Day 9 ~ “Pleiades Poem” for for #NationalPoetryMonth and "30 poems in 30 days"

Day 9 ~ “Pleiades Poem” for for #NationalPoetryMonth and "30 poems in 30 days"

Today’s poetry form might be very unfamiliar. I discovered it a couple of years ago.

It’s called a Pleiades Poem! It was created in 1999 by Craig Tigerman, Editor Emeritus of Sol Magazine, which appears to have been a poetry journal that is no longer in publication. At any rate, he named it for a star cluster in the constellation Taurus, “The Pleiades.”

It has some interesting requirements. You can ONLY use ONE word for the title of the poem. It ONLY has ONE stanza that is SEVEN LINES - any length - (so don’t go creating additional verses – this form only has one).

AND here is the TRICKY and FUN part ~ VERY specific!!

The FIRST letter of each of the following 7 lines MUST start with the same letter as the first letter of the title of the poem. Kind of reminds me of those families who named every one of their kids with names that begin with the same letter. So, the sentence can be any length, as long as the first word starts with the same letter as the title 

So this poetic form lends itself to a lot of alliteration!! Fun stuff!!

We will write ours as Craig Tigerman first designed it (others have tried to add syllable requirements, etc.) but Tigerman only said it had to be a single word title, with seven lines, each line beginning with the same first letter as the title.

If you want some help coming up with words that start with the same letter you can go here and choose your letter and find lots of words that start with that letter:

Find Words that Start with the Same Letter

Another useful site: Dictionary of Unusual Words ~ just click on the letter of your choice and you get a plethora of unique words with brief definitions.

Oh, the examples I saw online have the first line start with a capital letter and the rest start with a lowercase letter and the final line ends with a period. (You can insert commas where needed).

Here are a few examples: the first two are contrasting viewpoints of the Coronavirus and the 3^rd one shows how simple they can be, about basically anything – it’s one I wrote about cucumbers a couple of years ago:

COVID19

Cunning coronavirus has

closed businesses, cancelled school, trips, graduation,

choir concerts, prom and more, as

captive, crying, frightened citizens, stay

completely away from others, covering their faces with masks, causing

concern, sadness, fear, and discouragement as our

constitutional rights, health, loved ones, and careers are in jeopardy.

                                      © 2020 Stephanie Abney

VS

COVID19

~ Challenging the creativity and endurance of officials, heathcare workers,

~ caregivers, first responders, families and, teachers, who are

~ creating online curriculum and classrooms, activities, and connections,

~ capable of bringing students and loved ones together,

~ cherishing time to think, reflect, and draw families close

~ completing long over-due projects, while finding time to read, draw and make beautiful art

~ completely content to be at home, hoping and praying together for the best and quickest outcome, while consuming chocolate and unusual culinary creations made from whatever is on their shelves.

                                                                                                          

                                                        © 2020 Stephanie Abney

Cucumbers

Crinkley edges,

crucnchy, crisp and

creeping vine bearing

cucumiform fruits,

cultivated plant,

comes from the gourd family,

cucurbitaceae.

                         © 2018 Stephanie Abney

PLEASE REMEMBER ~ any poetry found on this blog, written by me, is my personal property and may not be used without my permission, other than sharing it as an example in a lesson or to read it to someone. The same goes for any poems that are shared in the comments of this blog or elsewhere online as a result of this challenge. They are the creative property of the person who writes them. These poems are their original work and no one may use them without their permission. It is understood that they own the copyright to them as soon as they post them. Thanks so much!

Also, if you choose to post your poems on your own blog ~ that’s awesome. But PLEASE don’t just copy and paste my daily instructions, but rather post your poem on your blog or your FB wall or wherever AND LINK BACK TO THIS BLOG POST for others to come here to read the instructions. I’ve spent considerable time researching the poetry forms and writing them up to share with you. Thanks for respecting my work.