My Poetic 5 Challenge: Stacked Etheree

This week’s theme will be My 5 Stacked Etheree poems.

What is a Stacked Etheree poem?

It is a style of composition for a poem with 20 lines. The lines are written in a combination of syllable orders. You can write the first ten lines in ascending order— begin with one syllable for the first line, going up to ten syllables for the tenth line. Do the same for the next ten lines, beginning with one syllable for the 11^th line and going up to ten syllables for the 20^th line.

In other words, you can combine two Simple Etheree poems, so that you have the order, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 (syllables per line).

Alternatively, you can write the first ten lines in an ascending syllable order— begin with one syllable, going up to ten syllables for the tenth line. Write the next ten lines in descending order, beginning with ten syllables in the 11^th line and decreasing to one syllable for the 20^th line.

In other words, you can combine a Simple Etheree and a Reverse Etheree, so that you have the order, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1.

An Etheree poem…

Is named after Etheree Taylor, and features a poetic style with at least ten lines, written in ascending and descending syllable-orders.

Subject? Rhyme?

You do not have to work with a particular subject or rhyme scheme; you get only formatting recommendations.

The challenge

Between today, December 9 and the coming Tuesday, December 15, write at least 5 Stacked Etheree poems. You can share as many or as few as you can manage. Ping at most five of your pieces to this post.

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My 5 Stacked Etheree Poems prompt

my-5-stacked-etheree-poems-prompt.pngDownload

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Read this post for more information.

My trial

Hold On
The
 Night has
 Its ways of
 Ruling our hearts.
 There is the silence,
 Movement is limited;
 There is mostly loneliness,
 There is a hollow, in which fire
 Burns. There is a smashing somewhere—
 Someone falls, another drowns, another
 Snores, others love, others sin, others
 Fight; there is madness in the dead night,
 Yet up high, twinkles beauty— love
 Fills a breaking heart, tears well eyes...
 There is little hope in dark,
 There is plenty longing
 For the rising sun.
 Sad heart, hold on;
 Hold on till
 Darkness
 Dies.
©Benie Langat, 2020

Other forms of Etheree

Simple Etheree (done). Read more here.

Reverse Etheree (done). Read more here.

Coming up…

In the coming week, we will have a look at a new form called Gogyohka. A Gogyohka poem features a style drawn from Tanka (we will explore it too) and is structured into five lines of phrases. The point is to loosen every line with simple phrases. I will share more information next week; join me!

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