The challenge:
Last month, Tanita (who also happens to be this week's Poetry Friday host) said:
Poetry Peeps! You’re invited to our challenge for the month of June! Here’s the scoop: We’ll going to write a couple of couplets and make a Raccontino. Never heard of the form? No worries. If you can count to two, you can play with this delightful form. Of course, we’re turning our faces to the winds of ‘conversation,’ as always. Are you in? You’ll have a month to craft your creation(s), then share your offering on June 27th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We hope you’ll join the fun!
I haven't joined in on a poetry challenge for a while. (Was it last October? Really?!) When I sat down today, waffling over what to post for Poetry Friday, I remembered the month-end challenges.
"Didn't Tanita say something about couplets last month?" I said.
"The Raccontino sounds so easy!" I said.
"It'll be fun!" I said.
(It was not easy.)
But it is always — in its twisted way — fun to write, even when writing is torture. (As Thomas Mann said, "A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.")
So, the Raccontino. The poem must:
- be composed of any number of couplets
- have even-numbered lines sharing the same end rhyme
- have the title and final words of odd-numbered lines telling a story
Because the Poetry Peeps are exploring the theme of being "in conversation," I chose conversations within marriage. The story I came up with was:
"In Marriage, conversation is sometimes lively, sometimes sweetly silent."
I started with that, and then had to work on the rhyming lines. Not easy, but pretty satisfyingly fun in the end.
In Marriage
We're having another conversation
and this is how it goes.
We're having another conversation
and this is how it goes.
He, angry at the state of the world, is
enumerating his (and my—he knows me so well) woes.
We stop, we sigh, we know sometimes
that this is how it goes.
We'll share the angst, trade lively
plans for how to conquer foes.
But other times, sometimes,
(oftentimes, many) far more on the nose
is the deftly perceived shared glance, the sweetly
invisible current that flows
from him to me, me to him. Silent,
more electric than life. This is how it goes.
~ Karen Edmisten
~~~~~~~~~~
Visit Tanita for the Poetry Friday round-up, including links to all the Poetry Peeps
who joined in the challenge.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay.
12 comments:
Girlfriend - first of all, SO MANY APOLOGIES, I even steered MYSELF wrong with the couplet comment. Ha-ha, it's only couplets, thought I. All shall be well!!
But, you MADE IT LOOK EASY, Karen. I mean, what?
is the deftly perceived shared glance, the sweetly/
invisible current that flows
Excuse me, Ma'am? That is DEFINING poetry in motion, and it is so, so beautiful. I'm so glad you came to play this Friday. ♥
Aw, Tanita! You're far too kind and I want to give you a big hug for that comment. ❤️ Thanks for inviting everyone to the party. And I'm laughing here over our shared naivete regarding simple, plain old couplets. :D Yes, all shall be well!
This is my new favorite form (that I haven't tried yet). So glad you dipped in, Karen! Yes: "it is always -- in its twisted way-- fun to write, even when writing is torture." I love your take on conversation. Sometimes everyone can hear it, sometimes it's a silent common language, a current bigger than life. xo
Thanks, Tabatha! You'll have to try a raccantino. I shared the idea with my daughter yesterday too. She's already a poet and I thought she'd have fun playing around with it too. :)
First, a Karen Edmisten original?! Be still my heart. I love this. And, those "simple" forms? Yikes. They bang my shins every time. But, this raccantino is lovely and rings true, oh so true. I love that your conversation was in marriage. We are at thirty years (impossible!) and still it's the conversation that we are built on. xo
Well this is GORGEOUS, Karen. What to flow right into the heart of marriage. Brava! xo
Linda, thank you! Yes, the "simpler" it's supposed to be, the more room for struggle and overthinking, lol. Congrats on 30 years! It's hard to believe that we are at 41 yrs.!
Oh, Irene, thanks so much!
Karen, this is wonderful. What a delightful exercise! I am definitely making a note of this form in my poetry journal … (I set my current habit fairly simply: every morning, a poem. Any form, and length, anything. Just a morning poem).
More electric than life--yes! This is lovely, Karen--you nailed it!
elli, thanks so much and enjoy playing with this form!
Thanks so very much, Laura! I'm headed to your place now to see what you've done!
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