BJ’s Shadorma and Beyond – November 22, 2014

Hello everyone!

Congratulations on all of your hard work last week – the cavatina is a challenging form – but whether you wrote cavatinas or shadormas the results were fantastic!

For this week, as always, you may choose to write a shadorma.  This is a non-rhyming six-line poem with a syllable count of 3/5/3/3/7/5.

Or, you may try this week’s featured form – the cherita – which is also powerful in its simplicity.

A cherita is a six-line poem that tells a complete story.  It was created in 1997 by American poet Ai Li.  The name comes from Malay and means “story” or “tale”.

The cherita has three stanzas.  The first stanza has one line; the second stanza has two lines, and third stanza has three lines.  There is no specific rhyme or meter.  A cherita may be written by three poets working on one stanza each or it may be written by one solo poet.

To read more cheritas, visit http://larrykimmel.tripod.com/cherita.htm.

Here is a cherita I wrote upon learning that classmate from primary school had died – and died young.  She was a mysterious person – aloof – living in her grandmother’s creaky old house.  The kids on my school bus always fell silent when we stopped at “Jackie’s” house.

concealed in the underbrush

jackie’s house was a temple
to memories six-presidents-old –

when the wind stirs the spirits
each floorboard crackles:
“jackie died today” –

What to write about?  Well, since Thanksgiving is approaching here in the United States, you may want to consider “Thanksgivings past” and family memories.   Or, you may want to share a story about the kids you went to school with – like “Jackie”.  Or, you may choose to weave a story about this (moody) photo.  It’s up to you!

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Once you’ve written your post please tag:  BJ’s Shadorma & Beyond and MindLoveMisery’s Menagerie, then put your info onto the Mr. Linky app.  If you ping us back, we’ll be able to read your post ASAP because we will be notified that you’ve written the post (not so with Mr. Linky).

Have fun!
Jen

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