Making up your own form

starrykitten

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Hi all--

Have been contemplating reworking a current poem I am working on so that it fits a form. But as I was thinking how there aren't any forms I kno of that would be a good fit, I considered coming up with my own. Have you ever made your own form? What was it? Did you enjoy using it?
 

William Haskins

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do not think beyond the poem in front of you.

give it the form it requires.
 

William Haskins

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of course it's what you asked.

you said no existing form fits the poem.

so write the poem as it demands to be written. it will, by necessity, take on an form of its own, and one that is unprecedented.

if after that, you take that form and use it as a template for another poem, or two, or a hundred... then all the better.

but that should not be a consideration for the poem you are trying to write.
 

starrykitten

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If you would like to debate what I asked,please feel free to PM me so we don't subject others to this discussion.

For now, please see these lines at the end of my first post:

Have you ever made your own form? What was it? Did you enjoy using it?


That counts as asking, and asking for a different kind of answer than what you gave. I did not mean anything personal in saying you answered a different question; I just pointed out that that was not my desired focus of the question.

While I did give background information about the poem I am working on and say that i felt formally lost, never in that post did I ask for advice about it.

I asked the questions I wished to discuss, and those questions are there in black and white for all to see.
 

William Haskins

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yes, i've created dozens of forms. but i do not consider them created forms.

they range from variations and reworking of existing forms to new forms that emerged from experimentation outside my personal reading experience.

inasmuch as they can be consider forms, they emerge from the content; they are a vehicle for the concept and the language. i cannot think of an instance of reusing one wholesale.

yes, i enjoy using them, as i don't write to form so it would be hard for me to write poetry otherwise.
 

Kylabelle

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The toy that has a different head
collects my words, you see.
He takes them down a long dark hall.
At least, it's dark to me.

I don't know where he takes them then,
or why, or what they do,
but when he sends them back to me
they're quite a different crew.

I arrange them all upon the page
and watch them limp and glow,
and wonder what they're all about,
and if I'll ever know.
 

poetinahat

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Sometimes people choose a form of a set of rules and use it as a springboard - they work out what it's about as they go.

Sometimes they don't: they know how they want a poem to feel, or the atmosphere it should have, or what it's about, then find a form for it.

They're different exercises, and both can be effective.

What's not so effective is asking for input, then nannying people who do you the honor of offering considered responses. You're free to do that, of course. But who's going to stick around?
 

kuwisdelu

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The toy that has a different head
collects my words, you see.
He takes them down a long dark hall.
At least, it's dark to me.

I don't know where he takes them then,
or why, or what they do,
but when he sends them back to me
they're quite a different crew.

I arrange them all upon the page
and watch them limp and glow,
and wonder what they're all about,
and if I'll ever know.

No, pretty sure I've seen that one before...

Maybe just once...

Where was it...

:tongue
 

Kylabelle

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No, pretty sure I've seen that one before...

Maybe just once...

Where was it...

:tongue

I did post it on AW once before, in some thread about how people got their ideas for what to write or some such. I forget where.

;)
 

Kylabelle

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Ah, well, I didn't think I was inventing a form. Just describing a process.
 

Debbie V

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Poems come to me in a form, it's rarely a well known form. I don't know too many of those. My poems are what they need to be, although revsion can change anything including form.
 
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Ambrosia

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Hi all--

Have been contemplating reworking a current poem I am working on so that it fits a form. But as I was thinking how there aren't any forms I kno of that would be a good fit, I considered coming up with my own. Have you ever made your own form? What was it? Did you enjoy using it?
Our very own Kie (kborsden) ran a contest when he was PL and the rules of the contest were:

1) Write a poem about anything
2) Invent your own verse form

The contest was called AW Poetry Resurrection Contest and you can click on the link and read about it. The entries and results are here.

I think if you will peruse those two threads you will find answers to your questions. And yes, the contest was a blast. I have never used the form I created again. But I often write poems in a form that another poet who has since left AW created.

Go, create, be happy. And William was dead right when he said write the poem as it demands to be written. He is a wise one. And worth listening to, in my experience.
 

Kylabelle

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Patty, thanks for posting about that contest. I had clean forgot it when this conversation occurred, but remembered it a few days later, then didn't get back in here to say anything about it!

I didn't participate in that one, but I did read the entries with great enjoyment.

:)