Welcome to Poetry Friday! Ruth has the roundup today where she is celebrating eighteen years at her blog and dreaming about Haiti. Be sure to stop by for lots of poetry goodness.
Today I offer two new-to me poetry forms as entries to my April Poetry Project: “Call and Response: Picture Books and Poetry.” The first response is a trinet which I first learned about from poetry friend Alan J. Wright. A trinet is composed of seven lines. Lines three and four have six words each; all other lines have two words. My trinet is in response to the picture book Listen by Holly McGhee and Pascal Lemaitre.
For the Heart
your heart
can hold
the memory of people and places
the wonder of sun and stars
with plenty
of room
for more
Draft, 2024RoseCappelli
After hearing about the pensee on posts from Buffy Silverman and Marcie Flinchum Atkins, I wanted to give it a try. The pensee has 5 lines of 2-4-7-8-6 syllables respectively. Each line has a specific job:
Line 1—introduces subject
Line 2—description of subject
Line 3—action taken by subject or for subject; has a verb
Line 4—info about time and setting
Line 5—final thoughts
I wrote “Henna” as a response to the picture book A Garden in My Hands by Meera Sriram and Sandhya Prabhat.
Henna
henna
ancient plant dye
dropped and swirled on waiting hands
for a wedding celebration
a garden of stories
Draft, 2024RoseCappelli
Thanks for stopping by and enjoy this last Friday in poetry’s special month.
Imagine the Possibilities 
I love how there is “room for more” in the first poem. My favorite line in the second is “a garden of stories.” I’ve enjoyed reading about your project and all the books you’ve read and responded to. I can’t believe we are nearing the end of April.
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Thank you, Margaret.
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Rose, I love the challenges of forms you took on, then the books’ responses, “plenty of room for more” and “a garden of stories”! Beautiful images from you!
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Thank you. I appreciate your comments, Linda.
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The form itself, with the space it creates, adds so much to your poem “For the Heart.” My heart is touched by it.
And I also like how you use a variation on the book’s title in your final thoughts line “a garden of stories” in the pensee.
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Thank you, Karin.
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The heart poem is a true gem. We have such a great capacity for love if we open our hearts.
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So true. Thanks, Diane.
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These are fabulous. I want to get the books from the library too. I really love “dropped and swirled on waiting hands” — just beautiful.
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ILovely poems. I hadn’t heard of these 2 forms – look like they’ll be fun to explore.
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ooooh, these are delicious. I’ve been playing with these forms too. I especially like the trinet. It’s a powerful little form…but a garden of stories.
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New forms, new picture books to find and read…what could be better!
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Ooh, trying new forms is so fun! I love “For the Heart.” You used the line lengths so well. Those last three lines are like tiny water droplets plinking one at a time for the perfect effect!
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Rose, those are both beautiful. Such a lovely thing you are doing for NPM. I love the shape of the trinet here on your page, and the thoughts: our heart can hold memory and wonder and more is beautiful. Love the Henna poem, and the last line on the pensee poem is a favorite “a garden of stories” I picture the women preparing for the wedding enjoying the sights ands smell of getting their henna done while sharing stories.
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Thanks, Denise. I appreciate your thoughts.
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Is the pensee like the elfchen?
Your posts have been a great PB resource, Rose. Thank you!
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Both are five lines, but a pensee counts syllables and an elfchen is a specific number of words. There are suggested jobs for each line, but I think that can vary. I would guess that pensees, elfchens, haiku, cinquains are probably cousins of some sort.
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“with plenty of room for more” — ah, lovely. ❤️
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I love the “room for more,” too, Rose. Just lovely, as Karen says.
One of these days, I am going to focus on forms; I have a lot to learn!
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More picture books! Delightful. I tried a pensee this week after seeing one on Marcie Flinchum Atkins’s blog. Much to my surprise, I found them quite difficult to write. I enjoyed seeing your poems as it is a form I’m still trying to wrap my head around.
Off to the library website…
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Rose, I am late to the poetry roundup but so glad that I stopped by. I do enjoy writing trinet poem. I have not tried the pensee poem but am eager to try the form. I enjoyed readng your poems. “a garden of stories” is a wonderful ending.
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