Today’s prompt is to write a poem in the Shadorma structure or the Fib structure. I chose to write both and joined this with a prompt I received on another group. The shadorma was written on the prompt received in that group, titled, ‘You know when angels are dancing over their heads.’ I tweaked it to read ‘When angels dance over the earth’ and the Fib was written on the prompt titled ‘Illusion’

The shadorma is a six-line, 26-syllable poem (or a stanza – you can write a poem that is made of multiple shadorma stanzas). The syllable count by line is 3/5/3/3/7/5. So, like the haiku, the lines are relatively short. Rather poetically, the origin of the shadorma is mysterious. I’ve seen multiple online sources call it Spanish – but “shadorma” isn’t a Spanish word (Spanish doesn’t have “sh” as a letter pairing), and neither is “xadorma,” or “jadorma,” which would approximate “shadorma” in sound. But even if this form is simply the brainchild of an internet trickster who gave it an imaginary backstory, that’s no reason why you shouldn’t try your hand at it. Every form was made up by someone, sometime.

Our second syllabic form is much more forthright about its recent origins. Like the shadorma, the Fib is a six-line form. But now, the syllable count is based off the Fibonacci sequence of 1/1/2/3/5/8. You can  link multiple Fibs together into a multi-stanza poem, or even start going backwards after your first six lines, with syllable counts of 8/5/3/2/1/1. Perhaps you remember the Fibonacci sequence from math or science class – or even from nature walks. Lots of things in the natural world hew to the sequence – like pinecones and flower petals. And now your poems can, too.

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My Poem – When angels dance over the earth – A shadorma (3/5/3/3/7/5)

You know when

angels dance over the

earth– when the

sky is a

Fuschia pink and the clouds are

a wisp of lace white

When a child

swaddled, asleep, softly  

smiles, raising

peachy cheeks

to feathery lashes that

quiver to Zion’s dreams

When a land

dried, cracked, is showered

by Zeus and

its thirst quenched

a mother is born, and life

sprouts, and hope blossoms

When a man

hungry, with no means

is served bread

When no man

need live in fear and freedom

is there, free as air

When music

Is played, and artists

create, when

dancers dance

and teachers sow seeds that give

flower, fruit or shade

When the old

look to the heavens

thankful for

every breath,

when He looks down proud of His

creation; you know.

Life & Death (a Fib poem- 1/1/2/3/5/8)

Life

live

Moments

laugh, cry, love

talk, argue, makeup

Let not silence distance the heart

Death is a universal truth

Not an illusion

No escape

Make most

Here

Now

Copyright@vishwanathsmitha2021