Poetry Box November Challenge: using poem forms

Skinny Dip: Poetry, eds Susan Paris & Kate De Goldi, illustrations by Amy van Luijk, Massey University Press, 2021

Yesterday, to celebrate the arrival of the stunning new anthology Skinny Dip, I posted four poets reading their poems (Ben Brown, James Brown, Lynley Edmeades and Ashleigh Young). You can listen here.

The Skinny Dip poets were invited to write a poem on a specific subject using a specific form. I love writing poems that use poetry forms. I can follow the rules or I can play with the rules. Poets do both nowadays. It can be such fun. It can change the way a poem looks on the page or screen, and it can change the way a poem sounds in the ear.

Your November challenge is to write a poem using a poem form.

You pick the subject.
You choose how you follow the rules.
You give your poem a title.
You use your ears to listen to the sound of the poem.
You might leave your poem for at least a day to spot what might need changing!

Use your imagination or keep it real!

Warning: if you are using rhyme it might be for a nonsense poem but if not make sure the poem still flows well and makes sense.

Here are some poetry forms and their rules (you can research more about the history of these forms and their rules online):

verses can also be called stanzas

poem forms can also be called poetic forms

Acrostic The first letter of each line spells a word or phrase as you read down.

Cinquain A five-line poem. Line one (2 syllables), line two (4 syllables), line three (6 syllables), line four (eight syllables), line five (two syllables). Over to you if the lines rhyme or not.

Found poem Find an existing text that fascinates you (some instructions, a noticeboard, a recipe, a shopping list, a paragraph from somewhere else ….). Then turn it into a poem. You can add or take away words. Think how you will set it out.

Haiku A three-line poem that goes: 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables. Haiku don’t usually rhyme.

Ode Think of it as a poem that sounds good (is musical, is lyrical) and that praises something or someone.

Pantoum are as long as you like and have four-line verses. The second and fourth lines of each stanza are the same as the first and third lines of the next stanza. Sometimes the last line of a pantoum is the same as the first line of the poem.

Rondel Tricky! The first two verses have four lines and the last verse has either five or six lines. The first and second lines of the first verse are the last two lines of the second and third verses.

Sestina Even trickier! There are six verses with six lines and a three-line verse to finish (an envoy). The words at the end of each line in the first verse appear at the end of the lines in the other verses in a set pattern. Check this set pattern out online. And there are rules for the last verse (the envoy).

Villanelle Even trickier still. You will need to check how this works on line. Five verses with three lines, and the last verse has four lines. A nineteen line poem! There are rules about how thw lines and rhymes get repeated.

Sonnet Fourteen lines that can follow a set rhyme pattern.

Tanka Ah! A five-line poem ike a haiku cousin – line one (5 syllables), line two (7 syllables), line three (5 syllables), and lines four and five in (7 syllables).

Deadline: November 26th

Send to: paulajoygreen@gmail.com

Please include: your name, age, year and name of school.

Don’t forget to put POEM FORM poem in subject line so I don’t miss your email.

I will read all the poems after the deadline and will post some poems on NOV 30th. It can take me several days when I get hundreds of emails! I will have some books to give away.