I decided to live dangerously in October. It’s a scary month, so I’m going to explore a form of poetry with stringent rules that moves at a rapid-fire pace. I’m going to write blitz poetry. This unusual style, developed by Robert Keim, has set rules using connecting phrases to create a 50-line verse titled Page For Twenty-six.
Line 1 is a short phrase or image. Line 2 is another short phrase or image using the same first word as line 1. Lines 3 and 4 starts with the same word used as the last word of line 2. Then, lines 5 and 6 use the last word of line 4. This pattern is followed until line 48. Line 49 uses the last word in 48. Line 50 begins with the last word in line 47. The title is three words long. The title format is the first word of line 3, a preposition or conjunction, and the first word of 47. You can’t use any punctuation. Luckily, these poems don’t need to rhyme. This poetic adventure will either be a lot of fun or leave me frustrated. I will call this Blitz poem Page For Twenty-six. Let’s get our spooky scare on right now.
Page For Twenty-six
Twenty-six letters
Twenty-six to put on a page
Page filled with pleasure and pain
Page white with rage
Rage for the cruelty
Rage for the urge to be free
Free from the hand of fate
Free to contemplate
Contemplate the future
Contemplate the past
Past that was normal
Past of the pleasant
Pleasant days to write my words
Pleasant collection of compliant birds
Birds that grew feathers
Birds flying across my screen
Screen like a window to my soul
Screen to make buoyancy my goal
Goal to elevate
Goal to eliminate
Eliminate frantic fear
Eliminate barriers here
Here to tell a story true
Hear to more than make do
Do the work
Do it right
Right passage
Right story
Story that can destroy
Story that can heal
Heal the broken heart
Heal the shattered mind
Mind searching for a way out of the madness
Mind looking for a deeper truth
Truth found in the light
Truth minus the darkness
Darkness to devastate the soul
Darkness to drown the sight
Sight into corners
Sight in the night
Night made for sleeping
Night filled with dreams
Dreams of nightmares
Dreams filled with deliverance
Deliverance beyond mediocrity
Deliverance to set us free
Twenty-six letters
Twenty-six to put on the page
page
Twenty-six
Who is Molly Shea?
Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh. To read more of her short stories and adventures, click here.
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Brilliant poem!
Thank you.
Wow !
Thank you.