To get me started again, I’ve used a few tools and exercises to warm up the poetry part of my mind and soul.
Playing with form
Mslexia has a regular column for specific poetry forms and the back issues I was catching up on looked at triolets and palidromes.
Triolet
A triolet is made up of 8 lines, each 8 syllables, with the rhyming pattern ABAAABAB. The first line reoccurs as the fourth and seventh, the second line as the eighth. It’s been a long time since I wrote poetry and much longer since I used any sort of structure so this was quite the challenge! I didn’t expect it to be as hard as it was though.
Seasons rolled over as I slept;
Autumn golds, heavy skies roll on
From lazy days; I mourned, I wept.
Seasons rolled over as I slept.
I grieved for dreams that went undreamt
Under hazy skies now long gone.
Seasons rolled over as I slept
Autumn golds, heavy skies, roll on…
Palindrome
A palindrome is a a poem which has a pivot point and then reverses itself, both words and lines are reversed. And wow is that tough. I think just the lines reversed would be hard but reversing the words as well! Eek!
The Turn of The Year
Autumn and
Leaves falling
Reaching
Outstretched arms
Twirling, twisting
Like turning year
Rising and falling
Falling and rising
Year turning like
Twisting, twirling
Arms outstretched
Reaching
Falling leaves
And autumn
Jam jar poetry
There may be an actual name for this but basically, I have written a collection of words, mostly but not all about nature, and put them in a jar. Every so often I sit and pull out one or two, or a handful, and see what poems arise.
In the event of my death,
Take a pilgrimage to the secluded
Decaying bench;
Weathered, overgrown and black as pitch.
Hunt out the fallen stones with
Pounding breath.
I am here.
I am not fluttering candle light.
I am not silken eggshell.
I am not the wishes from shooting stars.
I am heart broken bones.
I am gnarled, discarded antlers.
I am the echo from a forest of dead wood.
In the event of my death,
Take a pilgrimage to the secluded
Decaying bench;
I am here.
It has also produced fragments which I hope to develop at some stage:
The winter magic twists sunbeams to night
The image of roadkill scratches and scritches like a grain of sand in a wound.
Twisted dead wood rusts away to powder
Unlocking Words 