  Poetry
This week: Visual or Spatial Verse: Part Four Edited by: Red Writing Hood <3  
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"A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself."
Abraham Maslow
"With me poetry has not been a purpose, but a passion."
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
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Visual or Spatial Verse: Formatting Poetry to Create Added Depth, Part Four: Stairs & Stars and Zigzags
No matter how you format your poetry it creates a visual by the way you choose things like line lengths, syntax, punctuation, fonts, poem length, stanzas, etc. All these choices and more create a visual; however what I will explore in the next few months is the genre of shaped verse that creates a particular visual for the reader—meshing art and the written word. Today I will share some stairs, stars and zigzag forms.
Pictorial
This is a form invented within the last century.
MUST HAVES
--Must use words to create a shape. In this case, the shape is a set of three ascending or descending stairs. The use of indent would be helpful in creating this form.
--Line count: 3 with the same amount of words in each.
--Word count: 15 or less.
--Rhyme.
COULD HAVES or WHAT IS THE POET’S CHOICE IN ALL THIS?
--Topic/theme, although these tend to mirror an up or down, rise or fall, ascend or descend—you get the picture—type of topic/theme.
--Meter.
--Number of stanzas.
--Type of rhyme: end or internal.
Star Sevlin
Lilliann Svenson invented this form that when centered, kind of takes on a star shape.
MUST HAVES
--Alignment: Centered.
--Line count: 7
--Meter: Syllabic, and in the following order: 4, 6, 8, 6, 8, 6, 4
--Number of stanzas 1, unless it’s a chain.
--Rhyme: A, B, B, C, A, C, A
COULD HAVES or WHAT IS THE POET’S CHOICE IN ALL THIS?
--Topic/Theme.
Zany Zig Zag Five
Just like the first two forms, this is a newer created form, and it was invented by Patricia Simpson.
MUST HAVES
--Number of stanzas: 1
--Rhyme.
--Alignment: zigzag. How you zig and zag is up to you. Indent is helpful with this form, also.
--Must include the word zigzag.
--Meter: syllabic. Five syllables each.
COULD HAVES or WHAT IS THE POET’S CHOICE IN ALL THIS?
--Topic/theme.
--Rhyme scheme.
--Line count.
NOTE TO REMEMBER: One of the biggest pitfalls I see with this type of formatting is a great urge to create a visual that somehow this becomes the driving force and the poem suffers for it. Either the careful word choice is scrapped to make sure the specific shape is adhered to, or the use of metaphor and simile and other tools to create a depth of meaning are lacking because the focus was all about the shape. As in anything in life, the key is balance. Remember, you are creating a poem. Don’t let the formatting take over. Instead let it enhance and entrance the reader.
SOURCE NOTES:
Berg, V. J. (1977). Pathways for the poet: Poetry patterns explained and illustrated. Milford, MI: Mott Media.
http://www.patthepoet.com/
http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/pictorial.html
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Theme: A star sevlin, stairs, and picture poems.
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If so, send it through the feedback section at the bottom of this newsletter OR click the little envelope next to my name Red Writing Hood <3 and send it through email.
Comments on last month's newsletter:
From: John Hawkes 
Comment: Thank you for broadening my knowledge. This is helpful, since I do mostly free verse; but I would like to also expand my styles and experiment a little.
From: Happy April 2024!
Comment: I'm not much of a poet, but I always like to try something new. The circlet is at the top of my list. Thanks for sharing this.
You're welcome! I'm always happy to share something new! Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and feedback 
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Poetry: April 11, 2018 Issue [#8842]
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