Monday Poetry Stretch - The Zeno

Drum roll please ....
For this week's poetry stretch I am very happy to be introducing a NEW poetic form invented by Pat Lewis. Here's Pat's explanation.

I've invented what I had called a “hailstone," after the mathematical "hailstone sequence." It has nothing to do with Mary O'Neill's Hailstones and Halibut Bones, but it would no doubt instantly be confused with it. Hence, "hailstone" is problematic. So I call the form a "zeno," so named for Zeno, the philosopher of paradoxes, especially the dichotomy paradox, according to which getting anywhere involves first getting half way there and then again halfway there, and so on ad infinitum. I'm dividing each line in half of the previous one. Here's my description of a zeno:

A 10-line verse form with a repeating syllable count of 8,4,2,1,4,2,1,4,2,1. The rhyme scheme is abcdefdghd.

Pat was even kind enough to send along a few examples.

Sea Song
A song streaming a thousand miles
may sound like a
fairy
tale,
but it’s only
love’s bulk-
mail
coming out of
the blue...
whale.

Why Wolves Howl
Gray wolves do not howl at the moon.
Across a vast
timber
zone,
they oboe in
mono-
tone,
Fur-face, I am
all a-
lone.

Telephooone
The great horned owl sits in the tree
answering each
local
call—
swivel-neck and
big-eye-
ball
operator
of night-
fall.

Hags’ Rags
One Halloween two goblin girls,
trick-or-treating,
got an
itch
to make a quick
costume
switch.
Now who can tell
which is
witch?

A Thanksgiving Custom
November: An American
tradition you
can count
on:
Once the family
turkey’s
gone,
like clockwork, they
start to
yawn.

All poems ©J. Patrick Lewis. All rights reserved.

So, that's the challenge for the week. What kind of Zeno will you write? Leave me a note about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.

Special thanks to Pat Lewis for sharing and inspiring us this week.