April is National Poetry writing month (NaPoWriMo). The challenge is to write a poem a day until May. Over the last years, we had several poets who took up the gauntlet. I understand that many of you can't or don't want to write a poem a day, but we are looking forward to every poem or poetry collection that will be posted during the next month.
We are happy we could win AC Benus as a special guest to get us started with two brand new poetry prompts:
Skyscraper
Let's Write some Skyscrapers!
Never heard of it before?
Poetry Prompt – Skyscraper
Let's Write some Skyscrapers!
Never heard of it before? Don’t worry. It’s a form I developed to be concise, yet able to tell a story in a mere seven lines. It’s an open-ended, non-rhymed form that is easy to construct as long as you let your subject develop organically.[i] Once you get into it, you’ll find this type of verse very easy to write.
I derived the Skyscraper from the Cinquain by attempting to do away with that form’s clipped character. The Skyscraper is about bringing mathematical elegance to a short, Nature-based poem. [ii] Ultimately, it is Japanese in inspiration, and as in the manner of a Tanka, the poet must speak in their own voice, subjectively presenting the word-picture they are painting. This personal tie-in – writing “I”, “me”, “mine,” etc. – is what draws the reader into the higher significance of the completed Skyscraper.[iii]
Although its history as a form of poetry is short, I’m blessed to have had it embraced so successfully by Parker Owens. Perhaps owing to the Skyscraper’s pleasing numerical curve, he has produced a number of beautiful poems with it. Here are three of his on a nature theme:
i.
Three black crows
sail against the north wind,
darker than the clouds framing their flight,
voiceless in the roaring chorus of the fir trees
whose tops wave with religious fervor
when chill Pentecost comes
before snow.
ii.
I rejoice
in small, imperfect gifts;
a sweet gurgle of unlocked waters,
the sway of redwing blackbirds in the tall marsh reeds,
cardinals calling in cottonwoods,
and the porch light shining
through the trees.
iii.
Snowflakes swirl
out of the predawn dark,
landing on my unmasked, upturned face;
do they laugh at the fast approaching equinox,
jostling for position while they fall,
or is it just the wind
I’m hearing?[iv]
These are precisely what stand-alone Skyscrapers should be: a dialogue between poet and reader using their shared experience of Nature as a bridge. As you can see, the line lengths are determined by syllable count, namely, 3 – 6 – 9 – 12 building up, and 9 – 6 – 3 coming down again. There are a total of 7 lines.[v]
Here's another example of my own:
The raindrops
Falling over my bed,
Upon the eaves of my bedroom roof,
Sound like an army of cat paws treading lightly
Lest they disturb some troublesome foe,
When all I can think of
Is the rain.
In addition to being a compact poem on its own, the Skyscraper can be used as a stanza-pattern. Each strophe of your poem follows the same 7-lined, 3 – 6 – 9 – 12 – 9 – 6 – 3 sequence, and you can use as many of these stanzas as you need. In this arrangement, the Skyscraper does not have to present a Nature tie-in (although it can, if you like). These multi-part Skyscrapers are excellent at providing structure for you to dive deep in yourself. Once you get some practice with the form, wonderfully complex ideas can blossom as you explore thoughts and emotions.
Once again, Parker Owen provides many fine examples illustrating the Skyscraper’s potential as a poetical stanza-form. Here is one delving into the bittersweet imprint of nostalgia:
I leave you
laughter in the garden
and winter warmth by the cast iron stove;
I leave you hot summer nights dreaming of unborn
kisses from unreachable lovers;
and October gossip
as leaves turn.
I leave you
afternoons of Scrabble
while rain pelts down on the old tin roof;
I leave you two hundred years of town history,
the first tin bathtub in the village;
and stacks of books from the
library.
I leave you
bright green early mornings
full of busy light which makes its plans
for afternoons spent on hikes and picnic lunches,
and crisp orange September evenings
singing songs of those we
always loved.[vi]
And here is one of mine attempting to process the devastating effect of the Pulse Nightclub massacre.
Left alone
in shadow’s reverie
how soon the human brain picks apart
the pixels of the matrix we think of as soul,
but what comforts lie beyond the void
viewed through a lack of love
un-absolved?
There are none,
and you see what I mean
before I have a chance to say it,
for every human connection must still bind us
if we are to proceed as a race
unafraid of progress
kept level.
Quantum thought
must rule our every move
within this chess game of existence,
and more so, it must be unconsciously given
to those frightened of humanity,
causing pause in their heart
when they hate.
So, left then
by shadow’s reverie,
the mind of Man blows itself apart
each time it examines what makes up our own soul,
but so it must be in a matrix
sought as a void to fill
with our love.[vii]
The Prompts
1) Stand-alone Skyscraper – by this point, we are all tired of winter in the northern hemisphere, so write a Skyscraper thinking ahead to how eating your first slice of season-ripened watermelon will make you feel. Capture the moment and the undercurrents of emotions. Alternately, choose an animal of your choice to write about, be it bird, frog, ladybug, firefly, or anything that makes you reflect upon nature and the current season.
2) Stanza-pattern Skyscraper – write a poem of at least three stanza-form Skyscrapers strophes. Base your poem on the feelings raised in you by listening to the following Karl Ditters composition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nRUxdA59yQ&t=339s
Alternately, go to the following image hosting service and write a poem based on any of the pictures that engage your creativity. Be sure to include a link to your inspiration picture with your completed poem.
https://unsplash.com/s/photos/mist
Whichever theme you choose, be sure to have your Skyscraper(s) consist of 7 lines of the correct syllable count. Also, carry your thought out through all of the lines, avoiding any hard-stops or one-and-done lines of poetry. The Skyscraper is verse, and all about how you turn the line beautifully from one to the next. Remember that.
[i] If you are the type of poet who instinctively writes each line as a complete idea that does not become verse by continuing onto the following line, this prompt will be an excellent opportunity to challenge yourself. Have your thoughts be more evolutionally in building one idea into a branching structure; the Skyscraper provides a sturdy “trunk” for your poetry to expand beyond a one-and-one approach to each line.
[ii] The Skyscraper does not attempt to replace the Haiku, Tanka, or even Cinquain for that matter. The Cinquain has its own uses. Although producing subpar Nature poems when compared to the Tanka, the unfinished disposition of the Cinquain can be utilized to brilliant effect when the poet wishes to leave the reader with a pointedly unsettled feeling, as I did with “A Bridge to the 22nd Century” in Audre Lorde Knows What I Mean – 2021 in review (San Francisco 2022), p. 67.
https://gayauthors.org/story/ac-benus/audre-lorde-knows-what-i-mean-%E2%80%93-2021-in-review/7
[iii] Here is a link to my Tanka poetry prompt:
https://gayauthors.org/story/ac-benus/zero-to-hero-a-guide/2
[iv] Parker’s examples are from a larger collection of Skyscrapers, which can be found here:
https://gayauthors.org/story/parker-owens/disasters-delights-and-other-detours/87#comment-468736
[v] I asked Parker to describe the Skyscraper via its mathematical properties, and here is what he replied: “I’d say it was a discrete integer function, with syllables obeying
y = - |3(x - 4)| + 12, over the interval [1,7]. Or, I could call it a multiple-of-three pyramidal function, though there’s no way to show it in three dimensions.” Now, aren’t you glad I did not lead off with that definition! lol
[vi] Parker’s poem can be found here:
https://gayauthors.org/story/parker-owens/disasters-delights-and-other-detours/24#comment-331440
[vii] Poem No. 8 from The Easiest Thing in the World: Marking the Third Anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub Attack (San Francisco 2020), p. 25
https://gayauthors.org/story/ac-benus/the-easiest-thing-in-the-world/1
PT#33a)
Stand-alone Skyscraper – by this point, we are all tired of winter in the northern hemisphere, so write a Skyscraper thinking ahead to how eating your first slice of season-ripened watermelon will make you feel. Capture the moment and the undercurrents of emotions. Alternately, choose an animal of your choice to write about, be it bird, frog, ladybug, firefly, or anything that makes you reflect upon nature and the current season.
PT#33b)
Stanza-pattern Skyscraper – write a poem of at least three stanza-form Skyscrapers strophes. Base your poem on the feelings raised in you by listening to the following Karl Ditters composition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nRUxdA59yQ&t=339s
Alternately, go to the following image hosting service and write a poem based on any of the pictures that engage your creativity. Be sure to include a link to your inspiration picture with your completed poem.
https://unsplash.com/s/photos/mist
Whichever theme you choose, be sure to have your Skyscraper(s) consist of 7 lines of the correct syllable count. Also, carry your thought out through all of the lines, avoiding any hard-stops or one-and-done lines of poetry. The Skyscraper is verse, and all about how you turn the line beautifully from one to the next. Remember that.
Ballad
Let's Write an 8-10 Ballad!
Never heard of it before?
Don’t worry. It’s a form I developed through working on the conclusion to my Summer 2020 collection (San Francisco 2020). It was born out of a need for something narrative-yet-lyrical to tie the three themes of that book together as a whole.
Since we’re going to be messing around with its structure, first off, what is a traditional Ballad? Although as song lyrics, it can take many forms, the written poetical structure of a Ballad is defined by two distinct features: a Lyrical line length (6 or 8 syllables, only), and a rhyme that occurs solely upon lines 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. Here is an example of a classic Ballad, and one whose words you have probably heard before:
Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard;
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word. […]
Some kill their love when they are young,
And some when they are old;
Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
Some with a heart of Gold. […] [i]
This brief excerpt shows you how Oscar Wilde built powerful lyrics in “The Ballad of Reading Gaol.” You can instantly perceive how the rhyme structure works. In contrast, Narrative forms employ longer line-lengths from 10 to 15 (or more) beats. These are not “singable” in the usual sense of English-language poetics, and usually avoid any rhymes. Here is an example of Narrative verse:
No stream of greater love advancing now
Than, singing, this mortality alone
Through clay aflow immortally to you.
All fragrance irrefragably, and claim
Madly meeting logically in this hour
And region that is ours to wreathe again,
Portending eyes and lips and making told
The chancel port and portion of our June. [ii]
Here, in Hart Crane’s “Voyages,” you can sense the energy of uniform 10-syllable lines driving a compelling narrative forward.
The 8-10 Ballad is a combination of Lyric and Narrative elements, achieving preciseness by establishing the prescribed number of lines (16, to be exact). Let us take a look at an example:
i.
A too-insistent song stirred me awake
In morning’s yet sleeping half-light,
And this tome of a bygone age I’ll yield
To invoke some of its delight.
For daily such times drift farther away
And fade from living memory
To be consigned to the history books:
Truth and lies’ repository.
Yes, I’ll sing of the 1970s –
What a kid then in those hours
Felt and saw, and lived in experience –
So, come now my Muse; my Powers.
Let me raise my voice to turn back the clock,
And all of my memories bring
To bear on an era sadly long dead,
For now I start my chant and sing: [iii]
This is the introduction to a long poem I’ve posted on GA called Song of the 70s. Hopefully you can see what I mean now when I say the 8-10 Ballad is a poised combination of the Lyrical (8-syllable lines) and Narrative (10-syllable lines). But what are its defining attributes? There are 4 quatrains, arranged two per stanza. There are 2 stanza to each 8-10 Ballad. If you need to continue your theme (or evolve it into a broader scope), then add a second 8-10 Ballad, which you will head “ii.” (and follow up with a iii., iv., v., etc., as you see fit). Each quatrain starts off with a 10-syllable line. It is followed by an 8-syllable line ending on a rhyme. Rhymes requirements are simple, needing only to be repeated once. So, in the example above, note the rhyme structure is this: lines 2 and 4 = rhyme a; lines 6 and 8 = rhyme b; lines 10 and 12 = rhyme c; lines 14 and 16 = rhyme d. (It’s undesirable to use the same rhyme more than once in the 16 lines of any one particular 8-10 Ballad, so avoid it like the plague.)
Here is another example. This comes from the conclusion of Summer 2020. Please note the defining attributes of the 8-10 Ballad as you read.
i.
Shells
Across German forests the fires now rage
As they do all around the globe,
But among the hard-wood roots are bombs
Sown in war, the blind xenophobe.
They kill, they maim, they hurt those yet unborn,
To lay in wait for the right time,
Wreaking paused revenge on the innocent,
And make son pay for father-crime.
As metaphor, the fact is very apt,
For much of what’s buried today
Will naturally not have impact until
Future first-responders must stray
Upon the malice we’ve let go to seed
And explode on the innocent
Who’ll have to deal with the mess we’re making
And bury more dead in lament.
ii.
Economic Rain Forests
Biodiversity’s concept model
Speaks to more than ecology,
For as forests need plants both large and small,
Small business now dies in a spree.
From government interfering, cyber
Spying from abroad, and Covid –
Four horsemen poised to shutter every door
And take neighborhoods off the grid.
Let the small plants die, and nothing survives –
This emergency is poised, rife
To extinguish the economy as
We’ve known it in modern life.
Let the economic undergrowth fade
And trunks of billion-dollar firms
Will be starved of all they need to make jobs
And will topple, fodder for worms.
As you see, since my themes evolved from one linked 8-10 Ballad to the next, I not only numbered them, but took the opportunity to name them separately. You can do the same thing if you like. Again, this example illustrates the uncomplicated nature of the rhymes, and also how each idea is built on a quatrain structure of 4-lined units. Meaning, there are periods or hard stops (representing complete thoughts, really) at the end of lines 4, 8, 12 and 16.
But what are 8-10 Ballads good for? For exploring how public events affect you in your inner world, they are exemplary. The examples above show that quite well; telling a larger tale (like unexploded shells from World War II) in the context of how it affects people today, or you personally. The second 8-10 Ballad in the example compares the concept of biodiversity to the less well-known understanding of how vital it is for an economy to support businesses both large and small to thrive.
Not every subject you choose for your own 8-10 Ballads need be this abstract. This form can also lend itself to more light-hearted affairs. Here, for example, is the 8-10 Ballad conclusion to Song of the 70s:
ii.
Well, there you have it; my song is complete,
And in your head you will now find
A place where all my memories can live:
You watched the spool of film unwind.
You saw the flashes; you felt the scratches;
You smelled the joy of the seasons
Coming unalloyed to brighten us kids
With neither questions nor reasons.
And with that, it’s back to sleep I may drift,
Free to dream of Marilyn McCoo;
The Carpenters; the Captain and Tennille;
Sonny and Cher; and the others too.
For now, reader, that these treasures have been
Allowed room in you on their own part
To settle in and bring nostalgic thoughts,
I’ll rest, knowing they’re safe in your heart.
[i] “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” Oscar Wilde, excerpt
https://poets.org/poem/ballad-reading-gaol
[ii] “Voyages” Hart Crane, excerpt
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43261/voyages-56d221f94d612
[iii] “Song of the 70s”
PT#34
Write one 8-10 Ballad (or as many as needed) to explore your feelings concerning the war Russia is waging against Ukraine. Perhaps start with remembering where you were the moment you heard Putin had actually invaded. This is an excellent form to tell the war’s “story” to this point in time, while also relaying how the fighting/defending makes you feel (i.e. the Narrative and Lyric elements united together).
Alternately, choose a memory of a kid’s birthday party and write about it. Perhaps write about one you celebrated as a child in the context of one you have thrown or attended as an adult.
Whichever theme you choose, be sure to make each 8-10 Ballad contain 4 quatrains for a total of 16 lines (and use as many 8-10 Ballads as you need, which you will label i., ii., iii., etc. – and title individually if you like). Be sure to only rhyme on lines 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, 12, 14, 16, for a total of 4 pairs; do not use any pair of rhymes more than once in the 16 lines of any particular 8-10 Ballad. Avoid repetition to keep the poems sounding fresh.
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