It's another free pass today at Poetry Thursday. Last week, Jon left this comment on my poem star, "I also appreciate the unusual line breaks used to create great lines like: 'forgotten desires open' which create a meaning completely separate from the syntax of the more explicit 'sentences.'" As I told him in a return email, that comment made me look at my poem in a whole new light. Michelle once wrote that she liked the 'form' I was using on some of my poems. I had to laugh when I read that, since there is no form. I haven't the foggiest clue how to write poetry! What I have learned to do this year is allow myself to write down lines that pop into my head in the way I'd speak them to you. And I only screwed up my courage to do that after meeting Liz Elayne last Spring. I loved the idea of Poetry Thursday, but thought because I'd never written poetry before, it wasn't for me. Here's part of Liz Elayne's comment on last week's poem, "...look at you writing more and more poetry..." See, people--if I can do it, any of you can! So take the leap! Jump in and write some poetry! :)
That said, I had no clue what to write for Poetry Thursday this morning. So I thought I'd surf around a few blogs first--not for poetic inspiration, purely for procrastination. But as we all know, the blogosphere is nothing if not a gold mine of synchronicity.
I stopped by Karen's new photoblog, where she had a photo of a heart-shaped stone for Love Thursday, for the Love Is All Around Us site she runs with my dear pal Irene. In her post, Karen mentioned she'd been inspired to search for a love-shaped rock by Elspeth. I wondered, "Who's this Elspeth?"...so I went to her blog. (And where were all these incredible Caribbean bloggers when I lived there? I couldn't find any!) And Elspeth's post today is all about how some linkety-linking led her to discover a form of poetry called French Pantoum. And she learned how to do it by reading this post at Urban Abbess. I love the idea of this form! So I thought I'd re-work last week's poem into a French Pantoum. It's not great, but it's my first (unedited) attempt. So here it is--star...redux:
storyboard your dreams
spirit so you can hold
winds as star
forgotten desires open
spirit so you can hold
beating baby's breath
forgotten desires open
wings take flight
beating baby's breath
winds as star
wings take flight
storyboard your dreams
Easy-peasy, right? So there you go. You can either write all new lines (and repeat them in the order shown in the Urban Abbess post), or you can use lines from a previous poem and add a couple of new ones (again, using the form in that post). Voila, a French Pantoum! Happy Poetry Thursday!






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