Fold

Gillena Cox, poet from Trinidad & Tobago, best known for writing haiku/senryu has created a new experimental short form called the fold.  Presented on line first at Sketchbook in 2007.

Syllabic, No set meter, No set line-length, Rhymed, Refrain

THE FOLD takes credibility from haiku; it shares moments which are special simply and exactly. Grasping the tools of juxtaposition and contrast, THE FOLD crafts itself into a rhyming form of ELEVEN lines—unlike its three lined haiku progenitor.

   There is one rhyme continuing throughout the poem, occurring at every other line: uneven lines rhyme. Lines ONE, FIVE and ELEVEN carry the same last phrase, to form the EDGES of the FOLD. Line ONE repeats at line FIVE which is the CREASE of the FOLD.

Since there are no metric or syllable requirements, any template can merely be

illustrative, so here one is:

Example Poem

Burners    (Fold)

people shed their clothes at the Burning Man;

self-expression and anarchy rule;

a community grows in desert sand,

freedom expressed in artistic artifacts,

people shed their clothes at the Burning Man;

fifty thousand acting as they please

no big- name acts, attendees themselves can

dance, sing, entertain with instruments,

make-up, costumes, magic, getting a tan;

strangers welcome most any where;

community works at the Burning Man.

© Lawrencealot - October 9, 2012