A Garland of Forms

Good Morning:

I often read the postings in the poetry forum here at Wacco. It is a rewarding reflection of the rich and vital poetic life found in West County. I have started several threads here, and posted individual poems.

Today I am beginning a thread devoted to syllabic forms of poetry. I am inspired by Larry Robinson's ongoing poem-a-day thread and Sandy Eastoak's thread 'Poems From Here'. Recently Sandy posted poems that were in a form that I created. The form is called 100 Friends. It has 15 lines with the syllable count as follows: 2-4-2-4-6-4-6-8-6-8-10-8-10-12-10; for a total of 100 syllables. It was gratifying to see another poet pick up on the form. Thanks, Sandy!

I have developed a special interest in syllabic forms in English. I think of 2015 as the 100th anniversary of syllabic forms in English because the first such form, the Cinquain (2-4-6-8-2) first appeared in print in 1915. Since then, and especially from the 1980's on, interest in syllabic forms has steadily increased.

I started out writing in free verse. Gradually my appreciation for a formal approach, rooted in syllabics, grew. I still, now and then, write free verse; but my output is dominated by the various syllabic forms now circulating in English language poetry.

What I hope to do with this thread is to post poems that take a syllabic approach and embody a specific syllabic form. Some of the poems will be my own, some from other poets. I don't know how often I will post (it won't be like Larry's poem-a-day thread). I am thinking of the thread as a kind of ongoing coverage of the slowly growing world of English language syllabics. And because I am going to be posting from a variety of syllabic forms, I think of this thread as 'A Garland of Forms'.

Since Sandy posted some poems in the 100 Friends form, I thought my first post would be one of my own poems in that form. It is from my collection 'Safe Harbor':

Safe Harbor

Night falls
On the harbor
Night falls
Quick in winter
Saturn slowly descends
Into the fog
Hovering at the edge
Where the ocean and the sky blend
A stone stariway ascends
Stepping past the sun and the moon
Planets and galaxies dwindle and fade
Scattered petals from wind-blown blooms
All that's constructed and all that is made
Disappears in the depths of a hidden lagoon
There at the harbor of eternity

Good Morning:

I have been thinking about how to proceed with this thread. And I decided to start with one of the simplest of syllabic forms: the Etheree. The Etheree is named after Arkansas poet Etheree Armstrong Taylor. It has ten lines with the syllables distributed as follows: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10, for a total of 55 syllables.

One of the things I like about this form is its simplicity. It is easy to remember; just 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. There are no other requirements. Rhyme is not required, but may be used. The Etheree can be on any topic. Most Etheree I have seen have a title; but a title is not required.

I have found the Etheree to be an attractive form. I have published a few books that contain Etheree collections. In my book ‘Poems of Place’ I have a collection of ‘Tea Etheree’. As some of you know, I work at Many Rivers Books & Tea. One day, during a pause, it came to me that the word ‘tea’ is one syllable and would make a good first line for an Etheree poem. I wrote a series of Etheree all starting with the word tea. Some are about black tea, some are about green tea, some about tea in general. It was fun seeing how many facets of tea I could cover. Here is one of my Tea Etheree:

Tea
Alone
By oneself
Settles the heart
While staying at home
Time out as the mind drifts
Relaxing between the sips
The cup moves from saucer to lips
The crisp sound as cup and saucer click –
In another room the clock’s steady tick

As you can see, I like to use rhyme in my Etheree. Again, rhyme is not required, but I find it helpful in defining a line. In addition, people enjoy rhyme; it gives the poem a musical feeling.

I also tend to avoid run-ons (or enjambment) when writing my Etheree. Again, this is not a requirement of the form and I have read lots of Etheree by other poets who use run-ons. But I like the feel of each line having its own grammatical integrity. It makes the poem feel like it is steadily opening, like a flower.

Here is a second Etheree from my collection of Tea Etheree:

Noon
Past noon
Afternoon
Afternoon tea
Creates memories
That one can rely on,
When times become difficult
We can bring to mind the results
Of time spent in camaraderie,
Of friendships nourished over cups of tea

Here I use a technique in the first four lines which slowly adds details to make a larger picture. This approach is like a single stroke of a brush on a canvas, followed by a second stroke, then another, until the outline of a figure is formed. I find the opening of the Etheree, with its series of very short lines, is ideal for this kind of approach.

So try writing an Etheree yourself. It is a charming, simple, and very attractive form. I think you will enjoy it.

Good Morning:

There is an interesting relationship to these new syllabic forms that have emerged in the English language. Poets who engage with these forms often play with the form creating new configurations and variations. Reversing the form is common. A reverse Cinquain would be the reverse of the original 2-4-6-8-2 so that you had 2-8-6-4-2. Sequences of these short forms are often linked together and sometimes tied together in unusual ways. Again, for the Cinquain one finds something like this: 2-4-6-8-2-8-6-4-2. This is sometimes referred to as a 'Butterfly Cinquain'. There is a playfulness about this kind of activity.

In the more traditional forms, like the sonnet, villanelle, and sestina, there is along history which kind of weighs down on the poet. Psychologically, this can make playing with the form more difficult. My experience is that when I compose a sonnet I feel this kind of weight at times. In contrast, because syllabic forms in English are so new, and because there is no official 'Syllabic Society' issuing pronouncements on how the form should be treated, poets don't feel that sense of historical precedent and this leaves them freer to engage in variations on the form.

One variation on the Etheree that I have used is to extend the count past the 10-count (or syllable) line. This happened spontaneously one day when I was writing an Etheree and the subject just didn't want to stop at line 10 with a 10-count. I didn't even realize immediately that I had gone over; only when I went back to look at possible revisions did I see what had happened. My first inclination was to redo the poem in conformity with the 10-line structure and syllabic count. But I liked the poem as it appeared.

My relationship to form in poetry resembles the relationship that cooks have to recipes. I think of the elements of a poetic form as resembling ingredients in a recipe. Cooks know their recipes, but they might vary an ingredient or two on occasion. In a similar way, I think of the line count of the Etheree as an ingredient in the Etheree recipe and, on occasion, I allow myself to exceed that line count to, say, 12 or 14 lines. I retain the gradual expansion of the syllable count; that ingredient stays the same.

For example, a standard Etheree has 10 lines with the syllable count as: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10.
A longer Etheree might have 12 lines with the syllable count as: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12.

In both cases the way each line increases is retained, but the overall number of lines changes. Here is an example of a 12-line Etheree from my collection 'Safe Harbor':


Reconciliation

Rain
Morning
In winter
Seasonal rain
Intermitent rain
On the roof and the ground
A soothing stochastic sound
Interrupted by gusts of wind
Which after a moment soon die down
Like an argument that has just ended
Or friends whose contention has now been mended,
A dispute whose reasons can no longer be found

Good Morning:

To continue with this presentation of the Etheree form and its variations:

One variation on the form I have discovered is to linger over a particular line count. In the original Etheree form each count lasts for a single line. This means you have ten lines with each line having a specific count: 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10. Some Etheree poets slow down the progress of the line count by having several lines with a four count, or a six count, etc. I think of this as a slow-motion Etheree. Here is an example I wrote:

Renunciation

Time
Slow
Sunlight
Afternoon
February
A clear cloudless sky
The air is cold and dry
I am at peace in my room
In my silent hermitage
I sense the presence of God,
The gentle touch of timelessness
Is so much more than I can grasp,
I become inarticulate --

A coyote briefly trots by
A satellite is launched into space
Saturn is slowly turning direct
In Andromeda a new star is born
A sparrow appears on the windowsill
A new Buddhist Nun has her long hair shorn
An ocean wave becomes perfecty still


The count here is: 1-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-7-7-8-8-8-8-9-9-10-10-10-10. Here the Etheree has expanded from 10 to 20 lines. The pace of expansion has slowed down, yet the count remains within the overall framework of the original Etheree. The form still moves from a one-count line to a 10-count line, but by lingering over a particular count the possibility of a longer poem is offered, one that still remains within the overall confines of the original form.

This is a variation that I particularly like; I've written quite a few Etheree that linger, at one point or another, over a particular count before going forward to the next count. In a discussion I had about form with Sandy Eastoak I mentioned this variation and how I was using it. Sandy had an interesting response; she suggested that this was a different form rather than a variation on the Etheree. I can see her point, it makes sense. How one views this depends on how one views form in poetry. As I mentioned in a previous post, my own view is that form in poetry resembles a recipe. Given a recipe, a good cook might vary the measure of an ingredient. A baker might add a little more cinammon than the recipe lists, or might decrease the amount of sugar. It depends on the cook's own experience and taste, and who the cook is cooking for. In a similar way, I think it is possible to vary the ingredients of a poetry form and still remain within the parameters of the form. How far can one change the formal parameters and still be thought of as working with the form as opposed to inventing a new form? I'm not sure. I don't think there is an objective way to determine that.

Over the years I have had a lot of fun with the Etheree. At one point I even thought of referring to myself as an Etheree poet; but I'm not quite sure what word to use. Those who focus on the sonnet are called sonneteers. Those who focus on haiku are called haijin (a Japanese word). I thought of 'etheree-er', but somehow the sound is weird; it's hard to pronouce. Perhaps 'ethereeist' could work, except it sounds like some kind of new job opportunity; kind of like 'careerist'. No doubt this is a serious problem :wink:. But whatever it is called, I find the Etheree to be highly congenial. Recently I have been collecting them for a new volume of poetry tentatively titled 'Even in Winter'. Here is an Etheree from that upcoming collection:

Corrective Lens

Views
Constructs
Perspectives
Commentaries
Interpretations --

We do not see the world,
What we see is our own mind,
We see ev'rything through glasses
That distort all the things that we find
As if orange was the color of glasses,
Like those who believe that nothing surpasses
Their desires that crumble like broken fences,
As if a solid mountain range contained passes,
As if truth was determined by vote of the masses,
Or those who believe that the only thing we can grasp is
That which can be measured and observed by the five senses
Unconcerned and unaware that all these things become ashes
But all becomes clear when we think of this: ev'rything vanishes


Copyright 2015 by Jim Wilson
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