Minute Poem: Poetic Forms
Some poetic forms just seem to spring up out of nowhere, and such is the case with the minute poem–a fun, 60-syllable long poem with a simple rhyme scheme and iambic meter.
Some forms have a long, exotic history. Some forms are relatively new, but have a well-known founder. Others just seem to spring out of nowhere. Such appears to be the case with our most recent poetic form: the minute poem.
The rules are rather simple:
- 3 quatrains (or 4-line stanzas)
- 8 syllables in the first line of each stanza
- 4 syllables in the remaining lines of each stanza
- rhyme scheme: aabb/ccdd/eeff
- written in strict iambic meter
So each stanza contains 20 syllables times 3 stanzas equals 60 syllables total. Since there are 60 seconds in a minute, I'm going to go out on a limb and proclaim that's the origin of the name minute poem.
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Play with poetic forms!
Poetic forms are fun poetic games, and this digital guide collects more than 100 poetic forms, including more established poetic forms (like sestinas and sonnets) and newer invented forms (like golden shovels and fibs).
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Here's my attempt at a Minute Poem:
"Days of the Week"
Who knows what comes after Monday
besides Tuesday
who is never
awful clever.
Wednesday will often masquerade
as a parade
for the work week
as if unique.
So, of course, there is the weekend
when we begin
to start our work
or become jerks.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
