It’s Poetry Friday which means it’s the day when bloggers from all over share poems and poetry fun. I started 2021 very keen to do this every week – and have not done very well at that goal. But today is the day to try to get back on  track.

One of the reasons I have been so busy this year is that, in the space just a few months, I was asked to create a resource for teachers to teach poetry, then wrote and compiled that resource and – voila – it was published.  A big rush to get there, but I am really happy that schools all over Australia have now got this book, and hopefully are finding new ways to share poetry in their classrooms.  If you haven’t yet admired the beautiful cover, here it is again:

(You can find out more about this book, here at the PETAA website)

One of my goals for this book was to share a range of poetry forms which can be used in the classroom. Some of the forms are new but others are better known – with my own little twist.

One of those forms is the diamante – a commonly known form using seven lines (explained by Kenn Nesbitt here).  I started with the diamante, changed the rules and created Metamorphosis Poetry. Here’s an example:

Frog

Tadpole

fishy tail

swim wiggle squirm

growing legs and lungs

climbing onto land

hopping free

Frog

(copyright Sally Murphy, 2021)

Can you see why I called  it a metamorphosis poem? That’s right- because it follows the transformation (metamorphosis)  of a tadpole into a frog. It doesn’t follow the strict form of the diamante – which  specifies word classes for each line (nouns, then adjectives, then verbs and so on). Instead the pattern here is only around numbers of words – except for the first and final line, which move from juvenile to adult:

Line one: one word – the juvenile form

Line two: two words

Line three: three words

Line four: four words

Line five: three words

Line six: two word

Line seven – one word – the adult form

This could be replicated with other animals which metamorphose (caterpillar/butterfly; grub/beetle,; larva/salamander. BUT, you could equally move outside of the animal world  to write about  other transformations. Like this:

Poem

Thought

tickling mind

forming phrases, patterns

demanding my writerly attention

lines, verses, stanzas

pencil flying

poem

(copyright Sally Murphy, 2021)

Other pairs that come to mind are story/book, bricks/house or tune/song – but I’m sure you can come up with others. I challenge you to have a go!

And, if you want to try another form,  Catherine, who is hosting this week’s Poetry Friday roundup  is sharing an amazing example of the Abecedarian. Go check it out!   Happy Poetry Friday!