National Poetry Month

Mode of graphic art, employing graphemes of a given language and selected typeface, used by themselves, in clusters, morphemes, words, or phrases, and so patterned that an evocative or witty reading of an otherwise minimal utterance may result.

-- from The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms., Princeton University Press, 1986

Concrete Poetry Examples

Poem in the Shape of a Christmas Tree

Lyric, usually formal in tone and diction, suggested either by the death of an actual person or by the poet's contemplation of the tragic aspects of life.  In either case, the emotion, originally expressed as a lament, finds consolation in the contemplation of some permanent principle.

-- from The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms., Princeton University Press, 1986

Elegy Example

Elegy

I saw you fall to the ground.
I saw the oaks fall.  The clouds collapsed.
I saw a wildness twist through your limbs
and fly off.  The river fell, the grasses fell. 
The backs of six drowned cattle
rose to the surface ice—nothing moved.
But a wind touched my ankles when the snow began.
You left that night and we stayed,
our arms braced with weight.  What power
there was was over.  But I switched on the light
by the porch to see if anything was falling—
and it fell, a few glints in the air,
catching sun although there was no sun,
and the long descent over hours, all night,
seemed like years, and we buried our faces
in what came to rest on the ground
or moved our feet over it, effortless,
as nothing was in our lives, or ever will be.

-- Joanna Klink, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/145390/elegy-5a57dc4e1b40f

Erasure poetry, also known as blackout poetry, is a form of found poetry wherein a poet takes an existing text and erases, blacks out, or otherwise obscures a large portion of the text, creating a wholly new work from what remains.  Erasure poetry may be used as a means of collaboration, creating a new text from an old one and thereby starting a dialogue between the two, or as a means of confrontation, a challenge to a pre-existing text.

-- Erasure, from https://poets.org/glossary/erasure

Erasure / Blackout Examples

Declaration

He has
              sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people 

He has plundered our—
                                           ravaged our—
                                                                         destroyed the lives of our—
taking away our­—
                                  abolishing our most valuable—
and altering fundamentally the Forms of our—

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for
Redress in the most humble terms:
                                                                Our repeated
Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury.
We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration

and settlement here.
                                    —taken Captive             

                                                                    on the high Seas

                                                                                                     to bear—

(Note about this poem - taken from the Declaration of Independence, Smith uses lines and sentence fragments to highlight racial oppression and inequality in the United States.)

-- Tracy K. Smith, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/147468/declaration-5b5a286052461

-- Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib, from https://writers.com/what-is-blackout-poetry-examples-and-inspiration

A term popularly, but not accurately, used to describe the poems of Walt Whitman and others whose verse is based not on the recurrence of stress accent in a regular, strictly measurable pattern, but rather on the irregular rhythmic cadence of the recurrence, with variations, of significant phrases, image patterns, and the like. Free Verse treats the device of rhyme with a similar freedom and irregularity. 

-- from The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms., Princeton University Press, 1986

Free Verse Example

Bees, So Many Bees

After twenty years of marriage, we walked out
of the bush and on to a rough dirt road
we followed till we saw a pond
we might be able to get to.
The ground was boggy and buzzing.
The pond was thick with weed
and slime. It was not
the sort of pond anyone would
swim in, but we did — picking and sliding
into the water over the bog and bees,
bees we suddenly noticed were
everywhere, were settling on our hair
as we swam,  ducks turning surprised eyes
our way. After twenty years of marriage
what is surprising isn’t really so much
the person you are with but to find
yourselves so out of place in this scene, cold
but not able to get out without
stepping over bees, so many bees.

-- Anna Jackson, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/145462/bees-so-many-bees

This Japanese poetic form was originally the opening section (hence hokku, "opening part") of renga,which took shape in the 13th and 14th c. as sequential verse form that alternates up to fifty times 5-7-5- and 7-7- syllabic parts composed in turn by two or more persons. The name haiku derives from the variety of renga known as haikai, "humorous." Haikai poets, most notably Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), rejected the poetic diction and lyricism of court poetry that prevailed in orthodox renga, and found "humor" in describing the mundane. But they retained some basic features of orthodox renga, among them the in clusion of a kigo, a word or phrase that specifies the season of the composition.

-- from The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms., Princeton University Press, 1986

Haiku Examples

oh I cannot touch
that branch of cherry blossoms
that is touching me

— Lucia Haase, from https://classicalpoets.org/2023/09/29/the-23-best-haiku-of-2023/ 

Patient desert winds
grain-by-grain shift a sand dune.
Thus mountains are moved.

— Paul A. Freeman, from https://classicalpoets.org/2023/09/29/the-23-best-haiku-of-2023/ 

In modern usage the name for the most formal, ceremonious, and complexly organized form of lyric poetry, usually of considerable length. It is frequently the vehicle for public utterance on state occasions, as, for example, a ruler's birthday, accession, funeral, the unveiling or dedication of some imposing memorial or public work.

-- from The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms., Princeton University Press, 1986

Ode Examples

Ode to Teachers

I remember
the first day,
how I looked down,
hoping you wouldn't see
me,
and when I glanced up,
I saw your smile
shining like a soft light
from deep inside you.

“I'm listening,” you encourage us.
“Come on!
Join our conversation,
let us hear your neon certainties,
thorny doubts, tangled angers,”
but for weeks I hid inside.

I read and reread your notes
praising
my writing,
and you whispered,
“We need you
and your stories
and questions
that like a fresh path
will take us to new vistas.”

Slowly, your faith grew
into my courage
and for you—
instead of handing you
a note or apple or flowers—
I raised my hand.

I carry your smile
and faith inside like I carry
my dog's face,
my sister's laugh,
creamy melodies,
the softness of sunrise,
steady blessings of stars,
autumn smell of gingerbread,
the security of a sweater on a chilly day.

-- Pat Mora, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/58830/ode-to-teachers

Ode to My Shoes

my shoes
rest
all night
under my bed

tired
they stretch
and loosen
their laces

wide open
they fall asleep
and dream
of walking

they revisit
the places
they went to
during the day

and wake up
cheerful
relaxed
so soft

-- Francisco X. Alaracon, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/91109/ode-to-my-shoes

A 14-line poem in iambic pentameter (normally iambic hexameter in France) whose rhyme scheme has, in practice, been widely varied despite the traditional assumption of limited freedom in this respect. The three most widely recognized forms of the sonnet, with their traditional rhyme schemes, are the Italian or Petrarchan (octave: abbaabba; sestet: cdecde or cdcdcd or a similar combination that avoids the closing couplet), the Spenserian (abab bcbc cdcd ee), and the English or Shakespearean (abab cdcd efef gg).

-- from The Princeton Handbook of Poetic Terms., Princeton University Press, 1986

Sonnet Examples

When I consider how my light is spent

When I consider how my light is spent,
   Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
   And that one Talent which is death to hide
   Lodged with me useless, though my Soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
   My true account, lest he returning chide;
   “Doth God exact day-labour, light denied?”
   I fondly ask. But patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, “God doth not need
   Either man’s work or his own gifts; who best
   Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
   And post o’er Land and Ocean without rest:
   They also serve who only stand and wait.”

-- John Milton, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44750/sonnet-19-when-i-consider-how-my-light-is-spent

How Do I Love Thee, Let Me Count the Ways

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43742/sonnets-from-the-portuguese-43-how-do-i-love-thee-let-me-count-the-ways