For the A-Z Challenge this year, I’m honoring National Poetry Month (I’ll probably do this next year, too…because there are so damn many cool forms to try!). Today, it’s the descort. each line needs to be different from every other line in the poem different line lengths, meters, avoids rhyming with other lines, no refrains, and that goes for stanzas, as well no two lines in a descort should look like each other Note: The descort is different from free verse, because even in a free verse poem you may use similar line lengths and meter. However, the descort is very intentional in its variability. I’m also, very intentionally choosing…

form invented by Udit Bhatia poet takes each line from the first stanza of a poem and makes those the final lines of each stanza after that there are no additional rules for rhyming, meter, etc. Communion We sit across from one another, coffee steaming between us, forgettable words forging deep connections. These simple, daily interactions make a marriage — memories, like pearls, shimmering inside the shell of our communion. Your fingers, skin aging around them, occasionally hold mine, silent longings, comfort, understanding shared. There is no need to speak, even though we do, to fill the air as we sit across from one another, coffee steaming between us. Our…

3 stanzas Each stanza is followed by a refrain First stanza is 6 lines long and presents a problem Second stanza is 8 lines long and explores or expands the problem Third stanza is 6 lines long and either presents a solution or documents the failed attempt to resolve the problem And on to our second poetic form. Another that I had never heard of, so something completely new to try! Beckoned Alone in the dark, quiet room, I hear your voice in my head, words spoken before you left, “touch yourself.” I am used to following your direction, even when you are gone. You are with me, even when…

An Irish form of poetry: Quatrain stanzas (4-line stanzas) 7 syllables per line Lines 1 and 3 rhyme together, but they rhyme as three syllables (xxa) Lines 2 and 4 rhyme together as two syllables (xb) The final syllable, word, or line of the entire poem should be the same as the entire poem begins (the poetic term for this is dunadh) Poem can be as concise as one stanza and scale out as far as a poet wishes to push it Here’s my humble (second) attempt: A Place to Hold Me Inside Remember the beginning when you held my heart, beating In your hand, so unsettling… both on the edge…