Natural Poems

[Casey Amber Twitchings]

Here’s something you might find interesting. 25-30 years ago I invented a style of poem I call Natural Poems. I created the poems at the same time I was solidifying the “rules”, which is kind of like inventing a new type of dessert while you’re trying to work out the recipe for it. I included the rules in case anybody wants to create their own. Fair warning: they’re deceptively simple. I can’t tell you how many times I had to wrack my brain to find the right word that also had the syllable pattern I needed.

The poems:

How sank the red sun slowly
And lit the sky so holy
That for its part
Did lift my heart
In thoughts to great from lowly.

The stars that shine down nightly
On which we tread so lightly
Are still the same
As those that came
To touch Greek hearts so brightly.

The little patch of wild
That touched me as a child
Now stands anew
To bid adieu
Beneath a concrete mile.

The “rules”:
1. They must be about how nature makes you or others feel.
2. They must be able to be written as a single sentence. Commas are allowed but semicolons are not.
3. They must be exactly 5 lines long.
4. The rhyming scheme is A A B B A.
5. The first, second, and fifth lines must consist of 7 syllables each. The third and fourth lines must be 4 syllables each.
6. The even number syllables in each line are stressed.

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