Fun with Nonets

Last night I went to one of my poetry groups that meets in Leeds at the Leeds Theatre and Arts Center. The facilitator for the group, Joan Dawson, had sent us an assignment to write a nonet. I had never written a nonet before, but we were given the basic format:

“The nonet poetic form is simple. It’s a 9-line poem that has 9 syllables in the first line, 8 syllables in the second line, 7 syllables in the third line, and continues to count down to one syllable in the final (ninth) line.”

I found it to be a fascinating, fun, and easy to use form. Not only is it simple, it offers a qite interesting visual effect on the page. Since I had spent much of the afternoon pruning my crepe myrtle trees, I made that the topic of my poem. We all enjoyed hearing the nonets that people in the group had written. Some were amusing while others were quite profound. Here is my contribution along with photographic proof of how my day was spent.

Pruning

Crepe myrtle branches stacked by the road

while their trunks stand gracefully still.

Cleaning out last year’s brambles

to make way for new growth

is winter’s fierce task.

The gardener

prepares for

springtime 

blooms.

                        ~ CK

-