I'm participating in a 5-day "Open Write" on Sarah Donovan's Ethical ELA.
Today, Kimberly Johnson inspires us to channel Jericho Brown and his invention of a poetry form he calls "Duplex." I found his poetry writing to be extraordinary - and the prompt to be extremely challenging...which he describes as follows:Here are the boundaries:
Write a ghazal that is also a sonnet that is also a blues poem of 14 lines, giving each line 9 to 11 syllables.
The first line is echoed in the last line.
The second line of the poem should change our impression of the first line in an unexpected way.
The second line is echoed and becomes the third line.
The fourth line of the poem should change our impression of the third line in an unexpected way.
This continues until the penultimate line becomes the first line of the couplet that leads to the final (and first) line.
For the variations of repeated lines, it is useful to think of the a a’ b scheme of the blues form.
So, here goes...my first attempt at a "Duplex." I don't believe this will be my last...I found this form to be truly inspiring.
Bud to Blossom
Time is to life as bud is to blossom,
with possible wither or grow.
Is it possible to grow while withering?
Her gentle kiss, while I read, told me so.
Her gentle kiss, while I read, made me glow.
This toddler seeks only our love and laughter.
This toddler knows only our love and laughter,
though we feel loss, walls, and isolation.
Through our loss, walls, and isolation,
this sense that time has been stolen from us.
While we know that time has been stolen,
she's outside, picking flowers in the grass.
Outside, holding flowers from grass, I know
time is to life as bud is to blossom.
