B&P’s Shadorma and Beyond – April 18, 2015

“Calligramme” by Guillaume Apollinaire

Hello everyone!

I used to write regularly for a Blog entitled: We Drink Because We are Poets.  One day in August 2013, Sahm King put up this post up:

“Have you ever thought about giving your name to a form of your own?

That’s your prompt for today, my friends. This week, time permitting, you can try inventing your own form! I know, I know, this takes a lot of thought…”

No, I’m not going to ask to invent your own form .. I’m going to ask you to try to write a poem using a very complicated form I invented called the Group Effect ….

It’s 5 four line stanzas…with an added fifth Haiku type 5 syllable line at the end of each quatrain similar to the Haiku “cutting phrase”, the fifth four line stanza, at the end of the poem is in free verse. Outside of the last 5 syllable line in each stanza there is no set meter or syllable count.

The rhyming pattern is particular: aabbc aabbc aabbc aabbc abcd, but the first and third stanzas rhyme on the last word – the second and the fourth stanzas rhyme on the first word, “the cutting phrases and the last 4 line stanza have no rhymes the last stanza being completely in free verse.

I’d called this The Group Effect…in honour of the Group of 13 poets of the 13th Floor Paradigm (one day I’ll tell you all about them).  Here’s an example:

Ninja stuff-finding radar

My husband wouldn’t get far
Without my Ninja stuff-finding radar.
When he needs something you see,
Helplessly, he relies completely upon me,
’cause I’m a woman.

Frantic –  he looks for his keys or his socks!
Panic hits – he can’t find what he needs!
Finally I move forward – I turn on that radar,
Skillfully with panache I find what he’s lost,
’cause I’m a woman.

Doubtless women can lose things too.
But they just keep on looking without further ado.
Searching they move things until the lost is found.
No one feels awestruck, this just doesn’t astound,
because they’re women.

Now husbands are a different breed altogether.
How can we expect them to find things at all?
Unless there’s a woman with her Ninja radar,
Stress overpowers them, leaves them agape,
’cause they’re not woman.

So my dear ladies don’t be surprised.
When once married you suddenly find,
That you’ve got magic powers built right inside.
That finds all those things no husband can find,
’cause you’re a woman.

© G.s.k. ‘13

(This Group Effect poem was inspired by Barb Taub’s ‘Top Ten Reasons for Men to Get Married’ Published on Oct. 2, 2013.)

So, now what can we use to inspire you … either for your Shadorma (a non-rhyming six-line poem in 3/5/3/3/7/5) or a Group Effect why this – what does it mean to be an author :

 

Feel free to write a Shadorma and/or a Group Effect  or maybe you’d like to show us your own invented poetry form! The choice is yours! When you have written your poem(s), please TAG them B&P’s Shadorma & Beyond and MindLoveMisery’s Menagerie. Then add your link to the Mister Linky widget below. If the link does not work, please leave your post link in the comments section. And of course … have fun!  Ciao, Bastet!

About Georgia

I love to read...I like to write...I've travelled the world and seen the sites. I'm past my prime and feel so young, especially when near the young. I'm writing this blog, to remember, to think and to share...with the hopes that someone else will make a comment that will stimulate new thoughts and pathways. Actually, I'm a gabber, so the logical extension of gabbing is blogging! ;-)

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