Day 25 ~ Credo Poem for #NationalPoetryMonth and "30 poems in 30 days"

The word “credo” is Latin, and literally means, “I believe.” So, today were are going to write a “Credo Poem." This is a pretty cool format and it was taken from a scene in the movie “Bull Durham” (which I’ve never seen so this is NOT a recommendation to see it – in fact, when I tried watched the clip of his “credo” I turned it off – not my style; too crass for me). However, it does make for a good poetry form, so here it is ~ basically, just fill in the blanks:

CREDO POEM ~ in each of the first 4 blanks, tell something you believe in and on the last line of the 1^st stanza list 3 things (separated by each of the commas provided)

Then for the “BUT” line – tell something you don’t believe in, such as “But I don’t believe” … or “But I think … telling something that you don’t support, believe, etc. “But I think ‘whatever’ is overrated” or any way you want to add a line about what you DON’T believe in that starts with the word “But.”

Finally, the last stanza is MORE of what you believe in (3 lines and then a line of 3 things, separated by a comma, like you did in the 1^st stanza and then – end with one long statement that kind of summaries what you believe or what you have hope for in the future type of thing.

OK, here is the basic format – whatcha’ got?

I believe in the _________________________,

the___________________________________,
the___________________________________,
the___________________________________,
the___________________________________,
_______________,_______________,_________________.

But _______________________________________ . (something you don't believe in)

I believe in____________________________,
I believe in____________________________,
I believe in____________________________,
______________,________________,_________________.

And I believe in ___________________________________  _________________________________________________ . (longest line of poem)

Here is a link to an example poem written by a teenager found on “Teen Ink” (her format is a bit different - she doesn't seem to have the 3 items listed at the end of each stanza). . . which looks pretty good, so use either format. 

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 and the creative work of others.

Photo credit: Pixabay image by Deb W

Day 8 Octopoem for #NationalPoetryMonth and "30 poems in 30 days"

An “Octopoem” is a fun little poem that has 8 lines, perfect for Day 8!

Pick a topic of your choice and describe it in EIGHT lines. Each line can be as long as you choose and does not need to rhyme or anything of that nature, but use only one sentence per line. You can give your octopoem a title or just start right out with line 1.

It seems to be best suited to describe a person, but you can get creative and describe a pet or even an object, etc.). Have fun!!

HOWEVER, the only thing you DO need to follow is the order of the descriptions you use for each of the 8 lines about your poem.

An octopoem has 8 lines describing the topic (or pet or person, whatever):

line 1: color
line 2: season
line 3: place
line 4: weather
line 5: clothing
line 6: furniture
line 7: TV show
line 8: food

My Grandson, My Friend

His favorite color is green.
He is a breath of fresh Spring air.
He loves to be wherever I am.
We love to play in the rain.
If it's green, it's clean and ready to wear.
When I can't find him he's usually hiding behind a chair.
If “Wild Kratts” is on, we are good to go.
He likes to eat everything as long as it is a peanut butter sandwich.

                                                                      © 2015 Stephanie Abney

I Miss You, Daddy

My dad’s eyes were blue, his favorite color

He loved to garden in the spring and summer

In what used to be our backyard lawn

The Southern California weather was perfect

He wore comfortable clothes to garden in, often rolling up the cuffs of his pants

He could sit outside on the patio lounge chair for hours enjoying life at that moment

Unless it was time for “The Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy”

He’d close each day with a bowl of ice cream

                                         © 2019 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.

Photo 1 by DivvyPixel at Pixabay

Photo 2 courtesy of Stephanie Abney

Day 22 ~ “Pleiades Poem” for “30 Poems in 30 Days” #NationalPoetryMonth

Today’s poetry form might be another new one for y’all. 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. Yeah, that was redundant – I already outlined that. But it’s okay – it should be pretty clear by now, right?

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:

Cucumbers

Crinkley edges,

crucnchy, 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

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 for 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.