Brian Klems (of Writer's Digest fame) brought the following thread to my attention from the WD.com forums: http://forum.writersdigest.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=19564&start=1

First post:
"I have this gift you see
to write very bad poetry
Try as I might
It's something I just can't fight
So I write stuff you wouldn't read to a tree"

-wondo

Starting up in July, this thread is still going strong (with more than 500 responses to date). While other random forms have entered into the chain, the thread seems to rely mostly on limericks. So if you want to play around with a group of other writers, here's your chance.

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Also, Amy Barlow Liberatore proposed on my Facebook page that we all try writing "bad haiku." (She mentioned that Iain Douglas Kemp was partially responsible for inspiring her.) So if you want to start writing bad haiku, feel free to post in the comments below.

I've just got a few random links today, including a poetic form shared from a Poetic Asides reader and other stuff.

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The poetic form is from Salvatore Buttaci for a poem he calls The Aragman. He provided me a link to the article he wrote on the form at http://www.alongstoryshort.net/PoetCraft.html.

It's a little involved, but it looks like fun--and it provides the link for a cool anagram finder site.

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Then, there's this cool article about America's busiest poet--who is, of course, the Poet Laureate. What I like most about this piece is that several Poets Laureate are interviewed about their experiences in the position.

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Also, I found this article on spoken word poet Jon Goode from Atlanta. The piece interested me for two reasons: 1. I'm still not as well-versed in the spoken word scene as I'd like to be; and 2. I'm planning a move to Atlanta later this year. So, this may be a piece that only interests me, but just in case.

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Finally, here's a neat little piece on animated poetry, including an appeal to animators to create more poetic cartoons. I totally agree!

Back in the "good old days" of writing for creative writing courses in college, I found myself learning and becoming obsessed with form and structure--both in my poetry and my fiction writing. In fact, I became so enamored with form and structure that sometimes I tried forcing words into a structure without any cares about writing compelling material. My thoughts then seemed to be, "People should just appreciate the structure (of the story or poem)." Of course, that's a silly way for a writer to think. Structure without substance is just a skeleton, and skeletons are lifeless.

That said, I still do appreciate and love to play with poetic forms. If you're interested in them, I've defined several under the Poetic Forms category in the left-hand toolbar of this blog. Just click on the link and scroll down to dig for different forms.

For this week's prompt, I want you to write a shadorma. (Click here for my initial post on this specific poetic form.) This is a 6-line Spanish poem with a syllable pattern of 3/5/3/3/7/5--simple as that.

You can write your shadorma on any subject, but if you happen to need a subject, you can write your shadorma on something related to school, schooling, learning, or teaching. Something educational.

Here's my attempt for the day:

"Numbers"

Seven men
followed six women
into the
lake water
before realizing they
were one woman short.

I was distressed to read the following message in the comments for yesterday's prompt this morning:

Doubt I can finish the month...spent the last 24+ hours in ICU after my husband suffered an accident. Had to be airlifted to a city 3 hours away (40 min. by air) Will get back and follow the rest of you once I am able to be home for a while. It has been a great month celebrating poetry.

Emily Blakely |ecblakelyAT NOSPAMmsn dot com

Please send some goodwill Emily's way; as you can probably tell from her comment, her husband's accident sounds very serious.

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Maybe Emily's horrible situation will put things into perspective for today's challenge, which may very well be the hardest poem of the entire month for many. Today's prompt is to write a sestina. (If you need a subject, you can write about catastrophe or loss or hope--to mirror the news above.)

So, what is a sestina? For those who have a few minutes to spare, please go to the following link: http://blog.writersdigest.com/poeticasides/Sestina6x6339+Thats+Math.aspx. Once there, you can read up about what a sestina is and can be.

For those in a hurry, here's the basics on the sestina:

* It's a poem consisting of 7 stanzas.

* The first 6 stanzas have 6 lines; the final stanza has 3 lines.

* There are only 6 end words to each line throughout the 39-line poem.

* They rotate in the following pattern:

1-End Word 1

2-End Word 2

3-End Word 3

4-End Word 4

5-End Word 5

6-End Word 6

 

7-End Word 6

8-End Word 1

9-End Word 5

10-End Word 2

11-End Word 4

12-End Word 3

 

13-End Word 3

14-End Word 6

15-End Word 4

16-End Word 1

17-End Word 2

18-End Word 5

 

19-End Word 5

20-End Word 3

21-End Word 2

22-End Word 6

23-End Word 1

24-End Word 4

 

25-End Word 4

26-End Word 5

27-End Word 1

28-End Word 3

29-End Word 6

30-End Word 2

 

31-End Word 2

32-End Word 4

33-End Word 6

34-End Word 5

35-End Word 3

36-End Word 1

 

37-End Words 1 and 2

38-End Words 3 and 4

39-End Words 5 and 6

Usually, the best strategy is to pick out 6 words you think you can have fun with and that are probably somewhat flexible in how you can use them (this includes modifying a word here and there--like changing "cold" to "clod" to fit your purposes). Maybe throw in a word that is a little unique--if you really want to challenge yourself. And remember to have fun.

Here's my sestina for the day:

"On the fly"

I am a big fan of eating Lemonheads,

little yellow spheres tasting like a kiss

on a summer day while sitting on a bench

and enjoying the words of some expert

on how to be true and love me tender,

maybe while watching the birds fly

overhead and swatting away a fly

or two. That is, I think Lemonheads

are worth more than they're tendered

in convenience stores. How do you kiss
and put a price on it? I'm no expert,

but I'm also not some dime-store bench

warming philosopher. I can bench

my weight in mistakes and open flies,

because I've always been one to expect

the need for a Plan B. That is, Appleheads

taste even better and led to my first kiss

in a long time--and at a very tender

moment. Maybe I'm just too tender-

minded. Maybe I should sit on the bench

of whatever court decides good kissing

practices. Maybe I should check my fly

before starting any hot talk on Lemonheads.

Maybe I should leave it to the experts.

After all, they are supposedly the experts

for a reason, right? I wonder if they tender

a smooch for the same price as Lemonheads.

I wonder if they set some kissing bench-

mark and expect us all to hit it on the fly,

just something we do without thinking: A kiss

on the cheek counting as much as a kiss

with tongues is blaspheme, whether experts

declare or not. One needs wings to fly

or we'd all slingshot crazy and turn into tinder--

a bright flaming star, a burning bench

where once I enjoyed eating my Lemonheads.

And the Lemonheads will always lead to kisses

on hot benches with or without the experts

to approve the tender moment of wanting to fly.

As with many programs, getting through the 3rd day is usually the toughest. So I'm going to try and make Day 3 a little easier to help everyone complete the first 10% of our challenge. The way I look at it 3 days should equal 3 lines; in other words, today we'll be writing a haiku.

The official Day 3 prompt: write a haiku.

Now, you ask: What constitutes a haiku? (Very good question, by the way.)

Here are some previous posts I've made about this form:

* Haiku: Easy or Hard?

* Haiku Revisited

* Haiku on September 11 (posted by Nancy Breen)

If you're not big on researching the haiku, here's a quick primer on what constitutes a haiku:

1. It's a 3-line poem.

2. While many think the lines should be 5-7-5 syllables, that's actually not true. It's 5-7-5 "sounds" if you're writing in Japanese. For English purposes, it tends to be a shorter 1st and 3rd line--with a slightly longer 2nd line.

3. The haiku describes nature--with an emphasis on description. Haiku do not rhyme or use metaphors and/or similes.

4. Haiku includes a word to indicate season. For instance, the word "frog" might indicate spring; the word "snow" might indicate winter.

5. There's also usually a juxtaposition of two sensory images. For instance, the most famous haiku involves a frog jumping into a pond as the first sensory image--the water's sound as the second. When put together, the sensory images turn a very simple moment into a profound poem.

There are more rules--if you want to do the research--but this gives a good enough outline of what makes a haiku. For writing your own, it's best to just observe the world around you, make notes, and see if you can spot connections that help you understand nature and the world around you better.

Here's my attempt:

Plastic bag
caught in the tree branches;
birds build their nests.

Now get haiku-ing!

So yeah, I've been meaning to post something about the poetic form known as the sestina for quite some time. It's actually one of my favorite forms. You pick 6 words, rotate them as the end words in 6 stanzas and then include 2 per of the words per line in your final stanza.

Let's pick 6 random words: bears, carving, dynamite, hunters, mothers, blessing.

Here's how the end words would go:

Stanza 1
Line 1-bears (A)
Line 2-carving (B)
Line 3-dynamite (C)
Line 4-hunters (D)
Line 5-mothers (E)
Line 6-blessing (F)

Stanza 2
Line 7-blessing (F)
Line 8-bears (A)
Line 9-mothers (E)
Line 10-carving (B)
Line 11-hunters (D)
Line 12-dynamite (C)

Stanza 3
Line 13-dynamite (C)
Line 14-blessing (F)
Line 15-hunters (D)
Line 16-bears (A)
Line 17-carving (B)
Line 18-mothers (E)

Stanza 4
Line 19-mothers (E)
Line 20-dynamite (C)
Line 21-carving (B)
Line 22-blessing (F)
Line 23-bears (A)
Line 24-hunters (D)

Stanza 5
Line 25-hunters (D)
Line 26-mothers (E)
Line 27-bears (A)
Line 28-dynamite (C)
Line 29-blessing (F)
Line 30-carving (B)

Stanza 6
Line 31-carving (B)
Line 32-hunters (D)
Line 33-blessing (F)
Line 34-mothers (E)
Line 35-dynamite (C)
Line 36-bears (A)

Stanza 7
Line 37-bears (A), carving (B)
Line 38-dynamite (C), hunters (D)
Line 39-mothers (E), blessing (F)

While many poets try to write sestinas in iambic pentameter, that is not a requirement. Also, when choosing your six end words, it does help to choose words that can be altered if needed to help keep the flow of the poem going. For instance, take a look at the six end words chosen above:

Bears could be the noun or the verb and singular or plural; it could also be modified to bares, and I could possibly even get away with changing it to beer or beard.

Carving could be made plural and be a noun or verb; it could also be turned into craving or cravings--maybe even caving.

Dynamite has less potential for change; or does it? Dynamite could be used as a noun, verb or adjective. It could also be changed into dynamo or possibly even be changed to mite, miter or might.

And so on. I think you can see what I'm getting at.

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I got into sestinas as a result of taking a creative writing: poetry course at the University of Cincinnati taught by sestina master craftsman, James Cummins.

I'm going to go ahead and humiliate myself by posting one of my first ever sestinas (possibly, THE first ever sestina I've written). I was 18 at the time, so it truly is horrible.

"Senor Eastwood"

I can hear your blood
It's making noise
It is celebrating
The way you took that man down
With the guns in your hands
Now you can finally breathe

You begin to breathe
When you notice the blood
You cover with your hands
Your mouth mumbling noise
As your knees drop down
No more celebrating

The mortician is celebrating
As your lungs hypobreathe
He'd like to lower you down
After you run dry of blood
And run void of noise
He'd like to cross your hands

All a result of the man's hands
Not quick enough for celebrating
He didn't get any of that noise
He didn't get to hypobreathe
And he didn't notice any blood
He just went down

He got to take you down
With him and his hands
Just quick enough to draw blood
You didn't get much celebrating
As now you don't have to breathe
And you're deceased of noise

And now do you hear noise
Did you go up or down
Does it hurt to not breathe
Are you still trapped with your hands
Is there any celebrating
Is there any blood

I really would like to know about the blood and noise
For though the celebrating has all calmed down
I'm old and my hands are shaky as is the way I breathe

About the only thing going for this piece is that I did keep the end words in the right order. Outside of that, I picked horrible end words. Beyond that, I was still writing very, very, VERY abstract. Oh yeah, and there's like totally no punctuation. O, am I blushing!

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Here's a little more on sestinas from around the Web:

* Wikipedia entry

* The Sestina Verse Form, by Ariadne Unst

* McSweeney's Internet Tendency sestinas page featuring several examples by many, many writers (including Professor Cummins)

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Check out Poetic Forms archive.

Earlier this year, I wrote about a post about epitaphs. At that time, I made the decision to not combine them with elegies.

An elegy is a song of sorrow or mourning--often for someone who has died. However, poets being an especially creative and contrary group have also written elegies for the ends of things, whether a life, a love affair, a great era, a football season, etc.

While there are such things as elegiac couplets and elegiac stanzas, form does not rule an elegy; content is king (or queen) when writing elegies.

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Here are some examples:

"Elegy in Present Tense," by Nancy Krygowski

"Elegy Written in a Country Courtyard," by Thomas Gray

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Here's some more on elegies:

Wikipedia entry

Academy of American Poets entry