Welcome to Poetry Friday! I'm so happy to be hosting you here today. I normally round up old-school style, but I'm trying InLinkz today. We'll see how it goes.
I particularly love hosting on the last Friday of the month, when my poetry sisters and I write to a new prompt. This month's challenge was to write a pantoum that included an animal. Here is an introduction to the form from Poets.org.
The pantoum originated in Malaysia in the fifteenth-century as a short folk poem, typically made up of two rhyming couplets that were recited or sung. However, as the pantoum spread, and Western writers altered and adapted the form, the importance of rhyming and brevity diminished.
I was worried about the rhyme scheme, but letting go of this requirement made experimenting with this form easier. A pantoum is made up of stanzas of four lines where lines 2 and 4 of each stanza are repeated as lines 1 and 3 of the next stanza. In some versions, the final stanza uses the 3rd and 1st lines of the first stanza for lines 2 and 4. In this case, every line in the poem is used twice. In other versions, the final stanza uses only three repeating lines, with the first line of the poem repeated as the last line.
I'm still heartbroken over the loss of my sweet Cooper, who's been gone just under two weeks. My poem is for him.
Cooper's Pantoum
If I am missing you
I will not declare it
speaking it aloud makes it real
I'll quietly profess my love instead
I do not declare it
but still ache from your loss
I quietly profess my love
on morning walks alone
I still ache from your loss
watching other dogs sets me back
on morning walks alone
I take your favorite paths
Watching other dogs sets me back
will I love another as I have loved you?
I take your favorite paths
and with my heart remember
Will I love another as I have loved you?
speaking it aloud makes it real
With all my heart I remember
that I am missing you
Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2024. All rights reserved.
You can find the poems shared by my Poetry Sisters at the links below.
Would you like to try the next challenge? In April we’re exploring the work of Rebecca Kai Dotlich and Georgia Heard’s Welcome to the Wonder House, and noodling through answers to what we consider to "unanswerable questions." What do ants sound like? How do stars sing? Let's WONDER as we wander through the natural world - and ask and answer those wonderings in whatever way which appeals to you. Are you in? Good! You have a month to craft your creation and share it on April 26th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!
Please join the Poetry Friday party by leaving your link below, and don't forget to leave a comment to let us know you're here. Happy poetry Friday, friends!
