Thursday, March 09, 2006

"Winter is leaving"           [5-si-boomerang]


Born for a purpose I've yet to discern
perhaps I'll expire in kindred dismay
the ring-around seasons incessantly turn
    but they               [1 silent beat]
    don't say               [1 silent beat]
in so many words what fires they burn
    okay . . .               [3 silent beats]
born for a purpose I've yet to discern


This new form of boomerang poem is designed to be recited with 5 silent beats, as noted. Accordingly, I hereby name it a "5-si-boomerang". My most standard form of boomerang poem has five beats per line [mirroring the antecedent 8-line Chinese form with 5 characters per line]. But this new form now specifically calls for lines of four beats. And of course (as noted), here the 4th and 5th lines are recited with merely two beats per line (one spoken, one silent). Incidentally, I notice that at the conclusion of the 8th line, there is an implied additional silence of 4 beats (i.e., implied [in my view] by the inherent musical measure of the poem).

Here is a second expression within the new form.


Winter is leaving & spring will arrive
twigs are appearing on slumbersome trees
under the witness of heaven all strive
    like these
    to tease
new life into being?   all beings alive
    believe
winter is leaving & spring will arrive


I think I will add a further requirement to this new form. It must appear in multiple stanzas -- minimally two. Each stanza can be taken as a kind of stand-alone poem within the suite of 2 (or more) such verses. But (partly because of the 4 silent beats just mentioned) I find that the form also implies that one verse be followed by (at least) a second one. So, immediately after the 4 silent beats [of an initial stanza], the reciter then recites the verse that follows.

(This strikes me as the sensible and natural way of approaching this form, though needless to say readers [and/or other writers] are free to try, or to ignore, such suggestions as they may please.)

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