haiku

Polite dragon sleeps
at the top of the mountain
clouds caught in a lei

Many plumeria trees
are blooming.
You can smell them.

       Here are two form poems for today.  Can you try writing your own form poem today? 

Desert Ocotillo

Ocotillos bloom
in spires of red, hot pokers
your birthday candles
everywhere the flames burning
too quickly they are blown out


      This poem is a tanka.  I haven't written many tankas so I did have to go back to one of my form books to check that I had done the syllables correctly.  Tankas were made popular by Chinese courtesans who published books of tanka written to their sponsor.  Those books are some of the first poetry books published of poetry by women.  The tanka has 31 syllables, five lines long in a 5, 7, 5, 7, 7 pattern.  It is like a haiku 5-7-5, with two extra 7 syllable lines.  Also, these poems encouraged the use of reference to the lover or sponsor.

    Your challenge for today is to try writing your own tanka.  Have fun.

     And here is a thought, if you get stumped in writing.

"The poet doesn't invent.  He listens."    Jean Cocteau

SHADORMA

I'm still not back in gear.  I've been trying to get my desk cleared today so I can get down to some serious work.So while I was cleaning I saw a note about the SHADORMA, a six line poems, that may have originated in Spain.  This is a syllabic form with three syllables in the first line
                                                                       five in the second, then three, three, seven syllables in the fifth line, and ending with five syllables in the last line.

Or, 1= XXX
      2= XXXXX
      3= XXX
      4= XXX
      5= XXXXXXX
      6= XXXXX

Our New Year
for 2-0-1-4
happiness
poetry
with peace and blessings to you.
May this be your year.


     Your challenge for today is to try writing your own Shadorma.  Have fun writing.