Day 7 ~ “Pleiades Poem” for “30 Poems in 30 Days” #NationalPoetryMonth

Today’s poetry form might be another new one for many of you. Have you ever heard of or tried writing 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: ONE word ONLY title with a single seven-line stanza (so don’t go creating additional verses – this form only has one). Here’s the specific part ~ 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.

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. So don't go changin' it, okay? 

If you want some help coming up with words that start with the same letter you can go here ~ Word Finder and choose your letter and find lots of words that start with that 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). So, here ya’ go ~ a few examples:

I wrote this one today:

 

Stars

Shooting stars,
self-luminous sequins,
sparkling in the night,
spanning space and
sky waiting for my wish,
scintillating anticipation,
shimmering through my soul.

        Stephanie Abney © 2023

(artwork by Stephanie Abney©)

Cucumbers

Crinkley edges,
crunchy, crisp and
creeping vine bearing
cucumiform fruits,
cultivated plant,
comes from the gourd family,
cucurbitaceae.

      © 2018 Stephanie Abney

Sleep

Something that
seems to evade me,
slumbering a little here,
snoozing a bit there, ol’ Mr.
Sandman passes me by,
singing lullabies to others,
shoot, there goes my alarm!

                      © 2018 Stephanie Abney

(cucumber image from Pixabay - free use)

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 SPECIFIC 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.