While I was at the 2013 West Chester University Poetry Conference from June 4-8 I met many old friends and made some new ones, including Anna Evans with whom I discussed the pantoum and some of her experiments with it. This is the entry on the pantoum from the new Fourth Edition of The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics:
The PANTOUM, a Malayan form, is an interlocking poem composed of quatrain stanzas, and all the lines are refrains. The meter is generally iambic tetrameter or pentameter. The second and fourth lines of each stanza become the first and third lines of the following stanza: A1B1A2B2, B1C1B2C2 and so forth. It can be ended with a circle-back to the two unrepeated lines of the first stanza, or in a couplet made of those lines in reversed order: A2A1.
THE EUNUCH CAT
She went to work until she grew too old,
Came home at night to feed the eunuch cat
That kept the mat warm and its eyeballs cold.
She walked, but ran to wrinkles, then to fat,
Came home at night to feed the eunuch cat,
Then went to bed, slept dreamlessly till eight,
And waked. She ran to wrinkles, then to fat.
She fixed her supper, snacked till it was late,
Then went to bed, slept noisily till eight —
Must I go on? She'll feed the cat no more.
She fixed her supper, snacked till it was late,
Then died at dawn, just halfway through a snore.
Must I go on? — she'll feed the cat no more
To keep the mat warm and its eyeballs cold.
She died at dawn, just halfway through a snore;
She went to work until she grew too old.
-- Wesli Court
When I got back home I found this e-mail message from Anna already waiting for me:
Dear Lewis,
It was great meeting you at West Chester and being able to talk about forms. Thanks for offering to consider putting my haikoum on your blog. Here it is, along with another two I've written and the information you wanted.
In April 2010 I decided to follow the National Poetry Month challenge of writing a poem a day, and in order to make this easier on myself I decided all of them would be pantoums. (Note: I knew this would be easier, but whether this is because I'm a formalist geek or simply because I'm obsessed with structure and control, I couldn't say!)
Of course, writing 30 basic pantoums in blank verse iambic pentameter quatrains would be incredibly dull, so I aimed for variations, and therefore over the course of the month I invented two new versions of the pantoum--the haikoum and the sonnetoum. A haikoum is 8 haiku which is also a 6 quatrain pantoum:
HAIKOUM
Red tulips bloom
beside wilting daffodils:
spring changes hands.
Storm-felled trees scattered
beside wilting daffodils:
the sky is too blue.
Storm-felled trees scattered
by winter's last big tantrum:
the sky is too blue.
Patched up, the fabric ripped
by winter's last big tantrum:
the quarrel is done.
Patched up, the fabric ripped
out of the family home.
The quarrel is done.
They have closed the blinds
out of the family home:
no one can reach them.
They have closed the blinds;
they will not come out again.
No one can reach them.
Red tulips bloom;
they will not come out again:
spring changes hands.
-- Anna Evans
TRIPLE LUTZ
The ice, newly smooth:
a sheet of crisp white paper;
the skate blades, the ink.
Skaters trace the ice,
a sheet of crisp white paper,
with strange loops and whirls.
The skate blades, the ink
emptied into new poems
strange with loops and whirls.
All life's sadnesses
empty into new poems:
white anesthesia.
Our life's sadnesses,
erased by skating backwards:
white anesthesia.
Keep checking behind:
erased by skating backwards,
your first strokes forward.
Keep checking behind;
avoid others in your path.
You're first! Stroke forward!
The ice, newly smooth;
avoid others in your path,
skaters. Trace the ice!
-- Anna Evans
MEMORY PALACE
The old poets set down words,
drinking vessels, purses, stones,
so they'd remember:
The frames of the songs,
drinking vessels, purses, stones,
the things they lived with.
The frames of the songs
lean like ancient monuments,
the things they lived with.
The day your parents
lean like ancient monuments
you cover your ears.
The day your parents
forget how to remember
you cover your ears.
Furnish the rooms or
forget how to remember—
pictures, figurines.
Furnish the rooms or
prepare to lose the building,
pictures, figurines.
The old poets set down words,
prepared to lose them, building
so they'd remember.
-- Anna Evans
A sonnetoum is 2 sonnets which is also a 7 quatrain pantoum, rhyme scheme:
A1B1A2B2B1C1B2C2C1D1C2D2D1D3 D2D4D3E1D4E2E1A3E2A4A3A1A4A2.)
Here's the sonnetoum:
YALTA
Brooding on this awkwardness with you,
in tangled sheets, I could not sleep last night,
and though I hadn't worked out what to do
the room hung heavy with the new day's light.
I could not sleep in tangled sheets. Last night
I wished you were as usual in my bed—
the room hung heavy with the new day's light,
me tucked against your body as you said
you wished I would be always in your bed,
me trying to believe you. I grew cold,
not tucked against your body. As I've said
we should get past this soon. We're getting old.
But you did not believe me and grew cold.
I only want a kiss, a hand to hold.
We should get past this. Soon we will be old,
but you are stubborn and will not be told
I only want a kiss. A hand to hold
would make this uphill road less of a chore.
You are so stubborn! I will not be told
again to keep my mouth shut. To endure
won't make this uphill road less of a chore.
We won't be young or beautiful, it's true,
again. But keep my mouth shut and endure
another thirty years alone? In two,
we won't be young. It's beautifully true:
if brooding on this awkwardness with you
means thirty years, alone, I hope in two
minutes I'll have worked out what to do.
-- Anna Evans
I wrote a blog entry about my pantoum journey here: http://annamevans.com/wordpress/?p=325
I read "Triple Lutz" in New York and David Katz fell in love with the form. He has since written several, one of which, "Haikoum for James Dean," we published in the Raintown Review. You can reach him at <[email protected]>
I hope this is sufficiently interesting for your blog and please feel free to email me with any further questions.
Best,
Anna M. Evans
http://annamevans.com
http://theraintownreview.com
Suggested writing exercise:
Write either a haikoum or a sonnetoum. Or both.
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