Poetry Slam
In the greater arts world, a poetry slam is a competition where poets read their original work for an audience. YeahWrite’s slam is adapted for the online medium. Each month, we throw a new poetry form or technique at you, and you’ve got all month to perfect your poems. Below you will find an archive of all the forms and techniques we’ve explored over the years.
Leggo my Echo
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The Echo myth might be one of my least favorite stories of Greek mythology, but it lends its name to one of my new favorite poetry forms. In the myth, the nymph Echo falls in love with the worthless manbaby Narcissus who basically is...
Nine… Eight…. Seven….
45 is the magic number for this month's poetry slam. 45 syllables, that is: the 45 syllables, in decreasing lines, of the form known as nonet. I know this is the point where I usually get bogged down in some big long history lesson, but the fact is that there just...
8+5=Triolet
I know it doesn't feel like it today, when the Real Feel Index says that I'm sitting in a room that's literally halfway to the boiling point of water, but summer is winding down and coming to an end. Kids are headed back to school, and for some of us (not me, thanks,...
One asefru, two isefra, three isefra, four
[vc_row][vc_column width="1/4"][vc_single_image image="29470"][/vc_column][vc_column width="3/4"][vc_column_text]The Amazigh (known historically as Berber) people have been around for a long time. Don't believe me? Check out this dude on my left from the tomb of Seti...
Tears, idle tears!
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tennyson wrote, but really, we all know what tears mean, right? Sadness. So sad. So very very sad. The saddest. Have reached sadception. Pining for the fjords. Something. What we might not know is that "tears" are a...
Here we go rondeau the mulberry bush
So who had fun with the bop last month? Didn’t quite get the poem you were hoping for? Want to try it again? Well, we’re upping the difficulty level a little this month with the rondeau. Like the bop, the rondeau is essentially a “song” form of poetry, so I hope...
Let’s go to the bop!
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Poetry is basically history, amirite? It's not, though. As tempting as it is to think that all the poetic forms were invented ages ago by dead people, poetry is very much alive and changing. Last month's poetry slam here at yeah...
Welcome to the 5-7-5
If you grew up in the USA, the odds are pretty good that at some point you were required to write a haiku in class. Your teacher probably sat you all down and gave you a little lecture on the history and culture of Japan that may or may not have been accurate at all,...
Get it? Got it? Sonnet!
It's February, and you know what that means: sonnets. Has it really been a year since I wrote that how to write a sonnet post? Whoa. Well, I still don't want to write it all again, so I suggest you open that little link in a separate window. This year...
Day breaks… my heart
Ah, January. A time of hope, excitement, and looking forward... but also a time of bittersweet farewell to last year. That's why January is a perfect time to focus on learning to write an aubade. Since we've been working on forms for a year now, I thought it would be...
Tri harder
If you've been around yeah write for a while, you've probably seen this month's poetry slam form, the tritina, or its big sister the sestina, popping up on the fiction|poetry grid here and there. It's not entirely my fault, but I do love a good tritina,...
Lost in Translation
You remember when I did that thing to you with the dróttkvætt? I'm about to do it again, but gently, and with love. This month's poetry slam focuses on love, and before you chide me for being out of season let me remind you that this month is exactly nine months after...
Riddle me this…
[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text]I love our poetry slams. I love learning new forms, trying something I haven't tried before, and putting it out there into the world for other writers to look at and help me focus on. But I thought we'd try something a...
Godzilla vs. Poetry
Imagine your life was a musical. I don't care if the image that comes to mind is Hollywood or Bollywood, you get what I mean. At appropriate moments all the characters stop talking, turn to each other, and start singing what they mean instead. This is the basic theory...
The doggerel days of summer
[vc_row][vc_column width="1/1"][vc_column_text]Ah, summer. The dog days thereof, in fact. The science fictioneer in me gets excited for the conjunction of the sun and Sirius, the Dog Star... but the rest of me is too damn hot and sweaty to care all that much. When...