Comments on: Form Is Just Another Element Of Poetic Craft http://www.worldclasspoetryblog.com/form-is-just-another-element-of-poetic-craft/03/04/2008/ Commentary On 21st Century Poetics Sat, 10 Jul 2010 17:13:20 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: the poet http://www.worldclasspoetryblog.com/form-is-just-another-element-of-poetic-craft/03/04/2008/comment-page-1/#comment-229 the poet Wed, 05 Mar 2008 19:59:57 +0000 http://worldclasspoetryblog.com/form-is-just-another-element-of-poetic-craft/03/04/2008/#comment-229 Jim, I'm impressed that you number your poems. I've never done that. I don't have any idea how many poems I've written. None whatsoever. Jim, I’m impressed that you number your poems. I’ve never done that. I don’t have any idea how many poems I’ve written. None whatsoever.

]]> By: Jim Murdoch http://www.worldclasspoetryblog.com/form-is-just-another-element-of-poetic-craft/03/04/2008/comment-page-1/#comment-228 Jim Murdoch Wed, 05 Mar 2008 15:44:15 +0000 http://worldclasspoetryblog.com/form-is-just-another-element-of-poetic-craft/03/04/2008/#comment-228 Thirty-one years ago I wrote a poem called 'Stray'. It was my 453rd poem and I've always regarded it as the first adult poem I ever wrote. I'd had a few poems published before that one but I learned something very important from it. After I was happy with the words I began shoving them around on the page until I had two stanzas with a 6-5-4-3-6-5 rhythm. THAT was the natural shape of the poem. Every single poem I've written since then has been examined in the same way and almost every one has a shape. My last poem, my 990th, has three stanzas with a 2-5-7-7-7-5 shape; the previous one has five stanzas of 6-6-6, the one before that a single stanza with a 4-4-4-4-4-4 shape. I never start off with a clue how the poem will look which is why, other than the few haiku I attempted before I realised they did not need to be a in a 5-7-5 shape, I have never tried my hand at sonnets or villanettes or anything convoluted like that. Thirty-one years ago I wrote a poem called ‘Stray’. It was my 453rd poem and I’ve always regarded it as the first adult poem I ever wrote. I’d had a few poems published before that one but I learned something very important from it. After I was happy with the words I began shoving them around on the page until I had two stanzas with a 6-5-4-3-6-5 rhythm. THAT was the natural shape of the poem.

Every single poem I’ve written since then has been examined in the same way and almost every one has a shape. My last poem, my 990th, has three stanzas with a 2-5-7-7-7-5 shape; the previous one has five stanzas of 6-6-6, the one before that a single stanza with a 4-4-4-4-4-4 shape.

I never start off with a clue how the poem will look which is why, other than the few haiku I attempted before I realised they did not need to be a in a 5-7-5 shape, I have never tried my hand at sonnets or villanettes or anything convoluted like that.

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