Friday, October 28, 2022

Poetry Sisters Write Dansas

The challenge this month was to write in the form of the dansa. We took our cues about the form at Writer's Digest. I had trouble starting this one, so I did a little more digging into the form to see if there might be some other ways to approach it. I found the explanation at Poetry Magnum Opus to be particularly helpful because it showed related forms.

The dansa is a poem generally written in 3 stanzas with a refrain at the end of each stanza. The first stanza is a quintain, while the rest are quatrains. While there is no set meter, these poems as originally conceived were written in lines of 6 or 7 syllables. The rhyme scheme is AbbaA/bbaA/bbaA, where A is the refrain.

As you might guess from the name, the dansa was actually a poem set to music meant for joyful dancing. I found the joyful part hard to come by. Every poem I attempted turned to some heavy topic, even if it didn't start there. Nothing worked. I finally gave up on all the ideas I tried out when our group met on Zoom this week and decided to look for a line of poetry to use as my refrain. This actually yielded a lot of good ideas. Ultimately, I turned to Emily for inspiration and used a line from the poem Forever – is composed of Nows – (690)

Forever is Composed of Nows

Forever is composed of nows
Seize the day, be brave and try
Do some things that terrify
Sheer a sheep, milk some cows
     Forever is composed of nows

Take a lesson, learn to fly
Join a contest eating pie
Climb a live oak’s beckoning boughs
     Forever is composed of nows

Sing your child a lullaby
Find a church and testify
Dance on tables, raise eyebrows
     Forever is composed of nows

Poem ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2022. All rights reserved.

You can read the pieces written by my Poetry Sisters at the links below. 

    You're invited to our challenge in the month of November! Here's the scoop: we're creating recipe poems! Your choice of form, length, meter, or topic, but each poem will be an assemblage of elements, using recipe text/cooking instructions to create …something. From a recipe for disaster, to your favorite aperitif, you have a month to craft your creation and serve it forth on November 25th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems! 

    I do hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Jone Rush MacCulloch. Happy poetry Friday friends!

    11 comments:

    1. You managed to find joy and impart good advice for reaching out and grabbing life by the...udder? branch? piecrust? So much fun!

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    2. all of the above, plus write as much poetry as possible = joyfulness in the now and forever. Good work getting to a subject you connected with.

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    3. I like that you found Emily's line & then turned this into something we may all need, Tricia. Well done!

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    4. My gosh, look at you! First, kudos for roping in Emily for the necessary inspiration, and then just turning it into a real dance. I LOVE this so, so much.

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    5. Trisha, your dansa is full of joy and the messages in your poem are inspiring. I enjoyed your poem that flowed nicely.

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    6. Oooh, that line should be embroidered on a pillow! And your ending--"Dance on tables, raise eyebrows
      Forever is composed of nows" YES. You took Emily and partnered her beautifully!

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    7. Trisha - LOVE this... so upbeat! And the refrain so perfect. Thanks for including the dansa explanation. I'll put it on my list of "to try".

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    8. This poem rocks! I love the Emily line, but my favorite are the ones that end in "eye" sounds, terrify, eat pie, and testify! Such fun word choices.

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    9. I'm in for a recipe poem! And, I cannot tell at all that you had a hard time getting started. The urgency of "nows" is so much of what I've felt after the passing of my mom. I don't want to waste a second. It's a lovely and fun poem. Well done.

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    10. Ah, the belle of Amherst always inspires! Love the encouragement of your poem — make a "now" happen!

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    11. LOVE this poem--the refrains is so inspiring.
      I was too intimidated to try a dansa myself, so I was encouraged by your success. Maybe I'll give one a try myself. :-)

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