Dragon Writing Prompts

When I stumbled across this week’s quote, it reminded me of a prompt that provides a structure for a poem (or for a brief story or character sketch).

Write a poem (or sketch) that answers the 5 Ws (+H) reporters are told to include in their stories: Who, What, When, Where, Why and How. They can be answered in any order. You can leave off one if it seems to tell too much. (Usually why.)

Here’s some examples from Getting the Knack by Stephen Dunning and William Stafford. (The questions in parentheses aren’t part of the poem.)

Coincidence

(who?)    Our elected representative, Ms. Ludlaw
(what?)   pumping voters’ hands
(how?)    as if they were slot-machine levers
(where?)  outside Faculty Lounge
(when?)   Tuesday, after school.
(why?)    Next month, election.

September

(what?)   Flocking toward Mexico
(when?)   before Winter’s first ka-choooo,
(how?)    thrashing the silver air
(where?)  in Ontario’s gray sky,
(why?)    wanting warm —
(who?)    a blizzard of ducks

If you like to rhyme, skeltonic verse can be fun. The structure is playful and suggests lively movement so is also known as tumbling verse. The lines are short (3-6 words on average) and the rhyme continues as long as you feel it’s working. Then it moves onto the next rhyme. One rhyme may last two lines, another a dozen.

(If you need help with rhymes try Rhymer or Rhymezone.)

Here’s an example from John Skelton who invented the form back in the 16th century:

from Colin Clout

What can it avail
To drive forth a snail,
Or to make a sail
Of an herring’s tail?
To rhyme or to rail
To write or to indict,
Either for delight
Or else for despite?
Or books to compile
Of divers manners style,
Vice to revile
And sin to exile?
To teach or to preach
As reason will reach?

Say this, and say that:
His head is so fat
He wotteth never what
Nor whereof he speaketh;
He crieth and he creaketh,
He prieth and he peeketh,
He chides and he chatters,
He prates and he patters,
He clitters and he clatters,
He meddles and he smatters,
He glozes and he flatters!

Or if he speak plain,
Then he lacketh brain,
He is but a fool;
Let him go to school.
A three-footed stool!
That he may down sit,
For he lacketh wit!
And if that he hit
The nail on the head,
It standeth in no stead;
The devil, they say, is dead,
The devil is dead!

It may well so be,
Or else they would see
Otherwise, and flee
from worldly vanity,
And foul covetousness
And other wretchedness,
Fickle falseness,
Variableness
With unstableness.
And if ye stand in doubt
Who brought this rhyme about,
My name is Colin Clout.

Don’t be scared! The pantoum form looks way more complex than it is! The beauty is a poem that’s twice as long as the number of lines you write. The cool thing is that because the repeated lines will fall in different orders, you’ll see new connections between the ideas and the meaning of words may shift in their new context.

The pattern is the even lines of one stanza become the odd lines of the next stanza. You write new even lines for the new stanza. The Malays, who invented this form, could keep this up for hours :-) You’re allowed to stop with 4 or 5 stanzas :-) Here’s the pattern to repeat:

One
Two
Three
Four

Two copied here
(new)
Four copied here
(new)

Repeat.

The last stanza pattern is slightly different. In fact you’ve already written the stanza. It’s just repeats. Again, the odd lines are the even lines from the previous stanza. Then use the poem’s first line as the last line of the stanza and use the poem’s third line as the stanza’s second line.

(There’s also an imperfect pantoum where the last stanza’s odd lines can be new (like the previous stanzas) or the last lines may fall in any order.)

Here’s a summary of the tips from “Getting the Knack ” by Stephen Dunning and William Stafford:

1. Doodle six or eight words or phrases. If you’re stuck, skim a book or magazine for something that interests you. Steal lines from your own poems.
2. Once you have something that interests you, ask what they remind you of, and write that. The goal is four lines.
• Think of each line as a separate unit. Not necessarily a full sentence, but a bit that can be shifted about without needing the line that followed it.
• For now begin each line with a capital letter.
• For now, leave out punctuation.
• Be alert for messages the poem is revealing as you work, rhymes, rhythms, new meanings.
3. When writing the new even lines, be aware of not only the previous line, but the next line.
4. Try out various rearrangements of the final lines to see which works for you.
5. When you look back over it, the words on repeated lines will be the same but feel free to alter punctuation or capitalization. (Eg, a word on one line may be a name in another line, or an added comma may alter the meaning.) In the pure form, that’s all you can change. In “Getting the Knack” the authors suggest allowing yourself to change tenses and spellings but caution you not to solve all your problems with exceptions.
6. Tinker. Play around with it. Read it out loud and look for rhymes and rhythms.

A pantoum doesn’t need to rhyme, but Neil Peart of Rush did and turned it into a song :-) (Note, it’s an imperfect pantoum. Line two of the last stanza is new.)

The Larger Bowl (A Pantoum)
by Neil Peart
from Snakes & Arrows by Rush

If we’re so much the same like I always hear
Why such different fortunes and fates?
Some of us live in a cloud of fear
Some live behind iron gates

Why such different fortunes and fates?
Some are blessed and some are cursed
Some live behind iron gates
While others only see the worst

Some are blessed and some are cursed
The golden one or scarred from birth
While others only see the worst
Such a lot of pain on the earth

The golden one or scarred from birth
Some things can never be changed
Such a lot of pain on this earth
It’s somehow so badly arranged

Some things can never be changed
Some reasons will never come clear
It’s somehow so badly arranged
If we’re so much the same like I always hear

Chorus, so not part of the pantoum form:

(Some are blessed and some are cursed
The golden one or scarred from birth
While others only see the worst
Such a lot of pain on the earth)

There are links to some more examples at:

Poetry — Pantoum at About.com
Pantoum at Wikipedia

Grab a permanent marker and newspaper or magazine from recycling. Flip to a random page, preferably with columns. First scan through the text for an image that strikes your fancy. (Your poem doesn’t need to begin there. It’s an idea to build on.) Next, begin blacking out the words until you hit a phrase or word or piece of word you’d like to use in your poem. Read across the columns rather than straight down to mix things up.

This is a variation on the cutups done by the Dadaists . Artists cut up pictures and poets cut up articles, then pasted them randomly together.

Austin Kleon has created many (with a book of them to be published next year) and run a few contests a couple of years ago. You can see his at his blog and more at the Flickr group of Newspaper Blackout Poems for a load of examples.

Here are Austin Kleon’s TIPS:

• Combine both columns into one poem—don’t just do each column at a time! It doesn’t make for a good read. Skip between the two…this allows for more interesting possibilities. You can see the winners here and here and here and here .
• Remember that Westerners read left-to-right, up-to-down. Poems read best if they follow that pattern.
• You can get around the left/right/up/down problem by connecting words with whitespace. (See an example.)
• What you are doing when making a blackout poem, in the words of Allen Ginsberg, is “shopping for images.” Nouns and verbs make the best images.
• Regardless of where it’s located in the text, I always start a poem by looking for a word or image that resonates with me and move from there.
• It’s a lot like a word search.
• You don’t have to use the whole text. What to leave in / leave out / how long is the magic.
• Poetry doesn’t have to be serious!
• Try not to think to hard about it and let it flow! It might take you a bunch of tries. Don’t be intimidated! Anyone can do it!

If you’re lacking in newspapers or magazines, here’s the text he used for the contests. If you use a paint or photo editing program, you can blackout with the paintbrush tool.

August
September
October
November

Write a poem where each word begins with the next letter in the alphabet. (You can also write a paragraph or really long sentence if you wish.)

Andopholus Brown could devour entire fields
Grown heavy in July.
Kranky Luscious munched near open plains
Questing restlessly.
Soon Tontubulous Urvin would xray yellow zebras.

Okay, pretty awful! ;-) More prose than poetry, but the words flowed out more easily than I thought they would. (Feel free to use words beginning with “ex” for X.) It’s a nice short exercise since you only need 26 words, and with some work, an actual readable poem might emerge!

Some other ideas:

• Write from Z to A.
• Create a 26 word poem with each letter of the alphabet but allow any order.
• Make a list of alphabetized words or phrases about a subject (animals, your dog, restaurants, Star Trek technobabble …). You could put 3 per line and challenge yourself to see if you can make them rhyming couplets (each pair of lines rhymes).

There are several here:

Unskilled Poet, and these at the Rock, Waves, Beach blog, all written by Kate An Alphabet Poem, Another Alphabet Poem, A December Alphabet Poem, Knitting Alphabet Poem..

A ritual is a series of actions meant to bring about or prevent an event. A ritual gives a sense of control over the unseen forces shaping our lives. In the past the actions and order were created by shamans. Today, anyone can devise a ritual. (As many sports players and teams do! Like Top 10 Sports Traditions ;-)

Come up with a ritual for some event you (or your characters) would like control over. (It can be a simple prose list or a poetic list.)

Ron Padgett in Handbook of Poetic Forms (where this idea comes from) suggests:

1. Decide what you would like to have occur.
2. Examine all aspects of the subject.
3. Think of actions to illustrate some of these aspects.
4. Write each action down as a command.
5. Number the commands.
6. Let yourself go.

Here’s a Storm Ritual from Alaskan Eskimos who sought to subside a storm.

1. Build a snowman with a big head.
2. Give the snowman’s head a large mouth.
3. Catch salmon, skin the carcasses, freeze them.
4. Hack away at the frozen fish and push the pieces into the snowman’s mouth.
5. Afterward, have a big feast in which all the pieces of fish are eaten.

---

More:

This reminds me of the experiments performed by B.F. Skinner. He placed pigeons in boxes and randomly released food. The pigeons eventually began performing whatever random action they had been performing before the food was released, suggesting a type or ritual or superstition.

“One bird was conditioned to turn counter-clockwise about the cage, making two or three turns between reinforcements. Another repeatedly thrust its head into one of the upper corners of the cage. A third developed a ‘tossing’ response, as if placing its head beneath an invisible bar and lifting it repeatedly. Two birds developed a pendulum motion of the head and body, in which the head was extended forward and swung from right to left with a sharp movement followed by a somewhat slower return.”

Not an original idea ;-) but there should be more opportunities for limericks!

The limerick packs laughs anatomical
Into space that is quite economical.
But the good ones I’ve seen
Hardly ever are clean
And the clean ones so seldom are comical. — Anonymous

Limericks are 5 lines, with an aabba rhyme.

The rhythm is easy to catch once you’ve read plenty of good limericks. (There is a clear and succinct description below, though.) The Limerick Data Base has a big collection where submitted limericks are scrutinized for meter.

So on this great day for Saint Patrick,
Whip out your computer and write quick.
Tap out some fierce verse.
Though beat be adverse
It all can be cleaned with a mouse click.

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More

In 1924, a series of responses to the famous (clean ;-) Nantucket limerick appeared in various newspapers. Those are preserved at Yesterday’s Island and new ones have been added to continue the saga. Here’s the original four:

There once was a man from Nantucket,
Who kept all of his cash in a bucket,
But his daughter, named Nan,
Ran away with a man,
And as for the bucket, Nantucket.
—Princeton Tiger

But he followed the pair to Pawtucket,
The man and the girl with the bucket;
And he said to the man,
He was welcome to Nan,
But as for the bucket, Pawtucket.
—Chicago Tribune

Then the pair followed Pa to Manhasset,
Where he still held the cash as an asset,
But Nan and the man
Stole the money and ran,
And as for the bucket, Manhasset.
—Exchange

Of this story we hear from Nantucket,
About the mysterious loss of a bucket,
We are sorry for Nan,
As well as the man—
The cash and the bucket, Pawtucket.
—Pawtucket Times

---

The following is a very good description of the limerick meter:

Dylon Mirti wrote 10/10/95

I don’t know if you’re the authority
That will impart the absolute truth to me
But I’m not really sure
Just what is the structure
Of the limericks I’m slaughtering brutally.

Is it just 8 8 5 5 8
Or is it 8 8 6 6 8
Can syllables be crammed
And more than eight be jammed
To keep the meter read at the same gait?

My girlfriend and I can’t tell
What makes these little rhymes swell
Please write me back
And teach me the knack
Of writing a limerick well!

What I really need to know is whether or not syllable cramming is allowed, or whether the exact number of syllables MUST equal the assigned number for the line. And, is there an exact number of syllables assigned for each line?

Thanks for your time.

======

Dylon, of course, gets a gold star for this well-written request.

For expediency, Toast Point did not phrase his reply in limerick form, but it covered the bases nonetheless:

The number of syllables is not as important as the beat pattern:

da DA-da-da DA-da-da DA-(da) (da)
da DA-da-da DA-da-da DA (da) (da)
da DA-da-da DA (da)
da DA-da-da DA (da)
da DA-da-da DA-da-da DA (da) (da)

Meaning that you can leave off the syllables in parentheses, but 1,2 and 5 should match each other, and 3 and 4 should match.

For instance:

There ONCE was a GIRL from nanTUCKet - leaves off the final (da)
A MAIDen whose NAME was feLIcity - uses all of them

It’s more important that the STRESSES of the word be on the strong beats than to have exactly the right number of syllables.

Today take a journey around town and collect words that strike you: street signs, business names, sale signs, political slogans, lost and found posters, family names, graffiti, bumper stickers …

Create a list poem from them. A list poem is just that: a list, but a list that you’ve organized in some way that feels right to you. Play with the sounds and images as you order them. You may find some that create a rhythm and some that are opposites.

I’ve got it easy since our town is small, basically two blocks long ;-) If your town is overwhelming try just your street or your neighborhood.

Sometimes having the structure dictated can free up your creativity. Seems odd, yet it’s like a coloring book. You don’t have to spend time making the figure look right, just mess around with color.

A diamonte poem begins with one subject and ends with its opposite. The number of words increase then decrease and, if you center it, it looks like a diamond. Well, sometimes, if the words are the right length ;-)

Subject
2 adjectives describing the subject
3 words ending in -ing telling about the subject
4 words, the first two describe the subject, the last two describe its opposite
3 words ending in -ing telling about the opposite
2 adjectives describing the opposite
Opposite

Here’s an example off the top of my head:

ink
black liquid
flowing staining expressing
splatter blot soak splash
flowing washing obliterating
clear liquid
water

If you like that structure, a diamonte poem is similar to a cinquain: A not so traditional cinquain and More nontraditional cinquains and the real one.

One writing technique is to juxtapose seemingly unconnected ideas to see what new ideas they spark. While this idea won’t write great poetry, it certainly draws together some disconnected ideas. It’s a very left-brained (logical, mathy) beginning to end up with something for right-brainers (chaotic, artistic).

Use the title of a book as an acrostic key phrase. That is, write the title vertically. For each letter of the key phrase , find the page number in the book that corresponds to the letter (a=1, b-2, etc.). Scan the page until you find a word that begins with that letter. For the poem line, copy from that word to the end of the line or to the end of the sentence.

Some tips: While it’s obvious that x isn’t likely to turn up on a page, it was surprising the “d” and “n” took some scanning. Try scanning lines backwards. I tended to start reading ;-) Also most books start on page 2. You can choose a random page for “a”.

Here’s the raw material I came up with. Surprisingly, the ideas are not totally disconnected. Thought maybe that makes sense since the lines will all come from the first 26 pages of the book and that’s when the author establishes the main ideas of the story.

killed you a long time ago
is the woman you loved taking the change in your appearance
lie to yourself more than me
likely to thrive in domestic bliss as I am
it was not a friendly look.
now, unfortunately we were mingling in the living room
glared at his amused face

dark cloak
always had a killer fashion sense
not as rare as it used to be
caught some sort of disease from trying
eye was secure and watched my face

1 a
2 b
3 c
4 d
5 e
6 f
7 g
8 h
9 i
10 j
11 k
12 l
13 m
14 n
15 o
16 p
17 q
18 r
19 s
20 t
21 u
22 v
23 w
24 x
25 y
26 z

This is from 66 Experiments by Charles Bernstein from the Language is a Virus website where there are quite a few writing ideas. (This one is #4.)

The Genuine Haiku Generator

Genuine? It’s not about nature. Haiku? It does have the structure of a surprising observation at the end. Generator? It does generate some pretty nifty dark fantasy images of 5-7-5 syllables that have peculiar haiku rhythm and feel :-)

Here are some examples:

rainstorms juggle, hard
demoness descends, owl jumps
apprentice shines, fierce

  . .. … …. … .. .

happily entranced
determined deaf chimera
rises evilly

  . .. … …. … .. .

careless river rusts
hatefully, rainmakers lurk
mirthfully, flesh snarls

  . .. … …. … .. .

plowshares replenish
coolly, reflection murmurs
careworn lizards choke

  . .. … …. … .. .

boasting moodily
wife softens, unaided sad
mournful devils break

Write three lines that rhyme and have a similar rhythm for the following words:

remains
curse
frogs
ghoul
crunch
eye

A poem of 3 rhyming lines is a tercet (”TER sit” or “ter SET”) or triplet. Like the poem by Joan Bransfield Graham:

Kitchen crickets make a din,
sending taunts to chilly kin,
“You’re outside, but we got in.”

If you look over the rhymes at Rhymer or Rhymezone, you might find some interesting combinations (curse, nurse, purse? remains, brains, chains?) to spark your muse :-)

In a sestina each line ends with the same 6 words but in a different order. It sounds hard but the constraints can be freeing.

Sestinas normally have 7 stanzas (groups of lines) but you don’t need to go on that long. Just try two or three stanzas and then the last stanza (which has a different pattern). The pattern of ending words for the stanzas are:

123456
615243
364125
532614
451362
246531

The last stanza — it’s called the envoi which isn’t important but sounded cool :-) — is only 3 lines, and each line uses two words. The first word of the pair comes in the middle of the line and the second word comes at the end.

1&2 3&4 5&6

(If you like number patterns, the pattern for the end words of the stanzas isn’t as random as it first appears. The article at Wikipedia mentions that it’s like folding bread dough back on itself during kneading. Which I only mention because I had no idea what picture to use for a sestina and the bread dough made a nice image ;-)

If, like me, you often find yourself limiting yourself to subjects that poetry “should be” about (a hold over feeling from school undoubtedly!), here’s a list of fantasy type words that might help you think outside the box:

ice, fire, creature, quiet, cocoon, black
ghost, night, moon, seek, hidden, curse

Some examples of words suggested by kids in Kenneth Koch’s class:

pink, aquamarine, green, blue, purple, red
buildings, portrait, prayer, subject, brush, canvas
thunder, apartment, country, pleasant, scratched, spinach (a sestina about Popeye)

I should have copied the poem created by the kids from the book but I forgot before I returned it. Most of the adult sestinas on the internet have that intimidating formality to them that turns off droves of people from poetry :-/, but here’s one that while very formal in tone feels very informal for a poem. :-) Notice she didn’t stick strictly to the end word patterns. She changed whole to hole and used various forms of relate.

The Concord Art Association Regrets
Pam White

Your entry was not accepted. We regret
it wasn’t (enough for us), a work of love.
We liked many of the colors on the whole
but the mass was just something unrelated
to the rest of our show. We hope your work
will have a bright future in another place.

We remember last year you tried to place
another photograph and it was also with regret
we turned you down. Though for that particular work
we found nothing about it (no one could) to love.
It was obscure and a little upsetting in relation
to the rest of our show which we look on as a whole.

Now you may think us ungenerous. On the whole
you are probably right, but this is our place
and we can do what we want whether you relate
to it or not. However we don’t want you to regret
your association with us. We want you to love
us, send us money, but please, no more work.

You see right now we need money to work
on the building we’re in. There’s a hole
in the roof and one wall needs all the love
and attention it can get. Really the place
needs so much, which all costs. I regret
to remind you we need more space for related

works. We’re trying to expand and relate
to lots of different kinds of work
so different people won’t regret
their visit with us but will see the whole
beauty and tranquillity of the place
and come with us, a journey of love

where people of all races, colors, and creeds love
to look and bask and of course bring relations,
friends, and lovers. All are welcome to our place
here where all the world’s magnificent work
can be shown in its entirety, the whole
place filled - with your exception, we regret.

We know you’ll love the whole
work we’re doing for this place.
We can’t relate enough our regret.

(Copyright © 1983-2003 by Pam White.)

One site on sestinas mentioned “One of the challenges of writing a sestina is to create one that can be read aloud without the audience being conscious of hearing the same six words repeated seven times.” Which Pam White seems to have achieved by using fairly ordinary words and not having her sentences and phrases end at the end of a line. (And not even at the end of a stanza!) Which sounds like another interesting challenge but don’t worry about it this time! :-)

From Rose, Where Did You Get That Red?: Teaching Great Poetry to Children by Kenneth Koch.

The idea of the cinquain (and haiku) have inspired a lot of forms! I think the limitations and the compactness must have an appeal. When you look at the simplicity of the patterns it gives you the feeling “I could do that!”

Here’s another nontraditional Cinquain Pattern:

1. One word (subject)
2. Two words
3. Three words
4. Four words
5. One word

And an example from Cinquain poems:

Dinosaurs
Lived once,
Long ago, but
Only dust and dreams
Remain

— by Cindy Barden

And a third nontraditional cinquain pattern:

1. Title noun (if you want a one syllable subject like dog, put an article or other word in front like “a dog”, “the dog” or “oh, dog”.)
2. Description
3. Action
4. Feeling or effect
5. Synonym of the initial noun. (You can get poetic here.)

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The Real Cinquain

A cinquain is based on syllables. Each line has:

2
4
6
8
2

syllables.

The Cinquain was invented by Adelaide Crapsey (yes, Crapsey) after being inspired by haiku, the Japanese 17 syllable poetic form.

Here’s one of hers:

Triad

These be
Three silent things:
The falling snow… the hour
Before the dawn… the mouth of one
Just dead.

In a good cinquain the lines should flow together rather than sounding like separate lines.

Here’s some Cinquain Guidelines from Writer’s Resource Center:

The line length is the only firm rule, but there are other guidelines that people have tried to impose from time to time.

• Write about a noun. Cinquains generally fail if you try to make them about emotions, philosophies or other complex subjects. They should be about something concrete.
• Don’t try to make each line complete or express a single thought. Each line should flow into the next or the poem will sound static.
• Cinquains work best if you avoid adjectives and adverbs. This doesn’t mean you can’t have any, but focus on the nouns and the verbs. This almost always works best in a cinquain.
• The poem should build toward a climax. The last line should serve as some sort of conclusion to the earlier thoughts. Often, the conclusion has some sort of surprise built into it.
• Write in iambs (Two syllable groupings in which the first syllable is unstressed and the second syllable stressed. For Example: i DRANK she SMILED we TALKED i THOUGHT) For the last line of the cinquain, however, both syllables should be stressed, NICE BAR.

There are more patterns and examples at Cinquain Poems. (The 3rd pattern is the traditional one.)

Cinquains are 5 line poems with a strict syllable count inspired by haiku. As I’ve mentioned before, I like rules! But rather than going right to the real rules of the Cinquain as the rule-follower in me wants, I’ll begin with the much easier:

Cinquain Pattern #2

Line1: A noun (The subject of the poem)

Line2: Two adjectives (describing the subject)

Line 3: Three -ing words (relating to the subject)

Line 4: A phrase (feelings that relates to the subject)

Line 5: Another word for the noun (or word that sums it up).

Here’s an example from Cinquain Poems:

Spaghetti
Messy, spicy
Slurping, sliding, falling
Between my plate and mouth
Delicious

Make a haiku generator. Stack 5 haiku on top of one another, staple then slice the pages between the lines. Then you can mix and match the lines of the poems to make a total of 125 haiku.

You can write your own 5 haiku (there’s some of Basho’s below to choose from if you want). When you print them out make sure you leave enough room between the lines to cut.

You can choose or write any haiku but if the corresponding lines of each are grammatically similar, that is, all first lines are noun phrases, then they’ll all mix and match, at least grammatically! (Not all of the haiku below match each other grammatically.)

You can read more about Exquisite corpses and where the name came from.

This idea comes from Queneau … at Rhizome. It, in turn, comes from an idea by Raymond Queneau who wrote a book of 10 sonnets (14 lines each) that were grammatically similar so that lines could be mixed and matched freely to form 100,000,000,000,000 poems!

Matsuo Basho haiku translated by Robert Hass from Poem Hunter:

A bee
staggers out
of the peony.

A caterpillar,
this deep in fall–
still not a butterfly.

A cicada shell;
it sang itself
utterly away.

A field of cotton–
as if the moon
had flowered.

A snowy morning–
by myself,
chewing on dried salmon.

Autumn moonlight–
a worm digs silently
into the chestnut.

Awake at night–
the sound of the water jar
cracking in the cold.

Blowing stones
along the road on Mount Asama,
the autumn wind.

Waking in the night;
the lamp is low,
the oil freezing.

Winter rain
falls on the cow-shed;
a cock crows.

The sea darkens;
the voices of the wild ducks
are faintly white.

Coolness of the melons
flecked with mud
in the morning dew.

First snow
falling
on the half-finished bridge.

Moonlight slanting
through the bamboo grove;
a cuckoo crying.

Spring rain
leaking through the roof
dripping from the wasps’ nest.

Stillness–
the cicada’s cry
drills into the rocks.

The dragonfly
can’t quite land
on that blade of grass.

The morning glory also
turns out
not to be my friend.

This old village–
not a single house
without persimmon trees.

When the winter chrysanthemums go,
there’s nothing to write about
but radishes.

Winter garden,
the moon thinned to a thread,
insects singing.

Winter solitude–
in a world of one color
the sound of wind.

Fleas, lice,
a horse peeing
near my pillow.

(Basho spent a lot of time traveling about Japan so he probably slept in less than ideal circumstances fairly frequently!)

Translated by Geoffrey Bownas And Anthony Thwaite

Spring:
A hill without a name
Veiled in morning mist.

The beginning of autumn:
Sea and emerald paddy
Both the same green.

The winds of autumn
Blow: yet still green
The chestnut husks.

A flash of lightning:
Into the gloom
Goes the heron’s cry.

Write a 4 or 5 (or more) line poem of words of ever diminishing syllables.

Start with any word. Go to Rhymezone and type it in.

It will give you lists of words grouped by syllables. Choose a word from each of the groupings of syllables that “go” together: they might suggest a story, a commentary, or be a collection of nice images and sounds. (If you see a better word than the one you began the search with, by all means abandon the original and grab the new one.)

Not all words will turn up a good set of rhymes. And sometimes Rhymezone can be a bit quirky about what words it wants to give you rhymes for.

Here’s an example:

detention cell
alarm bell
rebel
yell

(Of course you can also turn the exercise on its head and go from a single syllable to multiple syllable word or phrase.)

Feel free to use your own words but here’s some words that have a decent number of multiple syllable rhymes:

thrill
creep
hell
bloom
boo
rip
dawn

(Spawn includes dawn among the words that rhyme with it but for some reason gives more rhymes than dawn. — Though perhaps too many! — Rhymezone, as I said, can be quirky.)

Write 2 rhyming couplets that poke gentle fun at a well known person or character and you’ve got a clerihew. They’re like mini-biographies.

There are a few rules for clerihews:

1. The first line has the person’s name in it.
2. They’re 4 lines long.
3. Lines 1&2 rhyme and lines 3&4 rhyme.
4. It should be gently funny.

Pick one or a few (or come up with your own, of course):

• Harry Potter
• Hermione Granger
• Obi Wan Kenobi
• Vlad the Impaler
• Cinderella
• Captain Kirk
• Veronica Mars
• Buffy Sommers

They’re short. They’re funny. They should be more popular! I tried to find some clerihew examples of contemporary people or characters but there just wasn’t that much :-/ But here’s some about some people and characters you may recognize.

Edgar Allen Poe
Was very fond of roe.
He always liked to chew some,
When writing anything gruesome.

— by E. C. Bentley, the inventor of the clerihew

=*=
And one about Bentley himself:

Not only did Bentley
Create Philip Trent, he
Invented the norm
Of this poetic form.

=*=
Carrie, by Stephen King

Carrie
Was really scary
Even the part after they bury her
But her mother was even scarier

— by William Sanders

=*=
Alexander Graham Bell
has shuffled off this mobile cell.
He’s not talking any more
But he has a lot to answer for.
=*=
From Random Mystery Poem:

Agatha Christie
Wrote plot lines so twisty,
Whodunit we’d never know
If it weren’t for the little grey cells of Poirot.

Sue Grafton
Knows her craft, and
She gets better
With each letter.

Rex Stout
Evens things out.
Nero Wolfe has more brains, to match his seventh of a ton,
But Archie has more fun.

There’s a good walkthrough on creating clerihews at Gigglepoetry.

SciFaiku uses the rules of haiku except its subject is science fiction.

Basic rules: 3 lines long, 6-10 words total.

Set the timer for 10-15 minutes and go at it.

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More
The SciFaiku Manifesto does a good job of explaining the guidelines for creating SciFaiku. Here’s a few examples:

serious children
scrape frost from the joints
of a war machine — Tom Brinck

Thru empty windows
of abandoned skyscrapers,
just a butterfly… — Tom Brinck

Bathing
her reptilian skin —
small bubbles on glossy green. — Tom Brinck

Digging up an ancient city,
finding the print
of a tennis shoe. — Tom Brinck

Spring showers
my best friend
rusts. — Greg Pass

An old neon sign
“The Galaxy’s Finest Spoo
- Served Both Hot AND Cold.” — Yvonne Aburrow

And just for the heck of it, Haiku Error Messages.

So much to read about so few syllables! If you really get into haiku, here’s an essay written by Jane Reichhold, the author of the Aha! Poetry website, called Haiku Techniques. She lists a lot of techniques/approaches to haiku that might give you a place to get started.

The Technique of Comparison - In the words of Betty Drevniok: “In haiku the SOMETHING and the SOMETHING ELSE are set down together in clearly stated images. Together they complete and fulfill each other as ONE PARTICULAR EVENT.” She rather leaves the reader to understand that the idea of comparison is showing how two different things are similar or share similar aspects.
a spring nap
downstream cherry trees
in bud

What is expressed, but not said, is the thought that buds on a tree can be compared to flowers taking a nap. One could also ask to what other images could cherry buds be compared? A long list of items can form in one’s mind and be substituted for the first line. Or one can turn the idea around and ask what in the spring landscape can be compared to a nap without naming things that close their eyes to sleep. By changing either of these images one can come up with one’s own haiku while getting a new appreciation and awareness of comparison.

The Technique of Contrast - Now the job feels easier. All one has to do is to contrast images.

long hard rain
hanging in the willows
tender new leaves

The delight from this technique is the excitement that opposites creates. You have instant built-in interest in the most common haiku ‘moment’. And yet most of the surprises of life are the contrasts, and therefore this technique is a major one for haiku.

She goes on to describe and give examples for each of the following techniques:

• The Technique of Association
• The Technique of the Riddle
• The Technique of Sense-switching
• The Technique of Narrowing Focus
• The Technique of Metaphor
• The Technique of Simile
• The Technique of the Sketch or Shiki’s Shasei
• The Technique of Double entendre (or double meanings)
• The Technique of using Puns
• The Technique of Word-plays
• The Technique of Verb /Noun Exchange
• The Technique of Close Linkage
• The Technique of Leap Linkage
• The Technique of Mixing It Up
• The Technique of Sabi
• The Technique of Wabi
• The Technique of Yûgen
• The Technique of the Paradox
• The Technique of The Improbable World
• The Technique of Humor
• The Above as Below Technique

I really like haiku. They seem to offer so much in such a small package.

Haiku is a short Japanese poem of that captures a moment of nature, like a snapshot. They are 3 lines and 6-10 words (in English translations, 17 syllables in Japanese).

Haiku are two observations about nature and a third line that ties them together creating an “Ah!” moment. Here’s 3 by Basho, sort of the father of haiku (even though he never wrote haiku!)

Temple bells die out.
The fragrant blossoms remain.
A perfect evening!

~ oOo ~
old pond —
frog jumps in
sound of the water

~ oOo ~

wild sea —
lying over Sado island
the galaxy

The best way to learn to write haiku is by reading it. They’re short. They’re often amusing. Basho is a great place to begin because he saw the humor in nature.

And then go out in nature and write.

BTW, there’s a related form, senryu, that has the same structure as haiku but pokes fun at human nature.

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More

nature captured!
a moment in time
haiku

That’s in the form of a haiku but not a haiku — because it’s not about nature!

Here’s the basic form:

nature image —
nature image
ah!

(The — is a pause or break usually written in English as a — or ! at the end of the 1st or 2nd line.)

For those who like to know the real rules I’ve adapted these from the Haiku book mentioned below.

1. 3 lines of 6-10 words (but, in English, not necessarily 17 syllables)
   In Japanese, haiku have 17 syllables written (in English) in 3 lines of 5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables. I like rules :-) And 17 syllables arranged in a precise order appeals to the mathematician in me. But Patricia Donegan in Haiku, a children’s book about haiku, made a very good point about those 17 syllables. She explains that in Japanese 17 syllables is about 6 words. But in English, 17 syllables is about 12. If you try to write haiku with 17 English syllables it’s going to be too bulky. So she suggests 3 lines with 6-10 words total.

2. Image
   Paint an image, capture a moment. It should be descriptive and appeal to the senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, touch).

3. Season word (kigo)
   The first or second line should contain a word relating to the season to help the reader paint a more accurate picture. (There are lists of Kigo course! But you don’t need to limit yourself. They can be helpful to get you thinking if your brain gets stalled trying to think what words could represent a season.)

4. Here and now
   Immediacy. Write about the present moment or a memory, not something you imagine.

5. Feeling
   Don’t explain or tell. Show a feeling through an image. Like:
   

   cold rain —
   tiny frog sits
   wrapped in mist

   Does it feel lonely? Yet it doesn’t need to tell you the frog is lonely. The words paint that impression.

6. Surprise
   There should be an “Ah!” moment, a surprising insight often about an ordinary event that wakes you up.

7. Compassion
   Haiku should express openheartedness toward nature.

Write pairs of phrases that rhyme and have a similar rhythm for the following words:

dream
beg
pest
grieve
cute
mess
vampire
scream

Okay, what you’re actually writing are rhyming couplets! Like many of Ogden Nash’s poems:

In the world of mules,
There are no rules.

-oOo-

Here’s a verse about rabbits,
that doesn’t mention their habits.

..::..

Many an infant that screams like a calliiope
Could be soothed by a little attention to its diope

-oOo-

Parsley
Is gharsley.

..::..

God in His wisdom made the fly
And then forgot to tell us why.

-oOo-

The cow is of the bovine ilk;
One end is moo, the other, milk.

If you need help with rhymes try Rhymer and Rhymezone

If Rhymer gives you an overwhelming number of rhymes try choosing “Last syllable rhymes” or “Double rhymes” from the drop down menu. (Annoyingly, you need to type the word into the search box again.)

Rhymezone returns fewer rhymes (which can be a good thing!) but it offered no rhymes for vampire, nor, when I realized it also rhymed, for empire. It turned up stuff for expire but *I* shouldn’t be the one coming up with the rhymes!

Serendipitously I ordered several poetry books last month from the library to work some poetic prompts in beginning in April. Turns out April is National Poetry Month and I didn’t know it.

Try your hand at “tabloid poetry”. Some suggestions are:

1. Look for headlines that have a theme: space aliens, Elvis, animals, etc. (If you need more headlines than the 10 in the April list down below, check at The City Newsstand where they go back to 1998.)

   Print out your favorites, cut them up and shuffle them around into groups that seem to go together. Try grouping them in 3s and then write a 4th line that comments or expands on the 3 previous. If you’re using just this month’s headlines, create 3 groups of 3 lines, add a 4th line to each group then, if you can, use the 10th headline as part of a two line summary.

   It doesn’t need to rhyme!

   Don’t be afraid to change the titles a bit to make them flow better.

2. Take some of the shorter lines and turn them into rhyming couplets:

   “Elvis Sighted in Wax Museum” could turn into:
   

   Just as I visited his mausoleum
   Elvis was sighted in a wax museum.

   That was inspired (as well as dictated) by RhymeZone’s revelation that there were very few words that rhyme with museum!

   Don’t be afraid to throw in some extra words or take some out in order to give it a better or different rhythm.

   “Shaquille O’Neal’s Parents Are Pygmies” actually has sort of the rhythm of a limerick if I’m getting my stress syllables right:
   

   Shaquille O’Neal’s Parents were Pygmies.
   They stuffed their small son with big berries.
   He grew really tall,
   While they remained small.
   Now Shaq’s parents are as tall as his pinkies.

   Not bad! There’s something off in the rhythm of the second line so it could use some work. (And according to RhymeZone pygmies doesn’t have any “perfect rhymes”, that is, nothing rhymes with “mies” only with “ies”.)

APRIL

1. NUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CHAPEL — WWN
2. LAWYER SHEDS HIS SKIN — THREE TIMES A YEAR! — WWN
3. SLEEP EXPERT CAN DESCRIBE A PERSON PERFECTLY JUST BY HEARING THEM SNORE! — WWN
4. ALIENS TRAVEL TO EARTH FOR CHINESE TAKEOUT! — WWN
5. BIOLOGIST BREEDS SNAIL WITH CHEETAH TO CREATE WORLD’S FASTEST SNAIL — THE ‘SNEETAH’! — WWN
6. GOOD OLD BOY TRANSLATES BIBLE INTO REDNECK — so us’n can understan’ what the Good Lord wanted us to lern! — WWN
7. IT’S TRUE — AUTOPSY PROVES IT! ADOLF HITLER WAS A WOMAN! — WWN
8. Hail to the wackos: HALF OF U.S. PRESIDENTS WERE MENTALLY ILL — SUN
9. HUMANS TURNING BACK INTO APES! Sports fanatics & politicians most susceptible! — WWN
10. PROM KING AND QUEEN SEEK U.N. RECOGNITION OF THEIR OWN COUNTRY…PROMVANIA! — WWN

There are some more ideas by Bruce Lansky at his website Gigglepoetry.

Above all have fun while you play with words!

(The list of top 10 tabloid headlines was, as usual, compiled by The City Newsstand, a newsstand in Chicago. (The lists there go back to Jan 1998.) (It says they’re mostly from Weekly World News (WWN) and the SUN.)

Despite the fact that this idea comes from a book about writing poetry, it gets at the same idea as capturing images in your Writer’s Journal. It’s about noticing the quirky details that bring a scene to life.

So make a list of things around you, perhaps what’s on your desk. Perhaps the family room. Perhaps a busy coffee shop. Be aware of the details. It’s not just a pencil, it’s an unsharpened pencil, a chewed pencil, a neon pencil, a weary pencil …

If you want to be poetic, go back over your list and organize them in a satisfying order.

Robert Mitchell suggests that such an exercise will help you “begin to see the possibility of ’speaking’ in images rather than in sentences or concepts.” Fiction writers kind of need sentences or readers won’t stick around long ;-) but we can borrow the poets’ penchant for painting images with words.

From: The Practice of Poetry: Writing Exercises From Poets Who Teach, edited by Robin Behn and Chase Twichell.