Saturday, May 18, 2013

Sunday Mini-Challenge: Rictameter

Hello to all the toads and pond dwellers !  Today we are going to tackle a nine-line poem, called the rictameter.   The first 5 lines are very similar to a cinquain.   The rictameter pattern of syllables per line goes like this:  2,4,6,8,10,8,6,4,2.    Also, the first and last lines must be the same.


A tree
It stands alone
In the heart of a field
Unheeded by the world around
Its roots an inverse network of branches
That anchors it to the cool earth
No tapestry has form
Or hue like this

A tree
     

Picture © Grace

Created in the early 1990s by two cousins, Jason D. Wilkins and Richard W. Lunsford, Jr., for a poetry contest that was held as a weekly practice of their self-invented order, The Brotherhood of the Amarantos Mystery. The order was inspired by the Robin Williams movie Dead Poets Society.
The first examples of the rictameter form to be made public were submissions made by Jason Wilkins to the website www.shadowpoetry.com in 2000. 

Satin
As your lips are
Pressed to mine as velvet
Soft and full with rounded sweetness
Two gentle petals alive with the night
Misted in the summer beauty
Of rains that shower love
'Pon your lips of
Satin

Copyright © 2000 Jason Wilkins

Treasure
Placed in your view
So close but out of reach
Torturous to all your senses
For they each cry aloud to possess it
Their desires forever unquenched
For the things some want most
They cannot have
Treasure
Copyright © 2000 Jason Wilkins

The challenge today is to write a new poem, following the pattern of the rictameter. Please remember to share your link with Real Toads and visit and comment on the work of others.

The Sunday Challenge is posted on Saturday at noon CST to allow extra time for the creative process, so please do not link up old work which kind of fits an image. This is in the spirit of our Real Toads project to create opportunities for poets to be newly inspired. Management reserves the right to remove unrelated links but invites you to share a poem of your choice on Open Link Monday.

I look forward to reading your words ~  Happy Sunday to all ~

Grace (aka Heaven)

30 comments:

Kerry O'Connor said...

Many thanks for this fun mini-challenge, Grace. It is just perfect for the weekend. The examples you have shared are inspiring.

Grace said...

Thank you Kerry ~

Wishing you all a lovely weekend ~

I will be off tomorrow to Ottawa to see the tulip festival ~ But I will catch up with all of your posts ~

Helen said...

Yipee! I love writing in this form.

Lorna Cahall said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lorna Cahall said...

Thanks Grace...I enjoyed working on this.

Ella said...

Grace,
I think I am going to love this form- It seems so well suited for nature ;D

Thank you!
Happy weekend to you and all Toads!

Vandana Sharma said...

Just a doubt. Is the syllable requirement for each line is the maximum/ I mean what if there are some what less than the required in each line?
I have never written in this form ,so asking.

Vandana Sharma said...

Well just tried my hand on it. here it is : the Pearl"

Thanks

Scarlet said...

Lorna, you are welcome ~

Vandana, it is the maximum syllables per line. You did very well with the form, thank you for the lovely post ~

Helen and Ella, I am looking forward to your posts ~

Grace

Vandana Sharma said...

:)!!!

Hannah said...

I love this form, Grace!! Thank you! Happy weekend to all the poetic peeps!! :)

LLM Calling said...

That's a brilliant form and I'm so pleased with how it's worked out. Enjoy the festival Grace.

Kay L. Davies said...

And how many poetry forms have been inspired by Robin Williams movies? Probably just one. I looks like fun, and I'll be back later to give it a go, Grace.
Thanks!
K

Fireblossom said...

*sigh* I'm so far behind. I haven't even done Margaret's yet! Why do I have to do things like work for a living? Whyyyyy?!?

Peggy said...

I like this form Grace. It seems to have a natural rhythm that makes it enjoyable to write. Excellent find!

Mary said...

I enjoyed trying out this form, Grace. Thank you!

Janine Bollée said...

This was such a sweet form to try out. Thank you for selecting it for us. It is way past midnight here and the moon is beckoning :-)
See the others tomorrow morning.

Lolamouse said...

This was a fun form! I even wrote two this week!

Grace said...

I am enjoying all the poems, thank you ~ Some of you are missing or over a syllable in a line but I won't nitpick ~ I am happy to see you all writing to a form as I know it is challenging enough to think of words or count the syllables ~ I am gone the whole day Sunday but will be back at night to catch up with all of you ~ My thanks again ~

Marian said...

i forgot about this form. come to think of it, how did i even know about it if we haven't done it here before? HMMMMM.

Susan said...

Made it! A fun challenge. An inhale and an exhale. Thanks,Grace.

Kerry O'Connor said...

It's a wonderful thing for me to wake up on a Sunday and see how much fun everyone has had with the mini-challenge.

Jinksy said...

This gets the Sunday brain in gear! LOL

asteria's canvass said...

The prompt always amazes me..

Anonymous said...

Grace, I'm not usually good at forms, but for some reason, this made sense to me, as I also enjoy cinquains. But you should see me, counting syllables on fingers, reading the words aloud. First, I write theme; then, I tweak the count. Excellent challenge, and thanks!

Marian said...

wrote another one & am sharing, what the hell, the more the merrier?

Grace said...

Marian, the more the merrier ~

Thanks to everyone who participated and linked up over the weekend ~

Have a wonderful week and love to all~

Ella said...

I wrote two-love this form Grace!
Thank you :D

Anonymous said...

Beautiful form =) This is my first ever attempt with it so I am nervous haha

grapeling said...

better late than never (or, the first two lines of the next cinquain/ rictameter?). Thanks, Grace.