FriendBurst Blog

This is a special preview for the CPC ‘s Friday Fling poetry challenge.  Poems should be posted there after the challenge opens Thursday evening at 9 PM EST.

Friday Fling #217 for February  1st 2013

February is not one of most people’s favorite months. Perhaps mainly due to the weather mainly, which even in southern climes can be rather too cool.

This year the CPC has declared February “Love Month.” So we thought we’d start this February with a challenge for you to write about something you love about February.

And we’re adding to the challenge by suggesting you write in the format known as the Pantoum. Basically a Pantoum is an ABAB rhyming poem of three or more four line stanzas.

Many people think the Pantoum is one of the more difficult formats to write in. This is because (a) it contains at least twelve lines, and most importantly (b) it has a slightly complex line repetition schedule which the writer must work around in order to keep the poem making sense all the way through. As ShadowPoetrty.com notes, the repetition schedule is

Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4

Line 5 (repeat of line 2)
Line 6
Line 7 (repeat of line 4)
Line 8

Continue with as many stanzas as you wish, but the ending stanzathen repeats the second and fourth lines of the previous stanza (as its first and third lines), and also repeats the third line of the first stanza, as its second line, and the first line of the first stanza as its fourth. So the first line of the poem is also the last.

Last stanza:

Line 2 of previous stanza
Line 3 of first stanza
Line 4 of previous stanza
Line 1 of first stanza

This week the Friday Fling showers Pantioum love on February!

Be sure to save time to read and comment lovingly on your fellow Pals’ Pantoumish Praise. Then go find something to love in the first weekend of February 2013!

Fickle Finger of Fate Award for January 25th

Congratulations Bettie!