Poetry Stretch Results - Rictameter

The challenge this week was to write in the form of rictameter, and unrhymed, 9-line poem with a syllable count of 2/4/6/8/10/8/6/4/2 in which the first and last lines are the same. Here are the results.

Jane Yolen left this poem in the comments.

Today
I am trying
a brand new form of poem.
It is known as rictameter.
Who is it makes up these poetry forms?
Some clown with a post box in Maine?
Or was it just someone
who had a dream
Today?

© 2009 Jane Yolen

Kate Coombs of Book Aunt shares a poem entitled Snail.

Snail

Gypsy
hauls his round brown
caravan behind one
smooth trotless horse up and down small
country roads. When he's gone, so is the green
laundry from the garden's clothesline.
Festooned in lettuce, he
rides on--bold-eyed
gypsy.

--Kate Coombs (Book Aunt), 2009

Laura Purdie Salas shares a poem entitled Bear Attack.

Kelly Polark left this poem in the comments.

Autumn
Is so cool. He
Showers us with vibrant
Colors. Our children race and jump
In the pile the size of a Volkswagen.
We sip cider while we watch the
Breeze scatter leaves on the
Yard yet again.
Tyrant.

---Kelly Polark, 2009

Carol Weis left this poem in the comments.

Mind fog
Creeps shamelessly
Blurs judgment inside brain
Key decisions lost in its midst
Bleary vacillations picking up speed
Yearning for sun to blaze away
Thick overhanging clouds
Obscuring view
Mind fog

© Carol Weis, all rights reserved

Harriet of spynotes left this poem in the comments.

Walking
Over the hill,
Past the long-necked horses,
Thumping the fence with a fat stick
Just for the wooden sound of it,
I wade into the grass
To hush my feet
Walking

Andy of Life Allegorical shares two rictameters at her web site. She also left this poem in the comments.

Harvest
moon is slouching
lazily in the sky.
Her belly is too full to rise
just yet, so she lounges right above the
horizon, peers over the broad
shoulders of farm workers,
and inspects the
harvest.

Easter of Owl in the Library shares a poem about gifted kids.

Julie Larios of The Drift Record shares a poem entitled Late Night Thoughts.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater left this poem in the comments.

A cat
comes to a door
looking for food and drink.
He finds this. And he finds children
kissing him before they even name him.
Small hands remind him how to purr.
Soft laughter fills the porch.
This home needed
a cat.

Andi of a wrung sponge shares a poem entitled Swine Flu with Asthma.

Bec of Re: Becca plays along for the first time and shares a poem about Scotland, complete with pictures. Welcome!

Mary Lee of A Year of Reading shares a rictameter that serves as a clever review of two books.

Jone of Deo Writer shares a rictameter in honor of Friday the 13th.

Denise Doyen left this poem in the comments.

Tricky,
Arbitrary:
Writing rictameter
Peters out my inner reas’ning,
‘Til my poetary clockworks slip gear,
Catch, and whirr, then keep on ticking,
Picking out syllables
Like live lobsters.
Tricky.

I agree with many of the writers this week who said that this form was particularly difficult to work within. I found it darn hard to make the first and last lines work seamlessly. Here are two of my drafts.

Acorns
drop among fall
leaves, littering the ground
with jauntily capped messengers.
Securing fertile ground is a challenge
when pestered and sequestered by
bushy-tailed tree climbers,
gathering up
acorns!

-----

Lucky
number seven,
four-leaf clovers, horseshoes
crickets, ladybugs, dragonflies
rainbows, falling stars, wishing wells, coins in
a fountain—not superstitions,
but dreams. Make one big wish.
Maybe you’ll get
Lucky.

It's not too late if you still want to play. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll it to the results.