I know it’s a strange sort of form. Indulge me. I don’t know if it has a pedigree or if I invented it, but I like using it and so might you if you give it a try.
The rules are simple. A circular poem is one that goes round full circle. The last word of the first line rhymes with the first word of the following line and so on until you end up back at your first line.
Lines can be any length, it’s the rhyme that’s important. Ideas and images can be as stream of consciousness as you like, theme, whatever springs to mind. Some of you might want to try out a Thanksgiving theme.
Remember, you have a whole week to concoct something.
Here’s an example to give you an idea of what I mean.
Photo ©Benoit-Caen
It unfolded with the morning,
Warning light, flashing red and gold,
Told us to hide,
Slide,
Glide away on silent wings.
Stings, the dawn when it brings sorrow.
Tomorrow will be better, they say,
Betraying their lack of courage to defeat,
Beat the devil in the garden, the worm,
Squirming in the rotten apple,
Grapple the problem of today,
Stay the hand with the gun.
Run, only to help, not to flee,
Be the steadfast rock that breaks the wave,
Save the slender, fragile human spirit—
It unfolded with the morning.
Jane Dougherty Writes 
I like it too. I’ll see what I can do.
I was hoping you’d say that. It’s a while I haven’t seen any poetry from you…
You know I don’t really ‘do’ poetry, just dabble now and again. With Carys’s brushings and her being sick this last week, I’ve really struggled finding inspiration. She’s gone to school today so now I have to rush around like a mad thing trying to catch up with everything. I won’t have time to write, or think, until much later, but a challenge is just what I need to give me a kick-start! 😁
I’m only joking. I know you have your hands full, and I don’t know where you find the time to breathe never mind write! When my children were the age of yours, I didn’t do anything but run around after them, and thankfully none of them ever got sick.
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Very nice. I’ll give it a try! Thank you, Jane!
Looking forward to seeing what you come up with 🙂
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🙂
Love writing these. Will definitely participate!
I hope so 🙂
What an interesting challenge. Thank you for the beautiful example.
I hope you’ll try it out 🙂
I hope to in the next few days.
I’ll look out for it 🙂
Here’s one, titled True Brew:
For a grind, grating on his ear,
near to cacophony as any sound
round about sunrise,
eyes open barely enough to see,
he seems not to mind,
finding satisfaction in the scene,
beans’ aroma pleasing,
teasing his palate with yet to be savored
flavor, its brew offering so much more,
for a grind, grating on his ear.
https://rivrvlogr.wordpress.com/2015/11/26/true-brew/
Love it! I love the taste and aroma of coffee!
The pingback didn’t work so here’s mine:
Wonderful poem expressing a sentiment to be consumed. I really find the form intriguing, being one who has a somewhat (unjustified) negative reaction to rhyme forms. I think it is because it so difficult for the rhyming word choices not to be blunt and distracting from the rest of the poem. Having the rhyme at the beginning of the lines (of varying length) seems to really help avoid this difficulty. I will try this form next. 🙂
Okay here’s my attempt [thank gawd for the rhyme web page]:
Therapeutic Coloring
black line pattern on white page
assuage with an invite
incite the mind to focus
locus after locus asking for color
whir of inner gears
blear at first
immerse in the pigment plethora
opera of hues
blue brown green
marine and earthen
beckon down serenity’s track
black line pattern on white page
http://elusivetrope.com/2015/11/27/therapeutic-coloring/
I know what you mean about the rhyme being a possible constraint, deforming meaning to fit the rhyme. Or worse, not quite rhyming at all. This is a bit of a cheat in that you can make the line as long as an idea, or break it to suit a rhyme without bothering with rhythm and metre. Give it a go and see what you come up with 🙂
I don’t see it quite as a cheat as long as one is also playing rhythm and meter. I did enjoy the process, in part because looking for the rhyme was exposing me to words that normally don’t pop into my head or had never seen before and had to look up the definition. Breaking the lines regardless the syllable count is non-traditional, yet, considering my first sentence, it is playing tennis with some kind of net. 🙂
It’s the result that counts, and yours is a very attractive, visual piece of poetry.
Thanks
This was certainly an interesting form to work with … nice to write out of the box from time to time … thanks for the challenge.
Thanks for contributing. A very successful poem, in my opinion:)
Thank you, it was quite a challenge .. glad you enjoyed it.
I did 🙂
Thanks for this challenge! I am enjoying trying out forms and reading what other people come up with. On my first go I certainly felt the tug between form and meaning that you talked about earlier– I enjoyed the process and the ‘form’ of a challenge to encourage me to persist.
I’m glad you found it worthwhile. It’s a bit like slam poetry in that the phrases are linked by a rhyme that draws attention to the meaning because the two words follows on directly.
I know little about slam poetry, but I’m gathering you mean poetry performed outloud–and that’s very interesting–I quickly revisited mine and saw more clearly when I read outloud how some rhymes create a meaning flow and others not so much…ahaa :))
I think that’s it. The rhymes make a sort of link in a chain. They’re the key points in the poem. You hear it when you read it aloud.
I think that observation also effects my rhythm reading these poems and the result is quite effective.
How can I recall what is almost forgotten
Lost in a thorny world
Hurled into ceaseless motion
Oceans of grief rise their tides
Behind a heart shut tight to more pain
Again I am wandering
Squandering what I cannot name
Game up, and I have little to show.
Oh, but I’ll stand strong against the cold…
Old stories those, we learn little
It’ll be a wonder if anything changes
Ages may pass, what of the new
Do you really think it will be so enlightened and grand
And in the survival of the day to day
We pay dearly, the cost passes but a few
Too many left hungry, pleading, wanting
Some haunting the places where they learned to be tame
The same, alas, they and I
I am what is almost forgotten
Thanks Éilis, I’m glad you had a go at this form. A very good job you did too 🙂 wandering/squandering—nice.
Thanks, Jane.
https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/2015/11/30/junk-mail-art-7-a-portrait-and-an-interview/ (kerfe)
I like this form, will try it but someday later.
The hard thing about this form is to keep a line of thought. It can veer off in all sorts of directions, wherever a good rhyme takes you. Sometimes it ends up making no sense whatsovever!
Rhymes are a silver lining to the imagery provided by the poet but sometimes the lining may get too thick and may hide the cloud! It requires great skill and I see that in your poems, which is why I thoroughly enjoy reading them!
I’m glad that’s how you see them. I don’t like reading obscure poetry, it seems self-indulgent and smart. The point, seems to me, is to communicate something, not show off how cleverly you can string words together so no one knows what you’re talking about!