It’s break! And you know what that means — your friendly, neighborhood poet & high school writing teacher has a little more time on his hands for projects and whatnot. So in the midst of family celebrations, travel, and finalizing student report card grades, I’m taking some time to gift myself some practice in poetic forms. Randomly over break, I’ll spin an online random number wheel and depending on where the number lands, I’ll choose a poetic form from either Lewis Turco’s The Book of Forms, A Handbook of Poetics, Including Odd and Invented Forms (4th edition) or Rhyme’s Reason by John Hollander.
Today’s number is 275, so I turn to that page in Turco’s work, and I have a choice — either a pantoum or a paradelle. Since I have a world poetic forms workshop coming up, I’m deciding on trying my hand at a pantoum, a traditional Malay form. The paradelle is Collins’ own invention, which spawned many other paradelles and is great fun in its own right. However, I’ve never written a pantoum before, so I thought it would be fun to try.
So here’s what I’ll need to do:
A1
B1
A2
B2
B1
C1
B2
C2
C1
D1
C2
D2
D1
A1
D2
A2
I’m not sure whether I’ll write it in iambic tetrameter or pentameter or some other meter yet. That will largely depend on the nature of my topic.
Also, what will I write this pantoum about? I generally find that poems with repeating lines like the pantoum are good for obsession, anxiety, ruminating, etc. They can create mystical impressions, too, reminiscent of the villanelle by Roethke, that begins, “I wake to sleep and take my waking slow.” I’ve also noticed that the following pantoum has a narrative quality. I love the way sleep is personified in this pantoum by A.E. Stallings which appeared in Poetry:
Well, enough stalling! Wish me luck!
Best,
“I’m on break so I get to poet more” Scot
Mr.SlayBeePoetry 