Mainely Write

I'm Going to Miss This Z??? What???? It's the last day??? Tomorrow is M-A-Y????? Where has the time gone? I'm going to miss this. Now I'll have to do dishes and laundry and comb my hair... sigh. It just won't be the same Without a form to tame. I'll probably get over it. This month I have been participating in the A to Z Challenge and incorporating National Poetry Month by writing a poem each day. There has also been a poem growing one poet at a time with the Progressive Poem - check out the ending today at Dori Reads. Today's letter for the AtoZ is Z.  I have spent the past year-ish taking pictures of Maine vanity plates on cars in parking lots in Maine.  This year each poem form also begins with the same letter.  I found 2 Maine vanity plates for today, and chose a ZaniLa Rhyme for ZUCHINI. The ZaniLa Rhyme, a form created by Laura Lamarca. The rhyme scheme is abcb , with a syllable count  of 9/7/9/9. Line 3 contains an i

I am participating in the A to Z Challenge this month, and today's letter is V. Click here for the list of blogs participating. I have spent the past year-ish taking pictures of Maine vanity plates when I encountered them - most all in shopping center parking lots. I am writing a poem for each one, and this year the poem form begins with the same letter.  I found 4 Maine vanity plates for today that begin with Y, and I chose to write a Yadu or Yatu. The yadu (also spelled ya-du and yatu) is a Burmese form of poetry which consists of up to three stanzas of five lines. The first four lines of a stanza have four syllables each, but the fifth line can have 5, 7, 9 , or 11 syllables. A yadu should contain references to the seasons.
It has a climbing rhyme. The rhyme is on the fourth, third, and second syllables of both the first three lines and the last three lines. 
---A 
 --A- 
-A-B 
 --B- 
-B--- This was not an easy pattern to follow.  I had to keep the format

It is Poetry Friday, so you can read lots and lots of poems today.  Stop by to check out the links left with our hostess today, Irene Latham, at Live Your Poem. The Progressive Poem has been "growing and growing", too!  It is nearing its conclusion... Buffy Silverman has the next line at - Buffy's Blog !  Go check it out! I am participating in the A to Z Challenge this month, and today's letter is X. Click here for the list of blogs participating.   I have spent the past year-ish taking pictures of Maine vanity plates when I encountered them - most all in shopping center parking lots.  I am writing a poem for each one, and this year the poem form begins with the same letter.  I found 1 Maine vanity plate for today, and chose a HexSonnetta - the closest I could come to X for a poem format. A HexSonnetta has two six-line stanzas and a finishing rhyming couplet.  Its rhyme scheme is of iambic trimeter per line.  The first stanza is the t

I am participating in the A to Z Challenge this month, and today's letter is T. Click here for the list of blogs participating. I wrote a Wedge verse also known as a Rhopalic.  More about this form here Rhopalic - Each succeeding unit is longer than the preceding one. Applied to a line, it means that each successive word is a syllable longer that its predecessor. Applied to a stanza, each successive line is longer by either a syllable or a metrical foot. This didn't make a lot of sense to me, so I have to go looking for a sample of it.  Otherwise it looks a lot like and Etheree.... Here's one where each word is one syllable longer: Wolf howling, echoing, penetrating, reverberating, Indefatigable, individualistic territorialization by Donna JT Smith, ©2018 And then I did this one where each line is a syllable longer.  I hope this is right.  I like this second one...almost an etheree - just not 10 lines. Wolf’s Echoes Refill night’s

I am participating in the A to Z Challenge this month, and today's letter is V. Click here for the list of blogs participating. I have spent the past year-ish taking pictures of Maine vanity plates when I encountered them - most all in shopping center parking lots. I am writing a poem for each one, and this year the poem form begins with the same letter.  I found 3 Maine vanity plates for today that begin with V, and I chose to write a Villanelle. A villanelle is a 19-line poem, made up of five tercets and quatrain as the last stanza. Lines  follow an ABA rhyme scheme. The first line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line in stanzas 2 and 4, and is the third line in the final quatrain stanza. The third line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line in stanzas 3 and 5, and as the last line in the final quatrain stanza. So - using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form looks like this:   A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A

I am participating in the A to Z Challenge this month, and today's letter is U. Click here for the list of blogs participating. I have spent the past year-ish taking pictures of Maine vanity plates when I encountered them - most all in shopping center parking lots.  I am writing a poem for each one, and this year the poem form begins with the same letter. I found 3 Maine vanity plates beginning with U for today, and chose an Ubi Sunt. Ubi Sunt: This is Latin for “Where are they?”.  An Ubi Sunt begins with this type of questioning and speak to the transitory nature of life and the inevitability of death.  It seemed to fit "UNICORN". Unicorns No More Unicorn, where are you? Wanderer of dreams - Never where it seems To be or not to be; Here nevermore on cue. In ages past of mine, Of long ago and misty, In shadows gray and twisty, I saw unicorns with horn In ferniest glades recline. Now with eyes paled by years I cannot see the glist

I am participating in the A to Z Challenge this month, and today's letter is T. Click here for the list of blogs participating.   I have spent the past year-ish taking pictures of Maine vanity plates when I saw them. I am writing a poem for each one, and this year the poem form begins with the same letter.  I found 6 Maine vanity plates for today, and chose to do a Tanka for THORNS. Tanka is a classic form of Japanese poetry related to the haiku with five unrhymed lines of five, seven, five, seven, and seven syllables. (5, 7, 5, 7, 7) The 5/7/5/7/7 rule is rumored to have been made up for school children to understand and learn this type of poetry. For an in depth description of Tanka, please visit the Shadow Poetry Japanese Poetry Tanka section. http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/tanka.html Thorns Sweet the rose in bloom Its misty fragrance rises  Sharp the thorns hidden Dutifully keeping safe Royalty in the garden by Donna JT

I am participating in the A to Z Challenge this month, and today's letter is S. Click here for the list of blogs participating. I have spent the past year-ish taking pictures of Maine vanity plates when I encountered them - most all in shopping center parking lots.  I am writing a poem for each one, and this year the poem form begins with the same letter.  I found 3 Maine vanity plates for today, and chose a Sedoka. The Sedoka is an unrhymed poem made up of two three-line katauta with the following syllable counts: 5/7/7, 5/7/7 . A Sedoka, pair of katauta as a single poem, may address the same subject from differing perspectives. http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/sedoka.html Speed Head perks up, ears twist, Pausing in midstride, snort, stomp, White tailed warning to the herd Legs blend with saplings Agile, invisible speed Blurring tranquility’s space. by Donna JT Smith, 2018 There is no A to Z on Sunday's...see

It is Poetry Friday, and what better news than that the anthology Imperfect: poems about mistakes: an anthology for middleschoolers , editor: Tabatha Yeatts, comes out today and is available through Barnes and Noble ??   I'm excited to have three poems in there! I also wanted to point you in the direction of The Mistakes Anthology blog where I have a riddly poem of a storybook mistake-maker. I'll bet you recognize this character! Also, I am participating in the A to Z Challenge this month and incorporating National Poetry Month by writing poem each day. Click here for the list of blogs participating. Today's letter for the AtoZ is R.  I have spent the past year-ish taking pictures of Maine vanity plates on cars in parking lots in Maine.  This year each poem form also begins with the same letter.  I found 2 Maine vanity plates for today, and chose a Rondel for ROADHSE. A Rondel is a French form consisting of 13 lines: two quatrains and a quintet, rhyming as

I am participating in the A to Z Challenge this month, and today's letter is Q. Click here for the list of blogs participating. I have spent the past year-ish taking pictures of Maine vanity plates when I saw them.  I am writing a poem for each one, and this year the poem form begins with the same letter. I only found one vanity plate for this one!  Surprise, surprise!  Q is not one of those popular letters, I guess. I wrote a Quinzaine for this one. A quinzaine is an unrhymed verse of fifteen syllables in three lines with the syllable distribution of 7/5/3.  The first line is a statement and the next two lines ask a question relating to the first line. Quatro One and two and three and four. Strumming on guitar? Or counting? by Donna JT Smith,  ©2018 *********************************************** Quatro = four in Spanish Quatro = a small guitar with four or five strings or pairs of strings, used in Latin American and Caribbean music.

Pantoums do not have to a certain length. They have a repetition of two lines from the first stanza in the following stanza. In the traditional Pantoum form, the first line becomes the last line and the third line becomes the third from last. The last Stanza always has the same format as the previous, except that line 3 of the first stanza becomes the second, and line 1 becomes the last line....ok?  You DO have that all straight in your mind, right?? Okay here it is again in Stanza and Line diagram: Stanza 1: 4 lines, ABAB rhyme scheme Stanza 2: Line 5 (repeat of line 2 in stanza 1) Line 6 (new line) Line 7   (repeat of line 4 in stanza 1) Line 8 (new line) Stanza 3: Last Stanza (This is the format for the last stanza regardless of how many preceding stanzas exist): Line 9   (line 2 of the previous stanza) Line 10 (line 3 of the first stanza) Line 11 (line 4 of the previous stanza) Line 12 (line 1 of the first stanza)  But really, you can only ge

The vanity plate, Only 1, was going to have an Ode written for it.   It wasn't flowing freely from my brain, so it has been changed to an Ottava Riva - with just a taste of Ode-yness! I'm investigating Odes and their requirements.  It's way more than the simple definition of praising something with some rhyming thrown in.  Check this link to read a pretty good, thorough discussion about Odes here:   ➼ ODES Ottava Rima Poems: Ottava rima are 8 lines with an abababcc rhyme scheme, most commonly written 10-syllable lines. The form can work as a stand alone poem, or be used as connecting stanzas. This one poured out when I changed to an Ottava Rima .  No idea where it was going when I started it.  But I'm pretty happy with it now.  It is to be read slowly, but enthusiastically with a hint of reverence. Only One You are the only one I'll ever love, The only one who fills the void inside. You fit me like a hand fits in a glove, The one that he

A vanity plate from Maine, and a poetry form that begin with N: Poetry form: N aani: Naani originated in India, and consists of 4 lines, the total lines consists of 20 to 25 syllables. Nerds Defined by others, 
Nerds need no 
 Dictionary verification; 
It’s of no concern. © 2018 Donna J.T. Smith