If you are up for the challenge, here’s your STRETCH & STRENGTHEN EXERCISE!
LEVEL 1
TOPIC: Misfits: How it feels when you don’t belong
LEVEL 2
WORD LIST:
- Prim – neat, formal
- Eschew – avoid
- Tell – disclose, reveal
LEVEL 3
Write it as a ghazal.
A ghazal is an old Arabic poetry form consisting of at least ten lines, but no more than thirty, all written in two-line stanzas called couplets. The first two lines of a ghazal end with the same word, but the words just preceding the last lines will rhyme. From this point on, the second line of each couplet will have the same last word, and the word just before it will rhyme with the others.
Ghazals are traditionally a poem of love and longing, but they can be written about any feeling or idea. Here’s an excerpt from a ghazal poem, the first stanzas of “Ghazal of the Better-Unbegun” by Heather McHugh:
“Too volatile, am I? too voluble? too much a word-person?
I blame the soup: I’m a primordially stirred person.
Two pronouns and a vehicle was Icarus with wings.
The apparatus of his selves made an absurd person.
The sound I make is sympathy’s: sad dogs are tied afar.
But howling I become an ever more unheard person.”
Submit your poem to RNCPoetry@gmail.com for consideration for publication in this year’s Rhyme N Chatt Poetry Anthology. Also, consider sharing your poem at an upcoming RNC open mic session!
PoeticOut!
“Changing Lives One Rhyme At A Time”
Rhyme N Chatt Interactive Poetry Organization 