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This week: Visual or Spatial Verse: Part Six Edited by: Red Writing Hood <3  
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" Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood. "
T. S. Eliot
"Poetry comes nearer to vital truth than history."
Plato (428 BC-348 BC)
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Visual or Spatial Verse: Formatting Poetry to Create Added Depth, Part Six: Hourglasses & Wheelchairs
No matter how you format your poetry it creates a visual by the way you choose things like line lengths, syntax, punctuation, fonts, poem length, stanzas, etc. All these choices and more create a visual; however what I will explore in the next few months is the genre of shaped verse that creates a particular visual for the reader—meshing art and the written word. Today I will share the Hourglass and the Wheelchair Angel Style.
We are winding down this series, and in the last installment next month I’d like to share the spatial forms created by WDC members. Please send me the name you gave your created shape form and details on creating it like alignment (center, left, right), meter, rhyme, etc. Thank you!
Hourglass Verse—Two Variations
The shape of this form will remind you of an hourglass when center-aligned. I didn’t see any requirement on a specific topic for the first variation of this form, but if you’d like to keep with the spatial forms trend you might want to keep it related to time or the passing of time.
Don’t confuse this with the other hourglass form which has eight syllables per line, but does not necessarily take the shape of an hourglass.
Variation #1
This form has been around for many years.
MUST HAVES
--Line count: 7
--Meter is syllabic with the following count: 4, 3, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4
--Number of stanzas: 1 unless you are creating a chain.
--Rhyme: None.
--Alignment: Center.
COULD HAVES or WHAT IS THE POET’S CHOICE IN ALL THIS?
--Word count.
--Topic/theme.
Variation #2
This variation was found at the Fanstory website, and was created by an American poetess from Minnesota.
MUST HAVES
--Line count: 13
--Line 7 must be the word “time.”
--Meter is syllabic with the following count: 12, 8, 8, 8, 8, 6, 1, 6, 8, 8, 8, 8, 12
--Topic/theme: The first six lines should, “convey a beginning, or hope.” The last six lines should, “convey a resolution or finality.”
--Alignment: Center.
COULD HAVES or WHAT IS THE POET’S CHOICE IN ALL THIS?
--Rhyme.
--Word count.
The Wheelchair Angel Style
This form was created about ten years ago to honor poet and team member of the Writers & Poetry Alliance website, Michael Schuh (http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?contributorId=408673 & http://www.butlerfuneralhomes.com/obituary/Michael-L.-Schuh-Mike/Springfield-IL/...). The person who invented the form, also created the above website: Pat Farnsworth-Simpson, poet and publisher in the United Kingdom.
MUST HAVES
--Alignment: Centered, although I’ve seen it left-aligned, also.
--Line count: 25
--Use “indent” or other similar spacing on lines 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24, as this will create the representation of wheels when you split.
--Meter: Syllabic, and in the following order: 2, 2, 3, 4, 3, 2, 1, 3, 5, 8, 8, 10, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 4, 4, 6, 6, 4, 4, 10
--Number of stanzas: 1.
--Rhyme: Unrhymed.
--Must refer to or mention a wheelchair.
COULD HAVES or WHAT IS THE POET’S CHOICE IN ALL THIS?
--Topic/Theme.
NOTE TO REMEMBER: One of the biggest pitfalls I see with this type of formatting is a great urge to create a visual that somehow this becomes the driving force and the poem suffers for it. Either the careful word choice is scrapped to make sure the specific shape is adhered to, or the use of metaphor and simile and other tools to create a depth of meaning are lacking because the focus was all about the shape. As in anything in life, the key is balance. Remember, you are creating a poem. Don’t let the formatting take over. Instead let it enhance and entrance the reader.
Don’t forget to send me the spatial forms you’ve created so we can share them with the newsletter readers next month!
SOURCE NOTES:
https://www.fanstory.com/contestdetails.jsp?id=661
http://patthepoet.com/
http://www.poetrymagnumopus.com/forums/topic/1001-visual-verse-or-shape-verse/
http://the.a.b.c.of.poetry.styles.patthepoet.com/T2Z.html
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Theme: Poems about hourglasses and wheelchairs
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Comments on last month's newsletter:
No feedback from readers, so here's a question: Think about the last poem you created: Which came first, the form you wanted to use or the topic you wanted to cover?
Also, here's a last reminder not to forget to send me the spatial forms you’ve created so we can share them with the newsletter readers next month! |
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Poetry: June 06, 2018 Issue [#8936]
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