poetically challenged

There’s a new poetry challenge up on my other blog site now. You’d have to have a membership there to participate, but you might enjoy reading along anyway. It’s based on the minute, a form I’ve written about here in the past.

I recently discussed the poetry form of the minute, and thought I would put a demonstration of it here, using it to introduce Vacations.net’s great all inclusive caribbean resort packages. Vacations.net has some really great deals on trips to popular beach and sun destinations, including Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and Mexico. This is how I imagine a minute on one of those holidays would feel:

Reflections in the Sun and Sand

Lying upon the sunny coast
What I feel most
Is quiet peace
O! please don’t cease

The restful moment in the heat
The time I meet
Truth, confronted –
All I wanted

Was just some space away from stress
A little rest
Heaven I found
Here hanging ’round

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So, it would work something like that.

And, if you prefer the paradise to the poetry,
Visit www.Vacations.net or call toll-free at 1-888-205-3315 for reservations or more information.

In the 2007 edition of The Poet’s Market, Cathy Smith Bowers has a featured article about a short poetry form called “the minute.”

The minute is both a syllable-based structure and a rhymed form. The syllable count is separated into 3 stanzas of 8-4-4-4. The rhyme structure is a-a-b-b c-c-d-d e-e-f-f. The syllable count creates a poem of 60 syllables, thus the name “the minute.”

The minute is designed to be English poetry’s answer to the haiku. It’s syllable and rhyme count is part of what creates the haiku-like feel. But additionally important is the minute’s intent of packing a picture of one moment in time into a short poetic verse.