Publication Date: April, 2020
Location: In the PoetsOnline Archive, under ‘Lost & Found‘.
Genesis: During the course of last month, I set myself a challenge. I found a list of 100 poetry forms and I’m giving myself a year to write one poem using each of the 100 forms. When this ‘lost & found’ prompt came up, I wrote one of my early form poems to fit the prompt and the form. Killing two birds with one stone, as the saying goes. Or, as my friend Calvy prefers, stroking two cats with one hand.
This form is one of the Alphabet forms, of which there are several. One is to write a poem where each line begins with the next letter of the alphabet, in either forward (A to Z) or reverse (Z to A) order, but I had just written an Acrostic poem, and this version felt a little too similar. Instead, I chose to write the version where there are 26 words in the poem, and every word must start with a different letter of the alphabet. It was quite a challenge, but I’m pleased with the way this one turned out.
Incidentally, I’m giving myself permission to invent new forms along the way, if any should come to me, and I’d like to take this opportunity to announce a brand new poetry form to the world – the Alphamix. Here are the rules…
- Three stanzas.
- First stanza has 26 words, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet, in order – A, B, C
- Second stanza has 26 words, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet, in any order
- Third stanza has 26 words, each starting with a different letter of the alphabet, in reverse order – Z, Y. X…
I haven’t yet attempted to write a poem using the Alphamix form – so it exists now, out in the world, but is entirely untested. And it does look quite difficult, does it not? Feel free to give it a go and let me know how you get on.
In the meantime, here’s Did We Just Lose Spring?
Did we just lose Spring? Or is Earth rejoicing, Breathing properly Under a yellowing moon? Venues, zoos, hotels – closed! Football, golf – terminated! Quarantining numbers Kills xeroxing.