
verse filigreed with tricks and tropes.
When is it serious? Well, neverā€”
it's civil as a cantaloupe,
with rhythms quirky and quite wavy
that taste as swell as turkey gravy
but leave you hungry in an hour
for lines more weighty and more dour.
In short, it's like poetic candy:
a form that's sweet, but bad for you.
So try an elegy or two
for Artistryā€”you'll find them dandy.
But when for liveliness you plead,
Onegin is a worthy steed.



Pretty silly, but it does illustrate the form.
Click to expand...
:Applause:
 
Tzara said:
What Is the Onegin Stanza?

A form that's best used writing clever
verse filigreed with tricks and tropes.
When is it serious? Well, neverā€”
it's civil as a cantaloupe,
with rhythms quirky and quite wavy
that taste as swell as turkey gravy
but leave you hungry in an hour
for lines more weighty and more dour.
In short, it's like poetic candy:
a form that's sweet, but bad for you.
So try an elegy or two
for Artistryā€”you'll find them dandy.
But when for liveliness you plead,
Onegin is a worthy steed.



Pretty silly, but it does illustrate the form.
Click to expand...

HarryHill said:
:Applause:
Click to expand...

More applause, but you always were the Master :)
 
Tzara said:
What Is the Onegin Stanza?

A form that's best used writing clever
verse filigreed with tricks and tropes.
When is it serious? Well, neverā€”
it's civil as a cantaloupe,
with rhythms quirky and quite wavy
that taste as swell as turkey gravy
but leave you hungry in an hour
for lines more weighty and more dour.
In short, it's like poetic candy:
a form that's sweet, but bad for you.
So try an elegy or two
for Artistryā€”you'll find them dandy.
But when for liveliness you plead,
Onegin is a worthy steed.



Pretty silly, but it does illustrate the form.
Click to expand...

It made me smile. Your writing is both sweet and nimble, but I'm still not trying it! :) :rose:

Senna Jawa said:
Thus, you've added back the forgotten line L5. Another (lazy) way to fix it
was to remove L4. You could call the surviving first three lines, Hanami Haiku (thus getting a nice alliteration).
Click to expand...

Yes but wouldn't it be invalid as a haiku because it uses both metaphor and personification? I went for the Tanka form instead because it is a narrator's perspective and not limited to natural world imagery. (Maybe I misunderstand...and this is why I avoid these forms lol.)
 
UnderYourSpell said:
More applause, but you always were the Master :)
Click to expand...
c5dd84b402d9a578384ff86dd575036316d0f962_hq.jpg


Yes, I was. :)



For those confused by this response, see here.
 
Angeline said:
Yes but [...]
Click to expand...

I was joking, once and again. The 4-line tanka did it to me.

[...] wouldn't it be invalid as a haiku because it uses both metaphor and personification? I went for the Tanka form instead because it is a narrator's perspective and not limited to natural world imagery.
Click to expand...

Yes, this is all true.

Best regards,
 
A Too Late for Valentines Villanelle

Words like diamonds glitter in line
fixed in place by rhyme and measure
with these words will you be mine?

Hidden in each newfound rhyme
assonance revealing treasure
words like diamonds glitter in line.

The sudden rush as words align
gives the reader subtle pleasure
with these words will you be mine?

From sequence of repeated lines
can form emerge like EtchASketchure
and words like diamonds glitter and shine?

Lightly tread past dark nightline
always withhold undue pressure
with these words will you be mine?

Thus I present for Valentine
this poem for you to read at leisure.
Words like diamonds glitter in line
with these words will you be mine?
 
Last edited:
Frost on the windowsā€”
........Shit. I will be late again,

....damn that ice scraping.


.
 
So Long Winter

An icicle melts.
It's a shrinking stalactite
and soon, a puddle.
 
Spring

A daffodil, limp.
...We have more snow. ...Yet flowers
.......still open themselves.


.
 
Line Messaging

Vividly coloured day memories,
but invisible in the light of day.
Slipping from the grasp of night,
scattered autumn leaves, wind swept.

Torn away into the quicksand
of reality, sinking far beyond recapture,
gathered into a different dimension.

One fleeting recall, then sliding away.
I'm the stealer of your dreams.
 
Last edited:
wh, tenos

UnderYourSpell said:
You are correct of course, I suppose I should have named it Form poetry that has a name :)
Click to expand...

A modern example is tenos. I have created it on 2007-03-18, see my poem:


There are four stanzas:
3+3+3+4 = 13
​

The rhyme scheme is:
a x a // b x b // a x a // b a b a

where lines x do not rhyme.

A friend of mine (who has authored hundreds of sonnets) liked my tenos hence he himself wrote a bunch of them.
 
Last edited:
UnderYourSpell said:
You are correct of course, I suppose I should have named it Form poetry that has a name :)
Click to expand...

:) you have fixed form and open form poetry. but it still has to be poetry, with careful use of poetic devices such as word-choices/line-breaks/beats/musicality etc..., and not some rambling mess that still calls itself poetry. unfortunately, there's a whole bunch of that stuff submitted and printed up on the main site under the guise of 'poetry'. :rolleyes:
 
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