Day 14 ~ How to Write a “Pleiades Poem” for #NationalPoetryMonth ~ "30 poems in 30 days"

Day 14 ~ How to Write a “Pleiades Poem” for #NationalPoetryMonth ~ "30 poems in 30 days"

Today’s poetry form may be unfamiliar. I’ve only used it twice so far in the 14 years I have been doing this poetry challenge.

But before I get into the details of Pleiades poetry, I just want to give you a heads up to put on your deep-thinking cap for tomorrow – by special request, we will be writing an “Ode” poem, a type of lyrical poetry that addresses (usually via praise) a person, place, thing, or event. So, that will be tomorrow. More details then . . .

For today, the “Pleiades Poem” 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.”

Here is the TRICKY and FUN part ~ VERY specific!!

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 (so don’t go creating additional verses – this form only has one verse). However, there does not appear to be any specific syllable or word counts.

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. It makes me think of those families who name every one of their kids with names that begin with the same letter.

Just start each line with the same letter, kind of like a long run-on sentence, line by line, starting line one with a capital letter and ending line seven with a period. All other lines begin with a lowercase letter.

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:

http://wordfinder.yourdictionary.com/words-that-start/

Another useful site: http://phrontistery.info/ihlstart.html Dictionary of Unusual Words – click on the letter of your choice, and you get a plethora of unique words with brief definitions.

A Pleiades Poem can be about ANYTHING, so long as each line starts with the same letter.

 

Here are a couple of examples, but personally, I think they are both kind of lame, but at least you get the gist of things, and I can’t wait to read what y’all come up with.

 

Determination

Decisive,
dependable,  
detailed pursuit of
desired outcome, so
decisions are made with purpose,
diversions are not an option,
develops a can-do attitude.

 

       © 2026 Stephanie Abney

 

Here’s a silly example: it’s one I wrote about cucumbers eight years ago:

Cucumbers

Crinkley edges,
crucnchy, crisp, from a
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.