Category Archives: aphorism

Coin Poem

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Coin Poem
Type:
Structure, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Pivot Requirement
Description:
A two-couplet poem where the first couplet states a thought and the second flips it, or shows the other side. It is syllabic, showing some relation to many Japanese poems by alternating seven and five-syllable lines, but has rhyme. The rhyme can be as rhymed couplets or merely the second and fourth line of the poem.
Schematic:
Rhyme: ab cb or aa bb
Meter:
xxxxxxx
xxxxx
xxxxxxx
xxxxx
Rhythm/Stanza Length:
2
Line/Poem Length:
4
My Thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for the wonderful PoetryBase resource.
My Example Poem
Early to Bed, Late to Rise   (Coin Poem)
Early in and out of bed
helps one get a head.
if sleeping late is allowed
you avoid the crowd.
© Lawrencealot – April 29, 2014
Visual Template

Cinquino

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  • Cinquino is seems to me is a gimmicky invented verse form that reverses the syllable count of the Crapsey Cinquain. It was found in a book on poetry for teachers and was created by a 20th century American educator James Neille Northe.The Cinquino is:
    • a poem in 5 lines.
    • syllabic, 2/8/6/4/2 syllables per line.
    • unrhymed
      I Am alone
      time flies on flitting fairy wings
      up down and all around
      I am here now
      alive
      ~~ jvg

My example

So, Multiprocess      (Cinquino)
time flies
unless you’re waiting for the pot
to boil, you all know that
it’s relative
in fact
© Lawrencealot – 2/19/2014

Grook

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A grook (“gruk” in Danish) is a form of short aphoristic poem. It was invented by the Danish poet and scientist Piet Hein. He wrote over 7,000 of them, most in Danish or English, published in 20 volumes. Some say that the name is short for “GRin & sUK” (“laugh & sigh” in Danish), but Piet Hein said he felt that the word had come out of thin air.
His gruks first started to appear in the daily newspaper “Politiken” shortly after the Nazi Occupation in April 1940 under the signature Kumbel Kumbell. The poems were meant as a spirit-building, yet slightly coded form of passive resistance against Nazi occupation duringWorld War II. The grooks are characterized by irony, paradox, brevity, precise use of language, sophisticated rhythms and rhymes and often satiric nature.
 
THE ROAD TO WISDOM?
Well, it’s plain
and simple to express.
Err and err and err again,
but less and less and less.
Example Poem
Certainty (Grook)
Most everything is cut and dried
for people who are dogma-fied.
(c) Lawrencealot

Haynaku

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Vividly short poetry, like haiku only very different… 1 word, 2 words, 3 words
and visa versa.
Creating imagery or conclusions with only six words in all…
History.
• Invented by poet Eileen Tabios, who is also publisher, Meritage Press.
• Officially inaugurated on the Web on June 12th, 2003 (Philippine Independence Day).
• The form spread through the Web to poets all over the world.
• Eileen Tabios initially called the form “the Pinoy Haiku”.
• Vince Gotera proposed the name “hay(na)ku”, and this name has stuck. This corresponds to a Tagalog phrase that means roughly “Oh!” or (in Spanish) “Madre mía”.
• The last syllable is pronounced “ai” (silent aitch, like Cockneys would say it).
Variations:
○ In the ‘reverse’ haynaku, the longest line is placed first and the shortest last. The total is still 6 words: 3 in the first line, 2 in the second line, and 1 in the third line.
○ Multiple hay(na)ku can be chained to form a longer poem.
Example Poem
Haynaku # 1
Understanding
does not
solve the problem.
Taking thoughtful action
most usually
does.
© Lawrencealot – May 21, 2012