Paradel
A 'paradel' is a specific form of constructing a poem. Introduced by US
Poet Lareate, Billy Collins as a 'old' form, it turned out to be a
hoax. But many people have written Paradels.
They are innately repetitive, the skill being to disguise this as much
as possible.
Rules are:- 4 stanzas, 6 lines each
in each stanza, lines 1 and 2 are identical, as are 3and 4. Lines
5&;6 must contain only and all the words from the preeceding 4
lines. The final stanza must contain every and only the words used
previously.
here's my first try:-
Paradel for fish
It was a fish!
It was! A fish.
Away! I swam, silver
Away I swam, silver
A silver fish swam away.
It was I !
The sea, singing
The sea, singing
Sang wet
Sang! Wet.
The wet singing sea,
Sang!
The dark. Shape!
The dark shape
Glides mighty
Glides. Mighty!
Dark,
a mighty shape glides
I was a shape -
fish!
Swam wet.
Sang the dark singing!
The mighty silver sea,
it glides away.
obviously it gets better (and more complex) if you use more words
