FORMAL FORMS AND FORMULAE

As all poets will know, there are a number of set forms of poems which are usually rigid and which vary from the fairly easy to work with up to those that cause nightmares with their complexity. Keeping to a set of rules while making a poem that has something to say can be very taxing, but it's satisfying if it comes together.
     I have invented two forms-with-rules, and have produced poems in a number of different forms to submit for my online course. Those from the general list I have written so far are:
     Chaucerian Roundel
     Limerick (sad rather than humorous)
     Minute (60 syllables)
     Rubai (plural is the well-known 'Rubaiyat')
     Sonnet
     Terza Rima (one of my favourites)
     Villanelle (wildly taxing)
     Shape (or concrete)
     Haiku.

The elements of an extremely tricky Sestina are emerging, and on a good day I may set my cap at a Pantoum. There are others, perhaps less demanding, but I do love a challenge.
     Is anyone else out there tackling these forms? 

 

BACK FROM THE WILDERNESS!

You know that feeling when you're travelling and it turns out that you paid more than anyone else for your ticket?
     That's what it's been like for me in recent years with my website. Although I did all the work of setting it up, writing it, posting photos and images, and managing it generally, the web host was starting to charge ridiculous fees for 'hosting'. They were also giving me considerable warning that renewal was coming over the horizon, then suddenly the renewal date was imminent. 'But I thought you said ...'
      Each year I considered abandoning ship, but I didn't want to lose all that work (did print it out in case) or the name of my site which was 'registered' with them. Also, when glitches appeared on the site, they were unable to fix them and I had to recruit a tech-savvy member of the family to take over the site and fix it.
      This summer, I complained about the fees and was offered a year with more than a third off. Fell for that one, but when it came to paying, the site wouldn't work and the host several times said they'd fixed it but they hadn't. Then I got a bill for two years at four times the one-year offer.
      So I have quit. I know about Wordpress, but thought I'd keep this Blogger account, for now at least, and ring-fence it just for writing.
      Currently I'm concentrating on Poetry, studying through an online course. 75 per cent done, and grades started at C+ and have steadily increased so that the last three assignments were marked A+, A and A+. I think my efforts with formal poetry forms and with my own invented forms have helped, and the course is really enjoyable. Aware that I have bragged about this on Twitter, but it's been so pleasing.
      I have now started submitting to competitions and magazines, though the wait to hear further is up to three months, and then only if successful. No idea how novellists cope with the 'wait-to-hear'; more poems can be written and submitted during this time, but a new novel can't be produced that quickly.
      More to follow. If you're still with me, thanks!