"Writing is something you DO, not something you know."
--- Katie Wood Ray
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
The Reverso
Marilyn Singer invented a poetry form she calls the Reverso. She has published reversos about fairy tales in a book titled Mirror, Mirror, illustrated by Josee Masse. Here is the first reverso she wrote:
A cat Incomplete:
without A chair
a chair: without
incomplete. a cat.
Notice that "when you read a reverso down, it is one poem. When you read it up, with changes allowed only in punctuation and capitalization it is a different poem."
These two poems about the same fairy tale go from one voice to another:
In my hood, After all, Grandma's waiting,
skipping through the wood, mustn't dawdle. . .
carrying a basket, But a girl!
picking berries to eat -- What a treat --
juicy and sweet juicy and sweet,
what a treat! picking berries to eat,
But a girl carrying a basket,
mustn't dawdle. skipping through the wood
After all, Grandma's waiting. in my 'hood.
A cat Incomplete:
without A chair
a chair: without
incomplete. a cat.
Notice that "when you read a reverso down, it is one poem. When you read it up, with changes allowed only in punctuation and capitalization it is a different poem."
These two poems about the same fairy tale go from one voice to another:
In the Hood
In my hood, After all, Grandma's waiting,
skipping through the wood, mustn't dawdle. . .
carrying a basket, But a girl!
picking berries to eat -- What a treat --
juicy and sweet juicy and sweet,
what a treat! picking berries to eat,
But a girl carrying a basket,
mustn't dawdle. skipping through the wood
After all, Grandma's waiting. in my 'hood.
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