Starting now, the Poetry Fishbowl is open! Today's theme is
"short forms." I will be checking this page periodically throughout the day. When people make suggestions, I'll pick some and weave them together into a poem ... and then another ... and so on. I'm hoping to get a lot of ideas and a lot of poems.
I'll be soliciting poetic forms of 60 lines or less, so basically below my epic range rather than only the short-short length of 10 lines or less. Free verse below the length limit is also fine. Here are
15 short forms with descriptions. Among my favorite short forms not listed there:
hexaduad,
indriso,
sestina,
villanelle. This list of
168 forms is alphabetical. Poets Garrett has my
favorite list of forms, including a list of
repeating-interlocking forms. Their
main page has links to poetic forms of 3-10 lines. Plus a few of my own: A darrow poem is a short, haiku-like musing by dark elves. A
khazal is a Whispering Sands desert poem in couplets. A moose track is a repeating-interlocking form. A tweet wire is a tiny 10-line poem designed for Twitter. Some short forms, like haiku and tanka, work well as verses in a longer poem. I have
The New Book of Forms by Lewis Turco so most forms should be in there. You can also prompt with a link to any exotic form you find; I collect these things.
In addition to forms, I also need topical prompts. One-word or short-phrase framing will assist in keeping them small enough to fit within the theme. Here is a
huge list of common themes. This
page of idioms has alphabetical and topical listings. I love writing poems about an individual word; see
The Phrontistery (WARNING! Black hole caliber time sink ahead!) for glossaries. Have an orientation that is not well represented in literature? Ask for a
sexual,
romantic, or other orientation! If it's not on any of my lists, just include a description or link to one. I also list
gender identities and
my characters with disabilities. Want to help me play with my bookshelf? :D I have
The Conflict Thesaurus,
The Conflict Thesaurus Volume 2,
The Occupation Thesaurus,
The Emotional Wound Thesaurus,
The Urban Setting Thesaurus,
The Rural Setting Thesaurus,
The Emotion Thesaurus,
The Positive Trait Thesaurus,
The Negative Trait Thesaurus, and
The Emotion Amplifier Thesaurus. Simply click "Read Sample" and view the table of contents for a list of cool ideas. You can prompt a sestina with six end words; I usually pick 5 short flexible words and one long exotic word, but I'll work with whatever I get. Favorite characters, threads, series, settings, etc. are also fair game but this is NOT the time for long plotty prompts. Consider combining a name or title with a short form, theme, or idiom. If you like to prompt with photos, this is a great opportunity for that. Just type in a topic (see above for possibilities) and click the Image link in your favorite search engine.
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bookclub_dw has chosen The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst as our book for January.
