Category: Academy

  • Academy Log: Volta D-20 for poetry.

    This is a poetry exercise for anyone in possession of a 20-sided die, it is easily modified for any-sized die for those looking to practice voltas. Step One. Make a list of twenty things you’ve done over the past week, month, whatever. Step Two. Make a list of twenty ways you’ve been interrupted over the…

  • Academy Log: Say It Again, Pantoum

    The first time I ever heard of this poetic form was at a one-day writer’s retreat I almost didn’t go to. While the poem I wrote that day is buried somewhere deep in my parents’ storage unit today, the form is one I always wanted to play with.  The pantoum (pronounced pan-tomb) is a verse…

  • Academy Log: What is poetry, again?

    Presumably, we all know a poem when we see one, but how do we know? Over the course of this series you’ve been spoonfed the F4Q, the Fundamental 4 Questions that every poem answers. What is the form of the poem, open or shut? Who is the voice of the poem; 1st-, 2nd-, or 3rd-person speaker? What kind of poem is it, narrative or lyric? What type of verse is it; rhyming, blank, or free verse? On top of…

  • Academy Log: What type of verse is it?

    Well, there 3 types of verse: Rhyming verse is so called because — you guessed it — it rhymes. There are many poetic forms which are structured around a rhyme scheme; but, I’m linking to Nursery Rhymes because if you ever lose the taste for them then why bother with poetry at all? Blank verse is poetry that does not rhyme and is written in iambic pentameter. An iamb is…

  • Academy Log: Story/Thyme

    Once upon a time there were 2 kinds of poems, those that told stories and those that did not.