E&H Library News

It's April: Welcome to the Palindrome!!!

I know I am not the only person who browses the internet wondering, is today a special today? Is it a holiday? Special month? Well...well?! What I discovered is that April is National Poetry Month and to celebrate I will be highlighting a different type of poem each week and will include a few sample poems from myself and a few colleagues. For the future (and current) writers reading this, give each type of poem a try, share it with us and we will share it on the blog at the end of the month for everyone to see!

For this week I wanted to highlight a somewhat difficult poem to master. It takes a good deal of thought, consideration, and trial and error. It is a challenge, but a fun one. I am referring to the Palindrome poem, or as it has been called across the web as a “Mirror poem”. I am not sure which title I like more: “Mirror poem” sounds mystical, dark, fantastical; or Palindrome, mainly because it sounds very Mad Max-ish. Yes, I do envision an apocalyptic setting in which these ragged, worn, but tricked out vehicles covered in weapons and shielding are driving across the desert with those creepy prisoner guys strapped to the hood or top of the vehicles. If you have seen the newest Mad Max: Fury Road with Charlize Theron and that other, pretty famous guy, there was a crazy music scene with those creepy guys hanging from the tops of those dystopian vehicles playing guitars and having a good ole time. Well take that image and replace the instruments with poetry and a microphone. To some it may be sweet music to the ears, to others possibly torture (like Vogon Poetry - which I will introduce in the coming weeks), regardless, I’ll say it again, Welcome to the Palindrome!

Okay, coming back from that completely irrelevant sidebar, let's take a quick look at what a Palindrome (mirror) poem is and how you can write one.

If you have ever taken a minute to look into a mirror, a real good look, then you have noticed that the reflection you are seeing is reversed, flip-flopped. This is the basic premise to this poetry form. There are three parts to this poem; we will call them the base, the bridge, and the backward:

        The base can be as long as you want, put as many lines as you wish, it doesn’t have to rhyme, and as far as I have seen, there is no syllable count you have to keep up with. Sounds easy, but I promise you will be thinking hard about every word you put into this part, this is the most difficult part of the poem.

        The bridge. Super easy, you just need to find one good word that works for you. It will be what connects the base to the backward. It is the transition word.

        The backward. So this is why you are going to want to take your time when writing the base, because now you are going to take the base and starting with the last word, you are going to write the base in reverse, thus creating the backward. You want to make sure your backward makes sense just as your base did, but if you aren’t careful, you may be stuck with sentences and phrases that make no sense whatsoever. 

Here is a library-themed palindrome that I came up with:

The Library Book

Students find books.

Talking, walking, searching, looking.

Step by step,

Covers bound to endless pages,

Stories whispered frantically.

Dogeared, torn, mending, well-worn

Happy and content are they.

Shhhhh!

They are content and happy.

Well-worn, mending, torn, dogeared

Frantically whispered stories.

Pages, endless to bound covers.

Step by step

Looking, searching, walking, talking.

Books find students.

Here are some more excellent examples brought to you by the library’s incredible staff:

Is it food?

Mmmm.

Is it feline?

Meow.

Tacocat.

Meow.

Feline it is.

Mmmm.

Food it is.

    -Jody

Boxes Making

Spent Time

Measuring with Errors

Agonizing from miscuts

Injuries are few

Panicked laughter

Few are injuries

Miscuts from Agonizing

Errors with Measuring

Time Spent

Making Boxes

    -Rebecca

Spring, pollen awful

Watering, swollen, red, eyes

Running nose

Voice hoarse

People, ALLERGIES only!

Covid not!

Do not give me the stinkeye

Not covid!

Only ALLERGIES, people!

Hoarse voice

Nose running

Eyes red, swollen, watering

Awful pollen, spring

    -Jane

Spring Always Comes 

Birds singing -

Chirping, calling, nesting. 

Trees blossoming -

Bursting, colorful, blooming. 

Flowers budding - 

gently, gently peeking. 

Green pastures. 

Golden sunshine.

Spring.

Golden sunshine. 

Green pastures.

Peeking gently, gently;

flowers budding. 

Blooming, colorful, bursting, 

Blossoming trees.

Nesting, calling, chirping,

Singing birds.

    -Christine

Try it out, have some fun. I can’t wait to see what you create! Submit your creations to aalley@ehc.edu and your poem might get featured in a future blog post.

Reference

Brewer, R. L. (18 November, 2010). Poetic form: Palindrome poetry (mirror form). [Web blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/poetic-asides/personal-updates/poetic-form-palindrome-poetry-or-mirror-poem

Summers, J. & Summers, M. (n.d.). Palindrome poetry. Shadow Poetry. Retrieved from http://www.shadowpoetry.com/resources/wip/palindrome.html