Before I share today’s prompt and poem, let me share a piece of good news. My poem NaPoWriMo Day 27 – Adapting was the featured poem for Day 27’s prompt. I am obviously elated that it got selected. Because, like I said yesterday, the thoughts that I have expressed in the poem are something that I’ve always wanted to write about but somehow the words never shaped up as I wanted them to. Yesterday’s duplex sonnet structure proved to be the perfect way to share my thought. I was very happy with the way it turned out and now I’m even happier that it resonated with Maureen (the founder of the NaPoWriMo challenge). Thank you, Maureen, for featuring this poem. With today’s poem, we will have just two days more.
Now, for today’s prompt– to write a concrete poem. Like acrostic poems, concrete poems are a favourite for grade-school writing assignments, so this may not be your first time at the concrete-poem rodeo. In brief, a concrete poem is one in which the lines are shaped in a way that mimics the topic of the poem. For example, May Swenson’s poem “Women” mimics curves, reinforcing the poem’s references to motion, rocking horses, and even the shape of a woman’s body. George Starbuck’s “Sonnet in the Shape of a Potted Christmas Tree” is – you guessed it – a sonnet in the shape of a potted Christmas tree. Your concrete poem could be complexly-shaped, but relatively simple strategies can also be “concrete” — like a poem involving a staircase where the length of the lines grows or shrinks over time, like an ascending (or descending) set of stairs.
Here’s my concrete poem- I’m really not good at it. I had to look through Google to see how to retain the shape once I’d done it. Well, if it isn’t obvious, the shape is hands joined in gratitude. To read the poem, you need to read one hand first, then the other (I’m just saying…:))
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