If you follow my blog, you know I am a little obsessed with poetry. In the world of words, syllables, and sounds, I find puzzles in making them all fit together into something meaningful. Jane Yolen was recently featured on Michelle Barnes’ Today’s Little Ditty with a challenge to write septercets. This is a form Jane Yolen created with the pattern of seven syllables in three line stanzas.
I challenged my students to write septercets. And I played along.
I Spy
Looking for spinning spiders
hiding between limbs of trees
miraculous thread designsStudying patterns of light
refraction reflecting bows
miraculous sky designsSkipping stones from uncle’s pier
a ripple breaks the surface
miraculous water designs–Margaret Simon
Can you write a septercet about the harvest moon above? Share in the comments and on Ditty of the Month padlet.
oooooooooooooooooh, good one. I struggle with this form. I really want to make rhymes…try to hard and strike out. I love this.
Your poet’s heart and brain are amazing. I worry about poetic forms. I worry that I’ll do something wrong… But, there is a bit of freedom in this form, it gives room to attempt.
When I read a poet’s prose
the book sighs and sings lifting
rippling into my heart.
Wonderful, Julieanne! Make sure you post it on the padlet. 🙂
Beautiful, Margaret! What a great way to spend minutes and hours… looking for miracles.
Just a clarification for your readers, though: the only septercets that should be posted on the padlet are ones that feature reading or writing. (Jane Yolen’s challenge was a bit more specific in its theme.)
I guess I missed that detail. I taught my students about writing science poems so that is the theme of theirs. Should I not post them? I could post them in my own post on Friday.
I thought you were going to have them write about fairy tales…? Change of plans, I guess. Oh heck, go ahead and post them. I’ll include them in the same category as Mary Lee’s— “Reading the world around us.” If you end up posting on your website, I’ll share your link, as well.
The harvest moon is highest.
The branches cannot reach it.
All else below is equal.
I’m happy to be here, soaking in your words and imagining my adventures through your inspiration. 🙂
See you in Atlanta, finally face to face?
I love all the beauty you included, Margaret. Watching water & its reflections is a joy.
I’ve never heard of septercets – what a beautiful poem through which to learn of this form, Margaret.
Those “miraculous designs” are everywhere. I love your repetition of this phrase, and the details you’ve woven into each phrase. I haven’t started my septercet yet, but now you’ve got me thinking!
Margaret, I especially like the last stanza because it ties in the spider’s design with water designs-all miraculous in my estimation.