The latest issue of McSweeney’s has explanations of many historical forms of literature with both past and current examples. I was intrigued by pantoums – a poem originating from Malaysia from around 1400 AD, and possibly even earlier in oral form. A pantoum is written in quatrains, and, according to McSweeney’s, “…in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza reappear (with small alterations) as the first and third lines of the next stanza, and the first and third lines of the first stanza return as the last and second lines, respectively, of the final stanza. There is no set length, rhyme scheme, or subject matter for a pantoum…”
Well, this sounded fascinating and I loved the pantoums that were printed. So of course, I had to write a pantoum! Now I’m not pretending this is great literature or even good, and I’m not saying it’s profound, but it sure was fun to fool around with. Click here for Busyness.
CHALLENGE – write one yourself and post on the blog. It’s fun!
While I was writing, this is what Beverly Crusher and B’Elanna Torres were doing:
Beverly and B'Elanna like the cabin but they sleep most of the time, then expend huge amounts of energy in lightning bursts.
