Mondo: Poetic Forms
Learn how to write the mondo, a collaborative Q&A poem, including guidelines for the poetic form and an example poem.
Some folks may remember me covering katauta (and sedoka) poems last December. Today's poetic form mondo is a close relative of those forms.
Mondo Poems
Mondo poems are often very brief collaborative affairs that present a question and answer in the style of trying to glean meaning from nature. Mondos can be as short as a one-liner or as long as two 5-7-7 syllable stanzas (the first stanza presenting the question; the second the answer). Examples below.
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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 one-line Mondo:
Untitled, by Robert Lee Brewer
why do winter stars shine brighter? i can't hear them laugh.
And here’s a two-stanza Mondo:
Untitled, by Robert Lee Brewer
why do winter stars
shine brighter than summer stars
and why do i notice them?
i can't hear them laugh,
but i remember the way
they once entered the darkness.
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If mondo seems a little too much like sedoka, I totally understand. I think the main difference is a focus on nature and trying to attain a zen-like meaning from natural source material.
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.
