B&P’s Shadorma & Beyond – Landay – August 1, 2015

Frida Kahlo. Pensando en la Muerte. WikiArt.

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Greetings!  This is Paloma, greeting you from B&P’s Shadorma & Beyond.  For this week you have the choice of writing a shadorma (a non-rhyming six-line poem in 3/5/3/3/7/5), or a landay.

We looked at the landay in March but I think it is very helpful to review these poetic forms so that you don’t forget what’s in your poetic “toolbox”.  There was a great response back in March, and several writers combined landays and shadormas – to good effect.  The landay is brief, but it can be wielded with power.

So, let’s review!

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The landay originated in Afghanistan.  It is a folk couplet that is oral in nature:

1. Twenty two syllables broken into two couplets
…(nine in the first, thirteen in the second);
2. Ends with a “ma” or “na” sound.
…This cannot be replicated in English;
3.  May contain end rhyme;
4.  Characterized by bawdiness, wit, and piercing truths
…despite the beauty of the language.

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I’ll make a tattoo from my lover’s blood
and shame every rose in the green garden.

— Anonymous

Today I spilled the spinach on the floor.
Now the old goat stands in the corner swinging a two-by-four.

— Anonymous

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Landays often feature themes of war, separation, homeland, grief, and love.

The Poetry Foundation describes landays as follows:

“… the couplets express a collective fury, a lament, an earthy joke, a love of home, a longing for the end of separation, a call to arms, all of which frustrate any facile image of a Pashtun woman as nothing but a mute ghost beneath a blue burqa.”

Nicolae Tonitza. After War. WikiArt.

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Separation, you set fire
in the heart and home of every lover.

— Anonymous

My love gave his life for our homeland.
I’ll sew his shroud with one strand of my hair.

— Anonymous

Roy Lichtenstein. Live Ammo, 1962. WikiArt.

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I would encourage you to visit the Landay page at Poetry Foundation. However – keep in mind that the subject matter may be politically sensitive and may be of a sensual nature.  Also, some of the images can be disturbing.  Still – it is well worth reading.

 

Feel free to write a shadorma, a landay, or any combination of the two.  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.

Good writing!
Paloma

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