Summer Rerun – 10-Line Poems

This week’s summer rerun comes from Prompt #167. The challenge is for you to write a 10-line  poem (not a line less or more) using a prescribed format. For starters, the “rules” are specific, so try to follow them closely for your first draft. 

The “Rules”

1. Don’t use any terminal punctuation, but begin each line with a capital letter.

2. Throw out all prose impulses (no narrative poems).

3. Resist all formal tendencies (no metrical patterns or rhyme schemes).

4. Don’t plan any part of your poem—just write from line to line.

5. As you write, see what relationships develop; discover what’s going on in the poem.

6. When you finish, look through the poem for a word or phrase that you can use as a title.

7. Let the poem “sit” for a day or two and then look at it again. That will be the time to make changes, to break the rules, tweak, refine, and “color outside the margins.”

______________________

Now ...

8. Make changes in capitalization and punctuation (add periods, question marks, commas etc).

9. Work on alliteration and other sound qualities in your poem.

10. Decide on line breaks. 

Ready?

Line 1: Open the poem with an action.

Line 2: Write a specific image related (even if only superficially) to the last word in line 1.

Line 3: Ask an unconnected question and put it in italics.

Line 4: Write an image related to the question in line 3.

Line 5: Answer the question in line 3 and include a color.

Line 6: Write an image related to the answer in line 5 (direct or suggested).

Line 7: Add a detail in which you modify a noun with an unusual or unlikely adjective.

Line 8: Add an image that echoes or relates to the action in line 1.

Line 9: Free line—add whatever you wish.

Line 10: Close with something seemingly unrelated, strange, or surreal. 

Sample Poem (Draft Only)

A Lingering Dream

Line 1:  She lifts the potted plant from its place on the windowsill

Line 2:  Dusk slips in through parted curtains

Line 3:  A lingering dream, and what came after

Line 4:  The evening sky deepens into something darker

Line 5:  A shade of blue she’s never seen before

Line 6:  Ghosts in spaces between the stars

Line 7:  The clattering choices were hers to make

Line 8:  Gently, her fingertip traces the edge of a tiny bloom

Line 9:  Choices, yes, and flowers among the regrets

Line 10: She removes the china doll from her dresser drawer