Happy Valentine’s Day!
Today is a day to celebrate love. A day to speak of our love. A day to share tokens of our love.
So, what exactly is love? Is there a universal definition? One that fits all our varied relationships? What words can describe it? How do we know we love and are loved?
As I reflected, I remembered my high school literature teacher and the passage she said was the greatest literary passage on love, a passage she required us to memorize — to the dotting of the i’s and the crossing of the t’s. {We memorized one literary passage every marking period.}
I read that passage again, and then I wrote a poem. I wrote a Skinny because fewer words seemed best and some words needed repeating.
Forever
Love is greater
forever
caring
forgiving
protecting
forever
trusting
hoping
persevering
forever
greater is Love
© 2019 Alice Nine
What is a Skinny?
The skinny poem, sometimes referred to simply as the Skinny, is an American form created by Truth Thomas. The point of the Skinny is to do what poetry does in as few words as possible.
A skinny poem is eleven lines.
The first and last lines can be any length although shorter lines are preferred. The last line must repeat the words from the first and opening line; however, the words and any punctuation can be rearranged.
All the lines, except for the first and last lines, must be ONLY one word.
The second, sixth, and tenth lines MUST be identical.
{If you haven’t, you really should try your hand at writing a Skinny.}
Read more at The Skinny Poetry Journal.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Writing about my writing
A bit of grammar . . .
Did you notice that I’ve used -ing forms of verbs as adjectives in six of the lines of my Skinny? When this form of the verb functions as an adjective, we call it a participle. Using participles infuses action into a description. I am describing love by portraying it through its actions.
A bit of crafting . . .
I didn’t use capitals at the beginning of the lines because they need to flow into each other. When they do, they offer a number of different ways to read the poem. Also, by having no other words capitalized, my capitalization of the abstract noun love is more noticeable. I used that visual emphasis to draw attention to my personification of Love.
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Poetry Friday Schedule, Jan – June 2019
Inspired by Margaret Simon, I’ve been playing around with skinny poems in my notebook. Now I’ll have another mentor to help me along. I so enjoyed reading about your writing process, too.
You’re right. The skinny form was perfectly powerful.
I always love a good “skinny”! I especially love it when you share your process as well!
Thank you for adding the details to teach us more about this form and the deliberate choices you made in your piece. This post is prompting me to add a collection in my new Wakelet on poetry writing.
Love your poem, but also love that you wrote about your writing. I love learning from this community. Thank you, Alice!
Love your skinny poem, and I’m enjoying learning more about this poetic form.
What a wonderful skinny poem. Love the repeating words and the first and last lines. 1 COR 13 is one of my favorite passages.
The repeated word, forever, is effective for the topic of love. I’m glad you wrote a skinny!
I am excited that you are back with us, Alice. Thanks for sharing your skinny. I am watching the Hallmark Channel and was just thinking that your poem could be read at one of the wedding scenes.
Haven’t read many skinny poems and loved yours. Happy Valentine’s Day week!! 🙂
Beautiful skinny poem Alice, I like the emphasis you gave to “Love” by capitalizing it–and yes to more “Love” too!
Well done, Alice. I ‘love’ that so many today are sharing about ‘love’ in varied wonderful ways. Your addition is just right!
Happy Valentine’s Day/Weekend, Alice, and thanks for sharing. I enjoyed reading about the “skinny” form. The world could certainly use more I Corinthians 13… XO