The Skinny: Poetic Forms
Poetic Form Fridays are made to share various poetic forms. This week, we look at the skinny, a form created by Truth Thomas.
This week's poetic form is named "the skinny," and I'm not sure how I even originally came across this form (it was literally scratched on a Post It note as a possible form). From what I can discern, the skinny was created by Truth Thomas in a Tony Medina poetry workshop at Howard University. And after trying it out, I can say that it's fun and challenging.
Here are the guidelines for the skinny:
- 11-line poem
- First and 11th line have the same words (order can be changed)
- Lines two through 10 contain only one word
- Lines two, six, and 10 must use the same word
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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 The Skinny poem:
"desire," by Robert Lee Brewer
What I want
are
simple
evenings
that
are
filled
with
poems
are
what I want.
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.
