Welcome to Day 7 and a complete week of poems! (Don't worry if you don't have the full set, we're not in the business of scoring ourselves. Today is today and the poem a day is the poem we write today.) Today's prompt is a type of poem: a plain poem. This is a technique, rather than a form, and "plain" means using no adjectives or adverbs.
Quick explainer:
- Adjectives are describing words, such as beautiful, big, ancient, square, purple, French, wooden, etc. (Test if it’s an adjective by putting it in the gap: "A ______ pirate.")
- Adverbs tell you how something is done (quickly, slowly, wildly, etc) and usually end in –ly. These are actually "adverbs of manner", which are the ones we want to avoid in the poem. (Test for an adverb by putting it after “She walked _____.”)
For an idea of what to write about, describe a place you love. That might be a childhood home, a favourite walk or park, a beloved pub (the Jericho Tavern garden is my writing happy-place), a place you went on holiday once... anywhere you love that you'd like to visit in your imagination today.
Here's a plain poem I wrote about the canalside in late summer / early autumn. (As you'll see from the rhyme pattern, it's also using another form, a wreathed poem. Sometimes it's fun to heap on extra constraints; sometimes it's fun to just concentrate on one, like making it a plain poem.)
The balsam bobs. The narrowboat’s paint flakes.
Blackberries glisten, where bramble snakes its way
through the hawthorn, and pray for lips. A breeze rakes
the trees’ reflections; breaking through leaves, a ray
wobbles on ripples. A spider’s ballet makes
geometry of sun and waits for prey.
The hops and hay ripen while the lakes
give up their geese. It takes its time, decay:
while leaves fray, twigs brittle, and wasps hold wakes
by drizzlelight, mud cakes the memories of May.
The Meddling with Poetry course explores a host of different poetry forms as well as the musicality of language, poetic imagery, and other aspects of the poetic. It's 8 weeks long, one evening a week, and absolute beginners and experienced writers are equally welcome. You can read more details and book a place here.
