r e b i r t h ( a pantoum*)

It’s time to pick my pen,
bleeding has now begun.
This soul yearning for zen,
with strings of fears undone.

Bleeding has now begun,
scabs scratched with cruel hands.
With strings of fears undone,
lost solace sinks in shaken plans.

Scabs scratched with cruel hands.
may healing start to flow.
Lost solace sinks in shaken plans,
may peace rescue from foes.

May healing start to flow,
‘side gasping, breathing den.
May peace rescue from foes,
it’s time to pick my pen.

—

03.04.2019
©2019 Rosemawrites@A Reading Writer. All Rights Reserved.
Photo by Sarah Dorweiler on Unsplash

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Inspired by dVerse Poetry Forms – The Pantoum by dearest Gina of Singledust.

*Pantoum

The pantoum is a poetic form derived from the pantun, a Malay verse form: specifically from the pantun berkait, a series of interwoven quatrains and rhyming couplets.

Basic structure

It is similar to a villanelle with repeating lines throughout the poem. It is composed of a series of quatrains; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated as the first.

The pattern continues for any number of stanzas, except for the final stanza, which differs in the repeating pattern.

The first and third lines of the last stanza are the second and fourth of the penultimate; the first line of the poem is the last line of the final stanza, and the third line of the first stanza is the second of the final.

Ideally, the meaning of lines shifts when they are repeated although the words remain exactly the same: this can be done by shifting punctuation, punning, or simply recontextualizing.

A four-stanza pantoum is common (although more may be used), and in the final stanza, lines one and three from the first stanza can be repeated, or new lines can be written.

The basic pantoum form is as follows:

Stanza 1
A
B
C
D

Stanza 2
B
E
D
F

Stanza 3
E
G
F
H

Stanza 4
G
C
H
A