P is for Puglife and Pantoum

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 get a good picture of it when you have a poem in front of you along with the directions.  This is not an easy-peasy form until you have written a few.  When I am writing one, I have to put the letters down the sides along with numbers for each line.  Then when I have one line I copy and paste it into the other line it needs putting in.  And I go from there, making sure the line will really go with the next pasted in line...and edit, edit, sigh, edit.  This one, fortunately, wasn't too hard.  "PUGLIFE" may have been if I hadn't just recently found this new plate!  My titles don't change because I prescheduled these on the AtoZ linkup, and it would have messed up my link.

Pay It Forward

You know you have good you can do.
You have something to offer someone.
A selfless deed, out of the blue -
A "pay it forward" bit of pure fun.

You have something to offer someone.
It doesn't take very long-
A "pay it forward" bit of pure fun -
A sweetness to pass along.

It doesn't take very long -
A selfless deed, out of the blue -
A sweetness to pass along.
You know you have good you can do.

by Donna JT Smith ©2018


Here are two more interesting vanity plates I discovered, but did not write to: