National Poetry Writing Month ~ April 2016

April is upon us once again, and the invitation is advanced to all Ladysmith High students to join in the personal challenge of writing a poem a day, or a poem every two days, or four poems in total, or whatever you can manage. However, I must emphasize that this blog has a strict NON-PLAGIARISM POLICY. I will be checking the originality of your material and will have nothing further to do with anyone who tries to pass off another poet's work as their own.

This year, I will share a few ideas for your writing process. When it is difficult to find daily inspiration, it is often useful to choose a simple form and a single idea and see where it will take you. In order to reference these prompts at a later date, click on the "Format" or "Prompt" label in the right side bar.

THE CAMEO

The Cameo is a purely syllabic form consisting of six lines with the following syllable count:

2, 5, 8, 3, 8, 7, 2. 

It is English in origin and is well-suited to a brief portrait in words, or character-based  piece. No rhyme is needed but an ability to count syllables will help!


Schematic (where x is one syllable, not one word):

xx
xxxxx
xxxxxxxx
xxx
xxxxxxxx
xxxxxxx
xx

RUBAI

This poetical stanza is Persian in origin, made famous by a collection attributed to a poet named Omar Khayyam. It also requires a syllable count, but each line has a standard 10 syllables. In addition it has a simple rhyme scheme: a a b a

Schematic (where x is on syllable and a / b indicate rhymes):

xxxxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxxxb
xxxxxxxxxa


Have fun with these! Remember to email your finished poems to me.