Tag Archives: 21 lines

Ethnographic Haiku

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Ethnographic Haiku: 7 stanzas. Syllable Count: 5-7-5
Relationship of particular subject or community with the environment.
Evoke at least 3 of the 5 senses ( touch, taste, smell, hearing, sight ).
Each stanza symbolic of one day with the entire poem representing a full week in the life of your particular subject community.

Poetry Caching in Spring

A realtor box
with free poems staked in yard
awaits visitors

Some walkers pick up
poems, thinking house for sale
crumble, toss poems

Rain seeps in the box
dribbles down smudging pages
Sun will curdle them

Walkers sit on wall
resting, reading poems, put
in backpacks or hands

Yanked up by the stake
to mow lawn, rests on trash cans
near camellias

Hail pelts plastic
casing, white as snow, soft ping
droned out by traffic

Stick-on, raised letters
offer poetry to all
who come to pass by

http://www.rainbowcommunications.org/velvet/forms/
My Thanks to Linda Varsell Smith for her contributions above.

Note: The form is Titled, and apparently punctuation is optional.

Distorted Diablo

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• Distorted Diablo is an invented verse form that plays with the biblical devil’s number 666 and distorts by flipping the middle number upside down to get 696. Created by Pat Simpson, I think the content is meant to follow the theme of the numbers.
The Distorted Diablo is:
○ stanzaic, a sixain, a 9 line stanza, a sixain, in that order.
○ syllabic, both sixains are written with 6 syllables per line and the 9 line stanza is written with 9 syllables per line.
○ rhymed at the discretion of the poet.

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=2192#distorted
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example

The Devil’s in the Details (Distorted Diablo)

Both the meter and rhyme
are at your discretion.
Avoiding both’s no crime
‘cept for my obsession.
I try rhyme all the time –
an obvious confession.

Depending up on the time of year
my energies ebb and flow a bit.
The whiteness of winter’s a delight
to think about while I’m cozy here
and don’t have to venture out in it
but can sit inside, ponder and write.
In springtime when roads and sky are clear
you’ll find me hiking with briar pipe lit
in the day and near my desk at night.

The devil I can’t blame,
my muse I cannot thank
when neither mete nor frame
appears in my word bank.
Yet efforts are less lame
when my verse is not blank.

© Lawrencealot – December 2, 2014

Mark Terry Refrain

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The Mark Terry refrain is a 21 line poem invented by Mark Andrew J Terry of Allpoetry.

Stanzaic, consisting of 3 sestets and a tercet in that order
Syllabic, where the first three stanzas are 7/8/8/8/8/6
and the last is 7/8/6
Rhymed: ABaccb dBdeeb fBfeeb ABa

Metric:
Line 1 is catalectic trochaic tetrameter*
Lines 2 -5 iambic tetrameter, and
Line 6 iambic trimeter
Refrain required: line 2 repeats in every stanza, and
line 1 repeats in line 20

* catalectic = lacking one or more syllables
trochaic = consisting of trochees
trochee = metric foot with stressed followed by unstressed syllable
tetrameter = a line of verse consisting of four metric feet

My example poem
Aural Aroma

Aural Aroma
Take the rose before you play,
let its aroma seed your soul.
it serves you well as your cachet.
Your music wafts and fills the air
with tonal scents found everywhere
to make dim spirits whole.
Smell the roses fresh bouquet,
let its aroma seed your soul.
Translate for all of us today
the beauty that your heart perceives
into the sounds your mind conceives
as music fills its role.
Never will a rose betray.
Let its aroma seed your soul.
For though it sounds a bit cliche’
when we’re allowed a primal gift
that soothes and gives our souls a lift
its essence we’ll extoll.
Take the rose before you play
let its aroma seed your soul
for now and everyday.
© Lawrencealot – July 4, 2014
Picture credit: http://www.deviantart.com/art/Piano-and-rose-19132337

Visual Template
Mark Terry Refrain

The Gilbert

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• The Gilbert is a verse form in which a theme reoccurs in different settings from stanza to stanza. It is named for William Schwenk Gilbert (1836-1911) of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, (operettas for which Gilbert provided the lyrics). The form is patterned after his poem The House of Peers.

The Gilbert is:
○ written in 3 septets.
○ metered, L1,L3,L4,L6,L7 are tetrameter , L2 and L5 are trimeter.
○ rhymed, rhyme scheme xabbacc xdeedff etc. x being unrhymed.

The House of Peers by WS Gilbert
When Britain really ruled the waves –
In good Queen Bess’s time)
The House of Peers made no pretence
To intellectual eminence,
Or scholarship sublime;
Yet Britain won her proudest bays
In good Queen Bess’s glorious days!
When Wellington thrashed Bonaparte,
As every child can tell,
The House of Peers, throughout the war,
Did nothing in particular,
And did it very well;
Yet Britain set the world ablaze
In good King George’s glorious days!
And while the House of Peers withholds
Its legislative hand,
And noble statesmen do not itch
To interfere with matters which
[They do not understand,
As bright will shine Great Britain’s rays,
As in King George’s glorious days!
Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=668
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for her years of effort in creating this fine PMO resource.

My example poem
The NBA Finals 2014 (The Gilbert)
When San Antonio had lost
one game to tie it up
some thought the Heat could now prevail
at home, and through the series sail.
LeBron, he just said “Yup.”
But then the Spurs began to mesh.
The bench produced to keep Tim Fresh.
With seventy-one first half points
the Spurs put on a show.
When “Pop” told Leonard, “take the game,
to them!”, he did so to acclaim.
and made Dwayne Wade look slow.
The three main stars became his cast;
and his defense kept James harassed.
When it was done, then anyone
who knew the game could see
the team denied their dream last year
had switched into their highest gear
B-ball as meant to be.
They polished up a show for fans.
There was no sitting on your hands.
© Lawrencealot – July 3, 2014
Visual Template
The Gilbert

Teddy Poem

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Teddy Poem
Type:
Structure, Subject, Metrical Requirement, Rhyme Scheme Requirement, Other Requirement, Isosyllabic
Description:
A fixed form of three six-line verses summed up by an orphan couplet. All lines are in alexandrines. Rhyme scheme is aabbcc. There is an additional starter line which is, “Many, many years ago when Teddy was much younger than today…” The starter line occasionally varies slightly. The topic of these poems is always the adventures of a certain Theodore E. Bear, or Teddy as he is better known, who was created in the Garden of Eden, and having found the Fountain of Youth is immortal and eternally youthful.
Attributed to:
“The Dread Poet Roberts”
Origin:
American
Schematic:
Rhyme and line pattern: x aabbcc ddeeff gghhii jj
Meter: xX xX xX xX xX xX, or
xxxxxxxxxxxx
Rhythm/Stanza Length:
6
Line/Poem Length:
21
Reference:
See Also:
My Thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for this most complete description that I could find.
Example Poem and Visual Template
Ode to Theodore E. Bear     (Teddy Poem)
Many, Many years ago when Teddy was much younger than today…
For many, many, years- and I have now lost count
young Theodore E. Bear, went searching for the fount!
The fountain that he found- it grants perpetual youth.
He’s  been around forever- should be long of tooth.
That he has found it- any children will attest,
as silently he speaks, and puts them to their rest.
He dresses up in dresses, or may wear a bow.
He doesn’t mind cross-dressing, that much all of us know.
He may don a railroad cap or a Smokey hat,
or ‘bear’ soft messages, that tell of this and that.
He’s never embarrassed to go nude as it were
and sit about quite proudly, wearing only fur.
He goes with first responders – he’s most often there-
to mitigate the panic- temper their despair.
While firemen fight the blaze- before the clean-up starts,
kids will cling to Teddy, a balm for frightened hearts.
If they sustain an “Owie”,that requires a shot-
with Teddy there the pin-prick’s pain is soon forgot.
And when things are all peachy, Teddy you will find
as husband’s ways of saying “Thanks I’m glad you’re mine.”
© Lawrencealot – February 8, 2014

Visual Template

 

Trinet

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The Trinet, created by zion, is a form with these specifications:
 
Line 1 – 2 words
Line 2 – 2 words
Line 3 – 6 words
Line 4 – 6 words
Line 5 – 2 words
Line 6 – 2 words
Line 7 – 2 words
 
Repeat this pattern 2 more times, if centered correctly it looks like three crosses.
 

Rhyme and meter unspecified.
Specifications restated:
lexical- words required per line: 2/2/6/6/2/2/2
21 lines
centered

 
Example Poem
 
Day at the Marina
 
Warm sun
kids run
playing excitedly on expanse of green.
Teaching sister how drown wiggly worms.
Folks watch
with smiles
from shade.
 
Picnic treats
cooler filled
with drinks and potato  salad, ice;
basket holds other things as nice:
Fried chicken
potato chips
yummy dips.
 
Let’s stay
all day
is the kid’s refrain. Indefatigable they
remain.  Wish parents were that way.
Having fun
is tiring,
Is’nt it?
 
© Lawrencealot – May 12, 2013