New Forms (13): Robert Lee Brewer's Mad Libs Poems

Background to Robert Lee Brewer's Mad Libs poems form can be found here. 

Compose a Mad Libs poem! Instructions can be found here.  

We adapted the set exercise in our writing workshop. It was a lot of fun and resulted in some productive pieces.

Reference Post (1): Links

Every so often I encounter a site on the web that shares other poetry sites. It seemed the right moment to list a few of these. I hope you will find something to do with poetic form(s) that strikes a chord.

• Odd and Invented Forms: Lewis Turco's 'Form of the Week'
• The Wordshop - a list of forms including e.g. the Dodoitsu and Haijinx
• Robert Lee Brewer (Writer's Digest) - a list including e.g. Blitz and Cascade poems
• The Poet's Garret - including, for instance, the Cornish Sonnet
• Minimalist Poetry
• Asemic Poetry - from Moria Poetry Journal

New Forms (12): Folding Mirror Poetry (ii)

Dr Marc Latham, creator of the Folding Mirror Poetry (FMP) form, has just brought out a book, 242 Mirror Poems and Reflections (available on Amazon as a Kindle or print edition). The work comprises 121 Mirror Poems and 121 accompanying Reflections, taking 'the reader on a journey from individual mind to infinite space'.

The book includes my Foreword on p.11, entitled 'The Palindrome Poem and Folding Mirror Poetry: Some Introductory Thoughts'.

The Folding Mirror poetry form was included in The Book of Forms: a Handbook of Poetics Including Odd and Invented Forms by Lewis Putnam Turco (UPNE 2012). FMP is currently 'Form of the Week' on Professor Turco's Invented Forms site.

There are two examples of the FMP in the The Book of Forms: a Handbook of Poetics Including Odd and Invented Forms, 'Hourglass of Time' by Claire Knight and 'Thalatta, Thalatta' by me, Caroline Gill.

• 1st post on this form 
• Introduction to my Brekekekex blog

Sonnet Sequence (5): The Swatantra Sonnet

Waves on The Lizard, Cornwall

Background to the Swatantra Sonnet form can be found here. 

Bangladeshi-American Poet-Editor Hassanal Abdullah invented the Swatantra Sonnet as a form in Bengali. Since then he has been experimenting with the form in English. Hassanal Abdullah is editor of Shabdaguchha magazine, a journal of bilingual poetry (you might like to take a look here).

Compose a Swatantra Sonnet! Instructions can be found here. 
A published example of a Swatantra Sonnet in English by Hassanal Abdullah can be found here in Poetrybay online magazine.

My published example of a 'Swatantra Sonnet-inspired poem': 'Vagrant Emperor' [13/2010] appears in Cornwall - an anthology of poetry and photographs (2012, compiled by Les Merton, photography by Angelicia) ISBN 978-1-906845-38-4. Les Merton is editor at Palores Publications and editor of Poetry Cornwall/Bardhonyeth Kernow.  

N.B. I have written 'Swatantra Sonnet-inspired' because my poem [13/2010] only has 10 syllables per line. This count seemed in keeping with the slender subject of this particular poem.   

New Forms (11): Naga-Uta

An example of the Naga-Uta can be found here. 

I have just come across a splendid example of the Japanese Naga-Uta form by fellow Suffolk poet, Ivor Murrell, on his Versifier site.

Compose a Naga-Uta poem! Instructions can be found here.

Sonnet Sequence (4): Nestorian Sonnet

In Nestor's Palace at Homer's 'sandy Pylos', Greece

Background to the Nestorian Sonnet ...   

I came across this new Sonnet form here on the Sound of Poetry Review. The form was invented by Filipino poet, Ernesto Pangilinan Santiago.


Compose a Nestorian Sonnet! Instructions can be found ...

here on the Sound of Poetry Review.

New Forms (10): Folding Mirror Poetry (i)

Background to the Folding Mirror Poem form ...  

Dr Marc Latham, the creator of this form, has been experimenting with it now for some years. You can read more on his Folding Mirror Poetry site here.

The form features in The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics Including Odd and Invented Forms by Professor Lewis Putnam Turco. The Book of Forms, now in its 4th edition, is published by the University Press of New England.

My published example: 

My poem, 'Thalatta, Thalatta', features in the book and on Marc's site. It has just been paired with a magnificent photograph by Adel Gorgy on the Immagine & Poesia site here, developed by Lidia Chiarelli.

• Caroline @ Coastcard post

New Forms (9): The Shadorma

My thanks to Robert Lee Brewer for drawing my attention to this form (along with many others).

Background to the Shadorma form ... 

The form is from Spain.

Compose a Shadorma poem! Instructions can be found ...

... here. You can find out more on Poetry Pages here.

There is an example here.

New Forms (8): Cuban Décima Mirror

Thanks to Gregory Pincus, inventor of the Fib poetry form (based on the Fibonacci Sequence), I have come across the Cuban Décima Mirror. This is not so much a new form as an adaptation of an old one. Greg identifies two stanzas of five lines each. Every line has eight syllables. The end-of-line 'stanza rhyme-words' mirror each other, and in this respect the form resonates with palindromic poetry and - for that matter - with Dr Marc Latham's Folding Mirror Poetry, although the CDM lacks the Folding Mirror central line.

Background to the Cuban Décima Mirror form ...

You can read more here (ensuring that you alight on p.xv) in 'The Latin Beat' by Ed Morales. Pamela Gray's Decima Poetry Lesson here may also be of interest.

New Forms (7): Sevenling

Zennor Mermaid

Sevenlings are short 

and fun to write.

Background to the Sevenling form can be found here. 

Roddy Lumsden invented the Sevenling about ten years ago, drawing on translations of a short verse by Anna Akhmatova (1889 - 1966).

Compose a Sevenling poem! Instructions can be found here.

My published example: 'Sevenling (Zennor Fish Tale)' in The Mermaid's Mother & Sycorax (Wendy Webb Books, 2020).  [13/2010]