Mara mentioned villanelles at Spoken Word last weekend. Here's a form I like: the pantoum.

It is a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first and third lines of the next. This pattern continues until the final stanza, which differs in the repeating pattern.


AUTUMN SACRIFICE


Holy ghost mist
Walks on water
In morning’s sacred hour.
Autumn hovers above,


Walks on water
In reflections of the sky.
Autumn hovers above,
Mild, then meek, in wind.


In reflections of the sky
Leaves deny death.
Mild, then meek, in wind,
Branches scratch testaments.


Leaves deny death,
But frosty breath withers.
Branches scratch testaments.
Sun draws blood,


But frosty breath withers
Holy ghost mist.
Sun draws blood
In morning’s sacred hour.



“Autumn Sacrifice.” Poetry. 2006 Explorations, MECC, Third Place.

PARTYPOOPER

Cousin Steph's birthday party:

She was five; I was four.

Dark dining room, oak table crammed with kids:

My elbows, polarized points, protected me from strangers.

Bingo cards, piles of pinto beans.

I hung my head and ignored the drone:

B29 . . . N32 . . . G13 . . . .

The boy beside me placed a bean on one of my squares, O9.

Fat teardrops rolled down my face, landed on the bean, magnified its spots.

"I'll give you something to cry about," Mom said.

She dragged me to the kitchen.

Light streamed through windows.

Its yellow diagonals slashed white walls.

Resting my cheek against the cool table,

I rubbed smooth Formica and counted its golden specks.

Picked petals from my icing, ate ice cream,

And smiled at my solitary confinement.