Poetry: Writing Creatively in Five Different Styles

Contributors to Associated Content have the unique opportunity to publish creative writing including poetry. Those contributors who regularly publish poetry do so in very distinctive ways, following a variety of poetry styles which often go unrecognized by the reader who has not learned to discern them.

One contributor who has taken advantage of creating poems in at least five poetry styles is Mike Powers. Mike writes original poems in varying ways which keeps his published content site particularly fresh with poems that are sometimes humorous, often inspirational and always entertaining for the reader.

Mike usually names the poetry style in the article description and uses the words haiku, tanka, free verse, sonnet and villanelle to let the reader know what style he has chosen for that particular poem.

Five styles of poetry out of many that can be used

Haiku is a form of poetry that writers new to publishing on AC often employ, but you will see it used by seasoned writers as well since it lends itself to a succinct way of framing a topic in what is quoted as being 17 syllables. (5-7-5).

Wikipedia gives a more complex definition of haiku and uses the term moras, stating that syllables and moras are not the same. Read the Wikipedia article for yourself if you would like to learn more about that distinction.

Tanka are a bit more involved as they have 31 syllables. (5-7-5-7-7). Tanka is a much older form of Japanese poetry than haiku. The modern revival of tanka began with several poets who began to publish literary magazines, gathering their friends and disciples as contributors. Today there are many circles of tanka poets. Many newspapers have a weekly tanka column, and there are many professional and amateur tanka poets.

Free verse is a form of poetry which refrains from meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern. However, that doesn't mean it is easy to write! Most free verse self-evidently continues to observe a convention of the poetic line in some sense.

Sonnets are one of several forms of lyric poetry originating in Europe. The term "sonnet" means "little song" or "little sound". One of the best-known sonnet writers is William Shakespeare, who wrote 154 of them (not including those that appear in his plays). An English sonnet consists of 14 lines, each line containing ten syllables and written in iambic pentameter.

Villanelle is a poetic form which entered English-language poetry in the 1800s from the imitation of French models. A villanelle has only two rhyme sounds. The first and third lines of the first stanza are rhyming refrains that alternate as the third line in each successive stanza and form a couplet at the close. A villanelle is nineteen lines long, consisting of five tercets and one concluding quatrain. The villanelle has no established meter although most twentieth-century villanelles have used pentameter.

[See: Villanelle, which has links to couplet, tercets, quatrain and pentameter]

To read some original poems by Mike Powers using these five poetry styles, click on the links below:

Haiku:
Field on Fire!
September's Apples

Tanka:
Autumn's Equinox
Soon Comes October

Free verse:
Coming Home
Return to Port

Sonnets:
Yesterday and Today
Whispers

Villanelle:
Falling Leaves
Look at Me

There are many AC contributors who regularly publish poetry; visit the poetry category under the creative writing section to find other published poets. Consider visiting these sites of contributors who all publish poems in very distinctive styles: Robert Odair, Donald Rothra and Mary Naylor.

A good online resource for persons interested in poetry is Poets.org. You will be able to read poems by accomplished contemporary poets, and If you are trying to locate a poem that you vaguely remember you might be able to find it through that website. The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit organization which has this mission: "to support American poets at all stages of their careers and to foster the appreciation of contemporary poetry."

Sources:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/764474/mike_powers.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanka
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_verse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonnet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villanelle
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/386174/robert_o_adair.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/725043/donald_rothra.html
http://www.associatedcontent.com/user/132525/mary_naylor.html
http://www.poets.org/