Poetry Friday: The Raccontino, once again

 

This month's poem
is dedicated to my Dad,
who celebrated
 his 88th birthday this June

June's challenge was the raccontino, a form we've tried before (although I had no memory of it until I went back to look at my post in 2015.)  Tricia summarizes the form nicely:

• composed of couplets (any number)
• even number lines share the same end rhyme
• the title and last words of the odd numbered lines tell a story

As usual, our Zoom conversation was about how to best approach this form, which on the surface, is similar to last month's golden shovel in that the end words spell out something. For a golden shovel, you borrow a line from another poem for those end words, and there's no requirement for couplets or rhyme. For the raccontino, you ideally use the end words to create your own story, or (as some of us did) you might use a proverb or short quotation as inspiration-- and in between, you insert lines that have to use the same rhyme all the way through, which complicates things.  

I chose a quote from Hamlet---"More matter with less art" which is what the Queen says to Polonius when she asks about her son's madness, and he pontificates instead of answering. It's not exactly a story, but it does provoke interesting conversation, which is our theme for 2025. 

For example:

• In writing poetry, is nailing down the matter (content) your first concern? Or is following the specific rules of the art form (style) the backbone of your approach?  Which serves your process better? 

For me, the last time I wrote a raccontino, I dove into content headfirst, not even bothering to to shape the rhyme or end lines until after I had my content. The rest of the group thought that was insane.  This time, I began with "art"---choosing the form's end lines and rhyme scheme and letting that shape the content.  I found that surprisingly freeing! 

• And what about the "conversation" between that end line story and the rest of the poem?  Is is supposed to repeat the message?  Contradict it? Or, maybe--more subtly-- create tension with it?  

So much potential for conversation!  Which is one reason I love poetry.  It doesn't have right answers, only good questions. And (hat tip to Hamlet) perhaps a respect for both plain speaking and madness.

 Here's my take on matter/art, in a raccontino:

More

To write a poem that will matter,

disregard (for now) rhyme; reason, too;

listen to the words that lurk with

furtive shifting feet, out of view;

the shy dance of poetry is less

about what the sane will say is true

and more about what is left when art

pares away everything not you. 

           ---Sara Lewis Holmes (all rights reserved) 

My poetry sisters' poems can be found here:

Tanita (who is hosting today)

Liz

Tricia

Laura

Mary Lee