Shadorma: Poetic Forms
Learn how to write the shadorma, a Spanish six-liner, with guidelines for the form and an example poem.
I recently discovered a poetic form called shadorma (thanks to P.J. Nights via Tammy Trendle) that I had no record of in my two poetic form handbooks. Shadorma is a Spanish 6-line syllabic poem of 3/5/3/3/7/5 syllable lines respectively. Simple as that.
Also, you can link multiple shadorma (shadormas? shadormae?) like in my example below:
"Miss Shadorma"
She throws birds
at the school children
on playgrounds
made of steel
who run intense spirals to
the chain-link fencing.
Sad teachers
watch as they spiral
into air
like reverse
helicopter seeds searching
for their maple trees.
I've found myself addicted to writing in this shadorma form. It's simple and has a nice ebb and flow to the lines. Very fun!
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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).
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.
