Trisect

The following desription is reposted with permission from Form and Formlessness, with thanks to Erin A. Thomas, who also writes on Allpoetry as Zahhar.

My 1st trisect poem. The trisect is my own semantically complex poetic form which I will use to help me with developing my use of depictive language.

E merge nce


Fortress

walls of paper kept the world at bay
cubes of indistinction none would see
where settled there within a watcher peered

the dusty brown a perfect camouflage
propped against a wall or by a hedge
passed a thousand times by reckless feet

corrugated fibers held the wind
so that the space inside was made to form
a child’s island haven from the storm

sometimes it was a spaceship among the stars
sometimes a moon-base on a barren scape
sometimes a roving tank all battle-scarred
but always it provided safe escape


Goliath

shaped from molten vats of ore
molded by a burning greed
riveted with violent force
pieces merge to fill a need

manifest from heavy silence
oils surge and slowly drip
uncertainty across the roads

power charges through its frame
explosions channeled in its chest
to serve a senseless master’s will

tires grind an alley’s dirt
shadows steer a ghostly wheel
the phantom grill athirst for blood


Impact

black lightning strikes the living clay
evaporating life from every limb
suspending consciousness alone
void of breath yet interfused with fear

tires spin throughout the dark
an engine roars above a twisted neck
inches from a lifeless face
psychic tethers anchored in vibration

a heedless monster lumbers back
the shelter shattered open like a nest
blood resumes its former course
and wild bones reanimate the flesh

a figure stands and staggers numb with pain
screams and scampers filled with terror
headlights rear and fade away
a child’s bones left fractured like his mind


The first segment focuses on cardboard. I used to create cardboard forts when I was a child—sometimes very elaborate—and hang out in them all day long. Some of them would be portable, and some would be built in vacant lots or alleyways blocks or miles from home. They were always very well camouflaged, so my little hideout would remain my little hideout. The portable ones I’d often setup at the edge of a busy parking lot, made to look like a pile of scrap cardboard, where I’d hang out and just watch people without them knowing. These simple forts were a safe haven for me, a private place to go and be away from troubles and worries. And I had my share.

The second segment focuses on the automobile, the car. I remember reading up on their manufacturing process and design, and the primary materials used in their construction, before starting this segment.

The third segment focuses on a little mishap I had in one of those cardboard forts as a 14 year old, which involved a car. It was in an alleyway a few blocks from home. City blocks. Los Angeles City blocks. About a mile away at least. I had some big fight with my mother that day and decided I’d just have my own space that night in a cardboard fort I and a friend had built a day or two before. It was a beautiful fort, with four separate compartments, each of which were big enough to lay out flat in. The whole thing was masterfully camouflaged with various sorts of debris from the area, including dead palm branches and branches of other sorts. In the end it looked like a slash pile, just a bunch of branches and other random materials tossed into a pile—but it was hollow, and there were access points.

That night as I slept a car slammed into the fort and ran over my right arm, shoulder, and neck, breaking the upper arm longways from near the elbow across to the top near the ball socket, and blew a piece out of the ball socket itself. My neck was severely sprained—which is of course a miracle. It was possible to make out the tire treads on my throat. How I happened to be aligned such that the tire didn’t snap my head one way and pop my skull off the spine like a bottle opener I have no idea.

This was my first NDE. I have no way to prove it, but I just know. I know what I experienced, and I was dead for at least a moment—and a moment is long enough to be dead. Sometime I’ll dedicate some poetry and discussion to that experience. But as I “returned”, after the car had somehow managed to back up off me without running over my neck a second time, I sprang up in a panic, and it came toward me again, then stopped, then backed all the way down the alley and around the far corner, as if in a mad rush to escape affiliation with the mishap. I’ll never forget the sight of those headlights.

I was near a series of hotels. And each time I knocked, with my left arm since right wouldn’t respond, the owners would come to the door and I’d ask for help and they’d slam the door on me. It sucked. In this manner I ended up up making my way half a mile to an apartment complex my mom had lived in a year or so before, where some people knew me, and an ambulance was called.

Cadae

According to Wikipedia:

Cadae is an experimental Western poetry form similar to the Fib. While the Fib is based on the Fibonacci sequence, the cadae is based on the number Pi. The word “cadae” is the alphabetical equivalent of the first five digits of Pi, 3.1415.

The form of a cadae is based on Pi on two levels. There are five stanzas, with 3, 1, 4, 1, and 5 lines each, respectively for a total of fourteen lines in the poem. Each line of the poem also contains an appropriate number of syllables. The first line has three syllables, the second has one, the third has four, and so on, following the sequence of Pi as it extends infinitely. 

The following description and example are reposted from thebakerypoetry.com (site no longer accessible).

As a name, cadae is the alphabetical equivalent to the first five digits of the transcendental number pi (3.1415…). Pi, often represented as π, is a mathematical constant that is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter approximately equal to the number 3.14 or, to fourteen places, 3.1415926535897. In poetry, these numbers have been applied to line and stanza lengths, resulting in, yet again, a cross between haiku and sonnet.

Here’s an example:

Butterfly
lands
on butterfly
bush.
A starving man eats
maggots, dies. When two days later he
is found
new maggots have begun
hatching in his mouth.
Which image
will you take to bed
like a lover for the first time
touching and turning it all through night?
Which will be there when you wake?

My Example

Cadae

Read It Anyway

I try to
write
what people will
read.
Often times I fail.
Frequently I get carried away
by all
the constraints of a form,
become didactic
in the cause,
lose all pretense of
using poetic devices,
and end up with something that only
few folks will willingly read.

© Lawrencealot – February 10, 2015

Troisieme

The following description is reposted with permission from Poetry Maqnum Opus, with thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on that fine resource.

The Troisieme is a verse form introduced by Viola Berg. The content is broken into 4 parts, an introduction in the 1st tercet, an expansion in the 2nd tercet, a parallel or contrast in the 3rd tercet and a summary or conclusion in the couplet.The structural elements of the Troisieme are:

  1. stanzaic, written in 3 tercets followed by a couplet.
  2. syllabic, 3-5-7 3-5-7 3-5-7 9-9  syllables each.   
  3. unrhymed.

    It’s Finally Here

    Holidays
    have turned the corner,
    the Christmas season begins.

    Ornaments
    boxed with care last year,
    unpacked and hung on the tree.

    Twinkling lights,
    and red bows adorn
    garland strung around the room.

    Candy canes and shaped sugar cookies
    fresh from the oven for you and me.
                                         ~~Judi Van Gorder

My Example

Form: Troisieme

Promised Ascension

Man alone will plot against his kind
because of words one man deemed were true.
They promote a life beyond this realm.

Dismiss all logic! Faith overcomes!
The next life counts promises much more.
Believe those words and your pain dissolves.

That others think those words are fiction
marks them somehow as threats deserving
Your enmity lest you come to doubt.

The plots and counter-plots marred reality
and placed our morality below the wolf.

© Lawrencealot – February 5, 2015

Cueca Chilena


There seems to be not much around about this form, which I discovered many moons ago and made a quick note of.  I will transcribe from my notes as I’ve found not one jot about it online.  Cueca is also the national dance of Chile, although sometimes it is accompanied by song.  My knowledge of Spanish doesn’t stretch to commenting on whether the National folk songs follow this form.  The only poets I know from Chile are Neruda – who if he wrote a Cueca I don’t know it –  and Nicanor Parra whose work is all about colloquial and informal arrangements so I can guarantee it isn’t a style for him.  Still the ‘yes’ in the fifth line kind of makes it feel colloquial to me.  When I’ve used this form I’ve written it quite relaxed.  I enjoy the short lines, the unconventional rhythm.

So, the poem my notes allude to is created thus: 8 lines long, with multiple stanzas (verses).  the fifth line is a repeat of the fourth line with the addition of the word ‘yes’ at the beginning.   It’s influenced by the Spanish Seguidilla poem which will come at some stage in the project.  The rhyme goes A-B-C-B-B-D-E-D where each letter represents a certain rhyming sound at the end of a line, and the repeated letter shows where the next rhyme comes.

Remember you can continue for as many stanzas as you please.

Example

I spent New Year’s Eve with singing boys
Three nights before we parted
Shouting rebel songs to Belfast’s streets
And you were so light hearted
yes, and you were so light hearted –
Whilst I felt terribly abandoned
In someone’s kitchen making tea
As the New-Years sky slowly brightened.

Pasted from https://poetryform.wordpress.com/ with thanks.

Specifications restated (as deduced.)
The Cueca Chilena is:
Origin: Chile, known primarily as a dance.
Stanzaic, consisting of any number of 8 line stanzas.
Syllabic: 9/7/9/7/8/9/9/9
Rhymed: Rhyme pattern: abcBBded
Refrained: The 4th line, which should be end stopped is repeated in line 5.
Formulaic: The word, “yes” is inserted as the first word in line 5.

My Example
(Form: Cueca Chilena)
The Girl in the Cape

The Girl in the Cape

As symbol of love – how bright our moon,
yet that’s from reflected light.
More like the sun, you are radiant —
from within springs your delight.
Yes, from within springs your delight.
No cosmetics need you ever wear.
Your natural light would amplify
the beauty of flowers in your hair.

© Lawrencealot – January 21, 2015

Visual Template
Cueca Chilena

Egg Timer

This form was apparently invented by Dorian Peterson Potter.
All the poems I found were written by her, and although you can see some variance below the following seem to be the specifications.

The Egg Timer is:
A decastich (10 line poem)
Syllabic 5/4/3/2/1/1/2/3/4/5
Unrhymed
Formulaic: The last five lines are the mirror image of the first five line.
Centered or not, at poets discretion.

 

~Spring~

(Egg Timer)

Spring arrived just sprung

Hear birds singing

Butterflies

Ladybugs

See

See

Ladybugs

Butterflies

Hear birds singing

Spring arrived just sprung

Grass is growing tall

Need to trim it

Rid of weed

Keep green

Nice

Nice

Keep green

Rid of weed

Need to trim it

Grass is growing tall.

Dorian Petersen Potter

aka ladydp2000

copyright@2014

Learning (Egg Timer)
Learning is great fun
Just learn each day
Something new
You can
Yes
Yes
You can
Something new
Just learn each day
Learning is great fun
Right under the sun
In the moonlight
You can have
New goals
Dreams
Dreams
New goals
You can have
In the moonlight
Right under the sun.
Dorian Petersen Potter
aka ladydp2000
copyright@2011

Time And More Time (Egg Timer)

From this recover

Need time to heal

Stand my ground

I’ll be

Strong

Strong

I’ll be

Stand my ground

Need time to heal

From this recover

March 7,2014

Pasted from http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/time-and-more-time-egg-timer/

See also Trick Poetry.

My example

Failing Frequently (Form: Egg Timer)

I alliterate
when I’m able.
I cannot
sometimes
though.
Though
sometimes
I cannot,
when I’m able
I alliterate.

© Lawrencealot – January 19, 2015

Questrain

The Questrain is a form invented by Michelle Campbell, writing on Allpoetry.com as Mrs Campbell

Questrain is a four line stanza with abab rhyme scheme and a 9/7/8/6 syllable count.
The first three lines introduce a topic and the last line asks a question.

                     
My body I bestow on my man
in faithfulness I profess
starting when our marriage began.
How modest is your dress?
by Mrs Campbell
 
A person’s mind is a battle field
for as you think, so you do.
It’s there to temptations you’ll yield.
Who are you listening to?
by Mrs Campbell
 

Pasted from http://allpoetry.com/contest/2642513-A-Questrain-

Specifications restated
The Questrain is:
A 4 line poem.
Syllabic: 9/8/7/6
Rhymed: abab
Formulaic: The first three lines introduce a topic and the last line asks a question.

It may be centered or not.

My example

Choice (Form: Questrain)

We’ve had the choice since the beginning.
Churches need not tell us so –
what is good and what is sinning.
Don’t we already know?

© Lawrencealot – January 9, 2015

Visual template

Nibelungen Strophe 

The  (Middle High German) or Kurenberg Verse (Norse) is a stanzaic form named for the metric and lyrical structure of the 13th century Germanic, Norse legend of the Burgundians sometimes known as Nibelung hoard. It tells the story of their royal geneology, adventures and antics. It is epic poetry
 
The NibelungenStrophe (Middle High German) or Kurenberg Verse (Norse) is a stanzaic form named for the metric and lyrical structure of the 13th century Germanic, Norse legend of the Burgundians sometimes known as Nibelung hoard. It tells the story of their royal geneology, adventures and antics. It is epic poetry. One of the kings was a dwarf and is so portrayed in Richard Wagner’s opera, “der Ring des Nibelungen”. The name Niblung has become associated with a dwarf or a legendary race of dwarves.
 
The defining features of the Nibelungen Strophe are:

  • metric, accentual, long lines or Germanic lines, which are made up of 2 hemistiches, or short lines referred to as Anvers and Abvers.
Anvers, is the first hemistich or short line which always has 4 strong beats or stressed syllables. Usually ends with a feminine or falling syllable. Abvers, is the second hemistich or short line in all but the last line of the quatrain and usually carries 3 strong beats or stressed syllables ending in a rising or masculine end rhyme.
  • stanzaic, written in quatrains made up of 2 complete and closed couplets.
  • rhymed, rhyme scheme of the Abvers or 2nd short line is aabb ccdd etc. Only occasionally does the 1st short line or Anvers carry rhyme at the caesura.
  • composed with the last line of the poem written in 2 Anvers. In other words the poem almost always ends with a feminine or falling end syllable.
xX xX xxX xXx , xxX xX xAxxX xX xX Xx , xX xxX xAxX xX xX Xx , xX xX xB
xX xX xX Xx , Xx xX xxX Xb
anvers , abversanvers , abversanvers , abvers 
anvers , anvers

 
Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1911
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource
 

German and Austrian Poetic Forms:

Bar Form, Dinggedicht, Goliardic VerseKnittelvers, Minnesang, Nibelungen, Schuttelreim

Visual template
For those wanting to give this a try. I’ll pass having no knowledge of the subject to inclination to pen an epic.

Nibelungen Strophe

Double Glose

Double Glose
Type: Structure, Repetitive Requirement, Other Requirement
Description: The double glose uses each line of the texte as a refrain, twice in the poem. One was done as a Stave where the line is both first and last of the glossing verse.
Origin: Spanish/Portuguese
Schematic: Varies

Pasted from <http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/000/92.shtml>
My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his years of work on the wonderful Poetrybase resource.

Since there are numerable differences in the interpretation of the proper formal requirement of the Glose, sub-forms have been invented which specifically mandate requirements which might or might not be chosen when writing a Glose.

The glose originated in Spain, where it is known as the glosa.

I am presenting here only one reference to the Glose itself, from a site which appears no longer active, (November 2014) but which presented the following fine overview.

WHAT IS A GLOSA POEM?
The Glosa was used by poets of the Spanish court and dates back to the late 14th and early 15th century. For some reason, it has not been particularly popular in English. A search of the Internet search will uncovered a meager number of brief references to the form. From the limited information it is learned that the traditional structure has two parts. The first part is called the texte or cabeza. It consists of the first few lines (usually four) or the first stanza (usually a quatrain) from a well-known poem or poet. It has become permissible to use lines from a less well-known poet, or even from ones own verse.
The second part is the glose or glosa proper. This is a “gloss on,” an expansion, interpretation or explanation of the texte. The formal rule describes the glosa as consisting of four ten-line stanzas, with the consecutive lines of the texte being used as the tenth line (called the glossing) of each stanza. Furthermore, lines six and nine must rhyme with the borrowed tenth. Internal features such as length of lines, meter and rhyme are at the discretion of the poet. Examples of this will be found in this chapbook collection.
As with most poetic forms, unless dictated by strict contest requirements, poets have taken the liberty to vary the format. In addition to the glosa’s traditional ten-line stanzas, one will find 4-, 5- and 8-liners. They will be found written in free verse, with meter, and with rhyme. In the shorter variations. You will find variations in which the first line of each stanza (taken from the original texte) repeated again as the last line – added as a refrain. When the first line is repeated as the refrain at the end of a poem the stanza form is referred to as an Envelope.
Another variation of a short glosa poem has to do with the location of the borrowed line. It can be the first line, the last line, or one inserted into the body of the stanza. Yet another variation is the use of the first four lines of a prose piece as the texte.
 
Pasted from <http://www.poetry-nut.com/glosa_poetry.htm>

Restated specification for the Double Glose
The first part is called the texte or cabeza. It consists of the first few lines (usually four) or the first stanza (usually a quatrain) from a well-known poem or poet. It has become permissible to use lines from a less well-known poet, or even from ones own verse. It is presented as an epigram beneath the title of your own poem
The following Glose or Glosa proper is
Stanzaic: consisting of as many stanzas, as there are lines in your texte,
each having a line length of the poets choosing
Metered: With a consistent meter of the poet’s choosing
Rhymed or not with a pattern of the poet’s choosing
Formulaic: Each line of the texte shall be both the first and list lines of succeeding stanzas.
Related forms listed here: Glose, Double Glose, Top Glose

Example Poem
Too sweet and too subtle for pen or for tongue
In phrases unwritten and measures unsung,
As deep and as strange as the sounds of the sea,
Is the song that my spirit is singing to me.
-from Song of the Spirit
by Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919)

Too sweet and too subtle for pen or for tongue,
my thoughts dance and flutter on gossamer wings.
Elusively trapped in the webs I have spun
feelings that from my soul’s core have been wrung
in poems conceived when my heart soars and sings.
Too sweet and too subtle for pen or for tongue.

In phrases unwritten and measures unsung,
I long to give birth to them, set them all free.
The source I must find from which they have sprung,
then gathers the jewels I will find there among,
hat I might expound them in my poetry.
In phrases unwritten and measures unsung.

As deep and as strange as the sounds of the sea,
where voices of whales transverse distance and time,
all coming together in sweet harmony,
a harvest of gold born of my own psyche
are verses all written in metrical rhyme.
As deep and as strange as the sounds of the sea.

Is the song that my spirit is singing to me
forever to be an elusive refrain
that haunts me and taunts me with sweet melody
while mem’ry deserts me,  ignores every plea?
I cannot quite grasp or its beauty retain:
Is the song that my spirit is singing to me.

© Patricia Curtis, 2011

Pasted from <https://poetscollective.org/blog/2014/11/song-of-the-spirit/>

Visual template for this Double Glose
This poet chose sestet stanzas in catalectic amphibrach tetrameter,
With each stanza’s rhyme scheme being AbaabA.

Double Glose

Top Glose

Top Glose
Type: Structure, Repetitive Requirement, Other Requirement
Description: A variant of the Glose where the repetition from the texte appears as the first line of the glossing verse.
Attributed to: “The Dread Poet Roberts”
Origin: American

Pasted from <http://www.poetrybase.info/forms/003/317.shtml>
My thanks to Charles L. Weatherford for his years of work on the wonderful Poetrybase resource.

Since there are numerable differences in the interpretation of the proper formal requirement of the Glose, sub-forms have been invented which specifically mandate requirements which might or might not be chosen when writing a Glose.

The glose originated in Spain, where it is known as the glosa.

I am presenting here only one reference to the Glose itself, from a site which appears no longer active, (November 2014) but which presented the following fine overview.

WHAT IS A GLOSA POEM?
The Glosa was used by poets of the Spanish court and dates back to the late 14th and early 15th century. For some reason, it has not been particularly popular in English. A search of the Internet search will uncovered a meager number of brief references to the form. From the limited information it is learned that the traditional structure has two parts. The first part is called the texte or cabeza. It consists of the first few lines (usually four) or the first stanza (usually a quatrain) from a well-known poem or poet. It has become permissible to use lines from a less well-known poet, or even from ones own verse.
The second part is the glose or glosa proper. This is a “gloss on,” an expansion, interpretation or explanation of the texte. The formal rule describes the glosa as consisting of four ten-line stanzas, with the consecutive lines of the texte being used as the tenth line (called the glossing) of each stanza. Furthermore, lines six and nine must rhyme with the borrowed tenth. Internal features such as length of lines, meter and rhyme are at the discretion of the poet. Examples of this will be found in this chapbook collection.
As with most poetic forms, unless dictated by strict contest requirements, poets have taken the liberty to vary the format. In addition to the glosa’s traditional ten-line stanzas, one will find 4-, 5- and 8-liners. They will be found written in free verse, with meter, and with rhyme. In the shorter variations. You will find variations in which the first line of each stanza (taken from the original texte) repeated again as the last line – added as a refrain. When the first line is repeated as the refrain at the end of a poem the stanza form is referred to as an Envelope.
Another variation of a short glosa poem has to do with the location of the borrowed line. It can be the first line, the last line, or one inserted into the body of the stanza. Yet another variation is the use of the first four lines of a prose piece as the texte.
 
Pasted from <http://www.poetry-nut.com/glosa_poetry.htm>

Restated specification for the Top Glose
The first part is called the texte or cabeza. It consists of the first few lines (usually four) or the first stanza (usually a quatrain) from a well-known poem or poet. It has become permissible to use lines from a less well-known poet, or even from ones own verse. It is presented as an epigram beneath the title of your own poem
The following Glose or Glosa proper is
Stanzaic: consisting of as many stanzas, as there are lines in your texte,
each having a line length of the poets choosing
Metered: With a consistent meter of the poet’s choosing
Rhymed or not with a pattern of the poet’s choosing
Formulaic: Each line of the texte shall be the first line of a stanza.

Related forms listed here: Glose, Double GloseTop Glose

 

My Example

Where I’m Most at Home (Top Glose)

After  the opening stanza of
“This Place that I Call Home”  by Mvincent
 
” I am a lover of tall mountain peaks
when softly draped with blankets of fresh snow;
of alpine lakes and gleaming waterfalls,
slow running streams that teem with rainbow trout—”
  
I am a lover of tall mountain peaks
and desert flowers nestled twixt the sage
which climbs the foothills ’til it’s all replaced
by pine and spruce and fir.  Much flora seeks
out places in pre-alpine meadow– a stage
where it’s a hit that is too soon displaced.
 
When softly draped with blankets of fresh snow
my backyard even seems a visual treat.
The mountains dress in heavy coats of white
The snow depth measured in the scores of feet.
The hearty play and ski to their delight.
The mountains save  that pack so life can grow.
 
Of alpine lakes and gleaming waterfalls
I dream as my begin my climb today.
When half-way there I stop and watch below
as a coyote slowly wends his way
thru grasses tall, across the green meadow.
I stay ’til he’s gone, then I’ll find the falls.
 
Slow running streams that teem with rainbow trout
is far below me now and I’m at peace
and touching heavens breath.  Soon I’ll decide
to leave and fish for dinner.  I’ll not cease
to wonder at the calm enjoyed beside
slow running streams that teem with rainbow trout.
 
 © Lawrencealot – February 27, 2013

Visual Template
This template was created for iambic pentameter stanzas.

Gloss

Pantun

Malaysia is at the most southern tip of Euroasia and is split by the South China Sea. The country borders Thailand, Indonesia and Brunei. The history of poetry in Malaysia goes back to the 14th century and is classified by the language in which it is written, Malay or national poetry, regional (indigenous) poetry and sectional (mostly English or French) poetry. Poetry in Malaysia is highly developed and uses many forms.

• The Pantun was at one time an integral part of Malaysian life, used to propose marriage, to tell a proverb, or to celebrate just about any occasion, even shared between warriors about to battle. I was surprised at how unlike it is from its French variation the Pantoum, which I had previously believed was synonymous with the 15th century Malaysian form. The Pantun is said to go back much further in oral tradition but I could find no agreement on how far or what source, one refers to it as an ancient fishing song. 

The Pantun is a poem of two halves almost unrelated. The first half, the pembayan (shadow) sets the rhythm and rhyme of the whole poem, and the second half, the maksud (meaning) delivers the message. The form has been referred to as a riddle. 

These poems were to be exchanged between individuals, not recited to an audience. 

The Pantun is
○ most often a poem in a single quatrain made up of two complete couplets.
○ syllabic, all lines are of the same length, lines are written in 8 to 12 syllables each.
○ rhymed, rhyme scheme abab.
○ written in two complete couplets. The first , the shadow is to set the structure but its focus may be quite different from the second couplet, the meaning in which the message is set.
○ less commonly written in structural variations, still retaining the shadow and meaning components:
§ The shortest is called Pantun Dua Kerat in 2 unrhymed lines.
§ Also written as a sixain made up of 2 tercets, rhyme abcabc.
§ And an octave rhymed abcdabcd.
§ sometimes written in three quatrains rhymed abab abab abab the poem turned on only 2 rhymes.
§ The longest is Pantun Enam Belas Kerat in 16 lines made up of 2 octaves rhyme abcdabcd abcdabcd.
The Choices We Make by Judi Van Gorder

Do I ignore or heed the voices,
the reminder that often festers?
We are all a product of choices, 
our own and our forgotten ancestors. 

Pasted from http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/index.php?showtopic=1037
My thanks to Judi Van Gorder for years of work on this fine PMO resource.

My example

OCD? (Pantun)

My wife – the stove, a strong compunction
a life-long habit, I believe.
She checks the stove, its knobs, their function
a second time before we leave.

© Lawrencealot – October 23, 2014

Visual template

Pantun