You’ll find our articles on new & classic poetic forms here, from the sonnet to found poems & “the Pollock,” plus links to online resources & examples of the various kinds of formal poems.
Cento defined, in our glossary of poetic forms, with links to examples of poems written in cento form.
Rondeau defined, in our glossary of poetic forms, with links to examples of poems written in rondeau form.
Traditional poetic forms briefly defined.
Bob Holman introduces his new ekphrastic poem form, the Rothko: “Call ‘em haikus. Naw, call ‘em Rothkos, I thought, and make ‘em rectangles like the paintings. And get those colors in there while you’re at it...”
The triolet defined, in our glossary of poetic forms.
Abecedarian poem defined, in our glossary of poetic forms.
Acrostic poem defined, in our glossary of poetic forms.
All you need to know about Fibonacci poems, a new math-based poetic form that is proliferating on the Internet, by Georgia Luna Smith Faust.
Terza rima defined, in our glossary of poetic forms.
The ghazal defined, in our glossary of poetic forms.
Haiku defined, in our glossary of poetic forms
The sestina defined, in our glossary of poetic forms
The villanelle defined, in our glossary of poetic forms
The limerick defined, in our glossary of poetic forms
The pantoum defined, in our glossary of poetic forms
The sonnet defined, in our glossary of poetic forms
We’re all for Formalism, especially when you make up the forms... David Shapiro & Frank Lima create another kind of collaboration, the Response Poem.
Having conquered the worm of Dirty Words in his Bad Poetry Curriculum, Sparrow, former Presidential candidate and full-time Poet Laureate of Comic Relief, has invented a new poetic form: Mathemetrics.
John Yau’s “830 Fireplace Road (2)”: The Pollock takes its place beside our previous feature the Rothko as a new poetic form inspired by a painter.
Call ’em haikus. Naw, call ’em Rothkos... and get those colors in there while you’re at it, like a tic-tac-toe.
When the Frankfurt Buchmesse turns fifty, and Bob Holman is commissioned to write the occasional verse, voila!... the poem gathers poets from all cultures and times to say Happy Birthday, What Is a Poem?
