New Form Part 2
Continued from 07/172026
The result of this adventure has led me to breaking and reconstituting other forms. But lately I have been thinking about making a poem that does something entirely different. I needed a new form.
I like to set “disciplines” for myself. I do this at least once a year. The discipline I am doing right now (since January 24th) involves making lists of interesting phrases, some overheard, some from my various readings, some just pop into my head (it’s definitely busy in there 24/7). Each list is a “baker’s dozen,” 12 items plus a bonus. I’m still doing that and will fill at least two notebooks (I am into #2). I’ve been pulling bits from the lists for new poems or insertion into new poems. This helped me when I wrote the elegy for my daughter-in-law who died recently at age 53. A phrase from one of my lists gave me an image which gave me the poem. I was/am encouraged that my newest discipline is helpful.
As sometimes happens in the midst of a disciple or project, I get an idea for another way I want to write — and a new discipline is hatched. I believe I have to follow the thread.
Bazinga! Day #2 at the Fine Arts Work Center: I finished our first workshop day with that little buzz in my head that I get sometimes after a long and exhausting “something.” After a nap and a meal at my fav Provincetown eatery, I thought: I have no strength to write anything tonight. I was supposed to write something for the next day using a word and color given as a prompt. I knew that I’d that but…
Another little nap. Upon waking, feeling refreshed, I did the assigned work. Okay!
Then the buzzing. I thought of how exhausted I’d been, thinking I couldn’t write one more line. But what if…. what if I ONLY had to write one line? What (other than haiku or tanka, or William Carlos williams-esque kind of writing, etc) I could invent something that honored exhaustion while moving into a small poem of substance — maybe doing one line per day. Hence the 7-Day Poem.
Now, calm down here… why 7 days? Why not 40 days? 100? A big ole poem that goes onward and onward, traditionally formed and executed — only slowly, snail-like.
Allegedly the whole world was created in 7 days, with a rest period on the 8th. Every blessed thing in 7 days. Can I make a whole thing like that with all it needs or wants? I decided to try.
I keep voluminous files of one-liners that didn’t fit into a poem (yet) but wanted to hang around. This might be where they can shine. so here’s my form:
Find one line that seems to be bold or takes a risk or is evocative. This is Day One.
Go take nap, visit with friends, have a day. Don’t think about your one line until tomorrow.
Day Two: Read line one from yesterday. Get another line (from lists or files or write something new, anything. Put it on the second line of your poem.
Onward… repeat over the next days until you have 6 lines.
On the 7th Day: your final line should (can) ask a question or make a flat comment after reading the first 6 lines. OR, maybe repeat a form of the first line, challenge the thinking there or just reinforce. You will (most likely) surprise yourself with this!
Day 8 (your day of rest) Only one thing to do now: title the poem. Then go out for ice cream or pie. DO NOT title before beginning on Day One. This would “direct” your poem too much. the title will be (hopefully) evident by poem’s end.
NOTE: I advise writing these lines on paper— in pencil or pen. Doing the writing by hand, in your own unique penmanship, WILL strengthen your brain’s neuronic connections and heighten creativity. There is science for this! So put down your phone, laptop, tablet… actually WRITE.
Another thing to try: no punctuation at all; just let the lines be themselves and interact with one another as they want.
Par example, here is my first 7-Day Poem:
Appointment Unbutton his shirt before the offer expires pour a wee dram of whisky study his eyes, his adam’s apple it’s so hot and humid even the bees aren’t moving in the jasmine outside the window forgive me, please
I chose to use 2 stanzas and a last stand-alone line for this poem as there seems to be some kind of shift happening. You can of course adapt your 7-Day poem’s line breaks and stanzas as fits.
What fun! No sustained stress. Just snail behavior. Just small delights. Easy-peasy.
As I used to tell my kids after I’d demonstrated how to do something: Now you do it.
And if you did one a week, by the turn of year, you’d have material enough for a chapbook or collection.
Please comment or share your own 7-Day poem’s first line! No pressure, just one line.