Poetry Forms

Updated January 9, 2020 A Quick Sonnet Guide.  A traditional sonnet should have... 14 lines. X Rhyming. The most common is the Shakespearean rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. These 14  letters represent the sonnet's 14 lines and the same letter means those lines rhyme with each other. The more...

Haiku of Righteous Thought Inspired by Dafa Karma turned virtue Evil eliminated Virtue travels home Foe falls defeated Demon laughter quieted Perpetual peace Heaven earth conjoin Restoring eternity Missions completed   The Hazy Way of Shades of Grey When caught in the haze Inside shades of grey Navigate the way...

  Winter Storm Watch The sky is still; no flakes appear and yet we know that they will come. Held hostage by our doubts and fears we beat out warnings on our drums. We know, for sure, the flakes will come; we may be buried to our ears or slip...

Fall Haiku New England college towns: Pumpkins, apples, breakfast in a warm café. Swamp-maples afire! Rusty colored barns, silos draped in bittersweet… In their black pea-coats, off of the Metro North, the leaf-peepers arrive. Cross-country. Small-town football. The leaf-smell hunting— God I love the Fall...   The Little Vector (a...

There’s a wonder about it, the fragile beauty of lace. Many kinds for centuries have been important to own; one can go to Ireland, Flanders, from place to place— they’re in catalogs: Irish, Mechlin, lace for the home. Many kinds for centuries have been important to own; even I have...

  Spring Haiku I’m optimistic; like a brand new tennis ball, everything’s chartreuse. The brook trout’s belly is like a sunset I saw; its stipples the stars. Papa bear’s hungry. He tests his weight on the bough. I’ll need more bird-seed. The calf on the grass, steaming in the morning...

The cost of insurance was such Its price I could sadly not touch -- So I gave all of that To a young bureaucrat And now it costs three times as much!   Troy Camplin is an author, poet, and interdisciplinary scholar living in Richardson, Texas. Featured Image: "Doctor and...

In prison cells our aching calls go nowhere but around the walls, and bruising hands repress our cries, replacing truth with frigid lies. We are the lost. For in these stalls no life can reach. No thought recalls the world outside. We fear to die in prison cells. In jaws...

  The Persecution of Falun Gong I. Meditating group One clear crisp day at Shanghai In earth’s sunny loop II. What is Zhen-Shan-Ren? Truth-Compassion-Forbearance Refiner of men III. Police arrive there Frosted breath flies from warped mouths Evil spirits flare IV. The days, weeks, and months Spent making dolls for...

  In the Play Pit As Cameron stands, cap in hand, The jailers of New Middleland Keep a straight face As they keep him in place While he signs for their help in their sand. Poet's Note: For centuries, China was called the Middle Kingdom. New Middleland suggests its change...

Nearby a wasp lights, twitching its pointed stinger in the summer heat. As I drive my car, an eagle flies overhead. How far have I come? An ant climbs slowly up the old man's hairy arm. He flings it away. Continuously, the rooster crows all day long. He is barely...

Confection Connection The girls were bored and at a loss To find a treat that did not cost An arm, a leg, no more a dime They chose confectionary dross They pulled two nickels from the grime And gave them to the clerk part-time He took the coins, he let...

Oh sad age, how the years will pass us by, Pass us and then our last visions refuse, Refuse us to look on our childhood skies: Oh daughter I am a burden to you, And this vision of mine, oh cherished lake, Passes my mind and troubles me too late....

The village school is cold and still. Its entrance gate is rusted shut, the playground overwhelmed by sounds of loaded lorries, hissing past, no noise but theirs to fill a school where only shadows come to play. A figure joins the shadow play. It was a life ago, but still...

The purple snail (Purpura patula pansa) is found in the Mixtec villages of the Oaxacan Coast in Mexico. The inhabitants carefully bleed the snails and then return them to the rocks. But due to illegal dyeing and the consumption of snails, the purple snail is now threatened with extinction.  ...

The Playground The playground stands beside itself In grey, and waits upon the hill. The books are stones upon the shelf, Their spines are sealed against the chill. Still, the forgotten souls might try To steal away, when light of day Recedes, and float upon a sigh, To climb the...

Poetry should be metered, because metered poetry is, quite simply, better than free verse.  This is for the same reason that realist art trumps impressionist art and that Baroque music trumps rock and roll and hip-hop. It is because art, in its best state, is not about the experience of...

. Writing Poetry with Meter---Beginners' Level and Beyond by Evan Mantyk There is very little difficulty behind writing classical poetry from a technical perspective. Classical poetry is simply poetry that is metrical (also called metered), thus contrasting with unmetered poetry, known as free verse. There is no requirement to rhyme...

. Lepanto Editor's Note: Don John of Austria, or Don Juan de Austria, (1547-1578) was half-brother to King Philip II of Spain and a Spanish military commander who achieved victory over the Turks in the historic naval battle at Lepanto. White founts falling in the Courts of the sun, And the Soldan...