Verica Širgić

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2020-08-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

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Memento - What's Left After The End
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(serbian)

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Avoiding Literary Scams

2009-07-27T11:48:00.000-07:00

When the alleged crooked practices of one book-doctoring firm showed up on page one of the New York Times earlier this year, what astonished me most was the size of the haul the scamsters had supposedly taken in from hopeful writers: $5 million. Even if that particular firm goes out of business, so much money can be made taking advantage of writers-to-be that we're bound to see other villains leaping forward to take their place.
So, while a catalog of suspect firms might be helpful, a more useful, lasting resource is a roster of the tell-tale signs that should arouse suspicion about an operation purporting to serve writers and a repertoire of ways to check on the legitimacy and validity of its offerings. Armed with these tips, you too can learn to sniff out scams, protecting yourself from rip-off artists who prey upon writers' dreams of getting their work published.

Tell-tale Signs of Scams

1. "We recommend..." A common scenario these days: You send your submission off to a literary agency or smaller publisher, and receive a letter praising your work. It would be publishable with some editing -- and the letter recommends a particular person or firm. Your nose should already be detecting a fishy smell here, and if you receive a followup letter from the recommended party, both operations involved are almost certainly rotten.
Many so-called book doctors and editing services do actually help make marginal manuscripts and proposals publishable. Unfortunately, however, some pump writers up with false hopes, charge outrageously for generic suggestions and pay literary agencies and publishers kickbacks for referring suckers to them. The tip-off in the letter you received is the recommendation of one and only one service to fix the supposed faults of your work. Chances are high in this case that any praise of your work was insincere, that every submittor gets the same response and that the recommender and recommendee are in league to profit from vulnerable writers. Run the other way.
2. "Fork over..." You submit your work to a literary agency, and before they'll look at it, they request a "reading fee." Or they look at it for free and request a "marketing fee," "contract fee," "retainer" or "expenses" upfront before they'll represent you. Some folks may give different advice here, but I recommend in both cases that you keep looking for an agent.
The best agents -- those who sell enough books to publishers to support their overhead and even take vacations -- do not charge reading fees. And any out-of-the-ordinary expenses they charge to writers they deduct from advances and royalties that come in for the writer. Any agent who asks you to write out a check is probably either greedy, incompetent or disreputable. Decline.
3. "Co-invest..." You may be savvy enough to recognize that "subsidy publishing" is usually a whitewashed label for vanity publishing, which publishes anything backed up by a check for tens of thousands of dollars, and inevitably disappoints its authors because vanity press books are hardly ever reviewed or accepted by book distributors. But what about "co-publishing," or a "joint venture," where the publisher asks you to share the risks and rewards of publishing? Red flashing lights should go off when you read this request. Tread very, very cautiously here. One co- publishing outfit persuaded authors, perhaps as many as 8,000 of them, to pay upwards of $3,000 each to have 10,000 books printed, marketed and distributed. Hundreds of these authors are now complaining about broken promises, trying to figure out ways to get their money and rights back.
Though some co-publishing arrangements might be legitimate, most share the weaknesses of traditional vanity presses -- no quality control, extravagant promises and failure to deliver the goods.
4. "You just have to buy..." This scam is perfectly legal, but it leads to heartbreak all the same. You see an ad for a poetry contest offering big prizes, and you send in your stuff. Back in the mail comes a letter praising your lovely poem, which although it did not win a prize, was still deemed worthy of publication. To guarantee inclusion in the anthology, and to receive a copy of the book, you just need to write a check for $49.95. What's wrong here? It's a vanity operation, with no quality control. You pay the fee, you get into the anthology. Meanwhile, libraries and bookstores will not carry the book, and mention of your "publication" to those in the know brands you as a dupe, not a genuine poet.
I've received similar "pay the fee to get in" solicitations to be included in Who's Who compilations, and discovered that the legitimate company that publishes Who's Who volumes can't prevent unscrupulous firms from using their famous title and charging for admission.
And what about entry fees for poetry contests? Ironically, these are considered acceptable in the literary world, as the $5 or $10 entry fees often support the judging and prizes. Before entering one of these contests, make sure that the prize includes publication in a periodical that has a history, a reputation or a significant circulation.
5. "We found your name..." A writer recently called me to ask about a letter he'd received congratulating him for having registered the copyright for his book and offering to represent his book to major publishers. He was smart to be suspicious. Reputable literary agencies don't send out generic solicitations -- it's not a cost-effective way to find publishable work. In years past, many writers were taken in by a literary agency that sent out brochures to Writers Digest subscribers. This agency had two divisions -- one for representing world-famous writers and another for taking fees from wannabees. Any generic solicitation is likely to lead to a request for money.
Note the qualifier "generic," because if you publish an article or short story you may receive a personal letter from an agent who obviously read and admired your work. You should still perform due diligence, but this could represent your lucky break rather than the come-on for a scam. Legitimate agents do solicit promising writers one-on-one in this way.
6. "We're looking for writers..." Regard any paid advertisement from a literary agent in a magazine, or the equivalent in an Internet newsgroup, with skepticism. Good literary agents receive all the submissions they can handle through listings in directories and word of mouth. Only marginal agents go out on the hunt in these ways. One agency that indiscriminately spammed Internet newsgroups in a search for clients and then waged a campaign of harassment against writers who tried to expose it actually exposed itself when it asked prospective clients to submit three poems, three short stories, three articles or three book chapters. Real agents do not look to sell poems, short stories or articles for writers -- only books.

Checking Out Your Suspicions

If you're online, it's easy to get fast feedback on questionable literary outfits. Post a notice asking about the specific agent or publisher you're investigating in the newsgroup misc.writing or on the mailing list NWU-chat. Or visit these Web sites:

Science Fiction Writers of America: Writer Beware:
http://www.sfwa.org/Beware/Warnings.html

Nebraska Center for Writers:
http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/NCW/litag.htm

Perhaps counter-intuitively, you may get better information from amateur writers in this regard than from the pros, who already have agents. The collective wisdom of other writers who have been looking for agents for some time is priceless.
If you're not online, pick up your NWU (National Writers Union) directory and start calling. Often one person in your chapter -- perhaps the grievance officer -- serves as the informal repository of information about writing scams. For more information about joining the National Writers Union, visit its Web site at http://www.nwu.org

Self-protective Rules

You won't get scammed if you adopt these general principles:

1. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
2. If you want an assessment or editing of your work, get it from someone you've sought out for that purpose -- not from someone representing himself or herself as an agent or recommended by an agent or publisher.
3. Ask for references of work sold, works published, satisfied clients, etc. If an agent or book doctor says that information is confidential, look elsewhere.
4. Reputable publishers pay writers; reputable agents work on commission. Anything else should arouse suspicions.
5. Don't use the following criteria to disqualify agents or publishers: lack of a business listing with the telephone company; lack of a listing in Literary Marketplace or anywhere else; an answering machine or voice mail instead of a receptionist. These days many legitimate agents and small publishers work out of their homes and use the same strategies to keep their costs down that many writers do. And if they're new, they may not have made it into the cycle for inclusion in the usual listings.

Article by Marcia Yudkin

Four Ways To Publish Poetry

2009-07-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

There are four general options for publishing a collection of poetry:

1) Web Publishing
2) Subsidized Publishing
3) Self Publishing
4) Traditional Publishing

Each method has its own shortcomings and benefits. For example, web publishing is the least pricey and has the lowest reputation, but surprisingly it is capable or reaching a much wider audience than most other methods. My site, such as it is, reaches over 30,000 unique visitors a month.

Option 1: Web Publishing

Web publishing is, quite simply, setting up web pages to display your work. This is an easy process, even for someone with limited knowledge of web page creation. You can make use of a service such as www.blogger.com (free) to create your own site and you simply need to paste in your poems. It is hardly more work than e-mailing.
Because web sites are inexpensive and easy to create, there are many people out there doing it. This means that it carries less prestige than any of the other methods, yet web pages are easier to promote than books and because they are free, will often attract more readers than a book if you do a little marketing and publicity work.

Option 2: Subsidized Publishing

Subsidized publishing is when you pay someone to publish a book for you. There are many options of varying expense. Print-on-demand services are the cheapest, and www.lulu.com has been gaining in reputation among those services lately. www.xlibris.com and www.iuniverse.com are two other established services. Print-on-demand publishers only print books when they are ordered. This means that you do not have to pay for a set run of books and therefore have little (sometimes no) upfront fees.
The downside of these services is that there is often very little variation in the printing process. In other words, you have limited control over how the book looks. You may also have to create the formatting for the book on your own, which many people do not know how to do. If you can’t do it, you’ll have to pay someone who can. This publishing segment is still relatively new (only five years old by my count) and much like the Internet, you have to be careful to make sure what a service offers is what they provide.
A more expensive, more established option is to go with a subsidized publishing company that will work with you individually to tailor the book to your vision. The publisher will then print a run of books (100 is usually the bare minimum and 1000 will generally get you a reasonable price-per-book). You pay upfront for the books and you sell them on your own through advertising, readings and whatever other means you can come up with. A new, inexpensive option is to go with a print-on-demand publisher such as lulu.com.
The benefit of subsidized publishing is that you get an actual book that you can hold, show and even sell. It doesn’t quite have the prestige of traditional publishing, but people do respect almost any book more than a web page.

Option 3: Self Publishing

Self publishing is a challenge. It means taking charge of every aspect of the publishing process from formatting the book to obtaining the ISBN number to printing the book to marketing the book. It is not a simple process, but it is a rewarding one. Every part of the process can be done by an individual working out their own home with the right equipment (computer, printer, desktop publishing program, telephone, personal resolve). On the other hand, any part of the process can be hired out, from designing the book to printing the book to hiring a publicist.
Many poets start with a chapbook. The definition of a chapbook is that it is stapled (like a magazine) rather than bound. Because of this, chapbooks are relatively easy to produce on a printer or through a copy shop. They aren’t quite as attractive as bound books and most book stores will not carry them because you can’t read the name on the binding, which is how book store patrons generally find books. You can, however, sell these books through Amazon or other online outlets as long as you have an ISBN number.

Option 4: Traditional Publishing

The “traditional” publishing world (in which the publisher assumes all expense and sometimes even pays the poet) is a tough nut to crack. Major publishers do not publish books of poetry, except when they see a clear profit in the activity or they are appeasing an otherwise profitable writer. This leaves most poetry publishing to university presses and other small presses. There are virtually no agents who work with poets and small presses. Most of these publishers struggle to break even, much less turn a profit. Because of this, small presses often exist to publish works or poets that the publisher loves, not just likes or appreciates, loves. Often, the publisher knows the poet on a personal basis or has discovered them through journals or recommendations from other poets. That is why it is important to become active in the poetry world. If you are sending your poetry to these publishers without getting to know who the publishers are and what they like, your chances of finding the right publisher for you are slim.
The best way to become a published poet through the traditional route is to become a part of the poetry community. How do you do that?

Buy books of poetry, especially books by current writers working in the field.
Subscribe to poetry journals.
Go to poetry readings. Check your local arts publications. Almost any sizable town has readings every week or every other week. This is a great opportunity to meet poets and people who care about poetry. When you go to readings, donate money and buy books if you can. Support the community you belong to. Host a poetry event or organize a reading. This is a way or recognizing the poets you enjoy and a way of promoting yourself in the community.
Publish your own poetry journal. Even a web page or a few sheets of paper stapled together gets the word out.
Form a poetry circle or group. If you want to swap poetry and criticism with your peers, form your own group. Many local arts publications let you list your group for free.

Article by John Hewitt

Ten Ways To Get Your Poetry Promoted

2009-07-27T10:26:00.000-07:00

Advices from a bestseller

As the president and founder of Canadian Federation of Poets and President and Founder of Poetry Canada magazine, I get asked this question over and over - "How do I get my poetry published?"
Well sometimes getting your work published means making a name for yourself first, or at the very least, letting others know what you do.
Here are the top 10 ways I used that you can easily do too. Whether you have a poem, or a book, let others know.

1. Post it at the office

If you have a bulletin board at the office, post an actual poem or a flyer about your book with all the other notices. Make someone's day with it. Or send it to the office newsletter. Get it read!

2. Make your own cards or calendar

People pay $5 for a store bought Hallmark. Cash in on some of that action, add your own poem or quote from your book, and make your own. Add a photo, or other royalty free images. At the very least you can save money.

3. Create a chapbook

Most people have enough poetry to fill a book. Don't wait to be published, do it yourself. Print it, staple it, add pictures, and give out as gifts, brochures, or sell them. There are many low cost print on demand options out there.

4. Send it to your local paper

Papers often need filler, and poetry should be it. If we all send often, they'll start to realize there's a demand, and use it. If you have a book, send a chapter and offer to put some of your story in week by week.

5. Submit to magazines

You won't know if you don't try! There are hundreds of magazines out there, and new ones opening up every month.

6. Attend an open mic

Attend an event and read at least once a month. Keeping your poetry to yourself won't get it out there. If there isn't any, create the opportunity, select a coffee shop or bar, and watch the closet poets come out.

7. Snail mail a poem

Remember the old days when you used to send a letter to a lover, spouse, friend or child. Choose someone each month, and send them a poem. Enrich them with your words.

8. Crash a Karaoke Night

If you have performance poetry, or a poem that could be sung, take it to the big league. These places are usually well attended, and they would be grateful of the 'variety'.

9. Enter a contest

There are many contests that don't charge a fee, and reward you in some way. Find these, and enter them. Just think of the thrill if you won, and it doesn't cost you anything!

10. Help poetry to help you

When you help, that comes back to you. Volunteer for an event, host a poetry party, give a free workshop, promote poetry, and this will promote you in return.

And remember to blog, go to social media sites and share your work or add to a conversation, and build a following so that when you're ready to launch your book, you'll become a best seller too!

Article by Tracy Repchuk

Classic Forms Of Poetry

2009-07-27T10:04:00.000-07:00

Acrostic - A poem in which the initial letters of each line can be read down the page to spell either an alphabet, a name (often that of the author, a patron, or a loved one), or some other concealed message. Variant forms of acrostic may use middle letters or final letters of lines or, in prose acrostics, initial letters of sentences or paragraphs.
Example

Ballad - a folk song or orally transmitted poem telling in a direct and dramatic manner some popular story usually derived from a tragic incident in local history or legend. The story is told simply, impersonally, and often with vivid dialogue. Ballads are normally composed in quatrains with alternating four stress and three stress lines, the second and fourth lines rhyming but some ballads are in couplet form, and some others have six line stanzas. Appearing in many parts of Europe in the late Middle Ages, ballads flourished particularly strongly in Scotland from the 15th century onward.
Example

Cinquain - A five-line stanza of syllabic verse, the successive lines containing two, four, six, eight and two syllables.
Example

Clerihew - a form of comic verse named after its inventor, Edmund Clerihew Bentley. It consists of two metrically awkward couplets, and usually presents a ludicrously uninformative ‘biography’ of some famous person whose name appears as one of the rhymed words in the first couplet.
Example

Diamante - Also known as a Diamond Poem, the diamante is a style of poetry that is made up of six or seven lines. It usually forms a shape of a diamond.
Example

Epic - a long narrative poem celebrating the great deeds of one or more legendary heroes, in a grand ceremonious style. The hero, usually protected by or even descended from gods, performs superhuman exploits in battle or in marvelous voyages, often saving or founding a nation.
Example

Epigram - a short poem with a witty turn of thought; or a wittily condensed expression in prose.
Example

Epitaph - a form of words in prose or verse suited for inscription on a tomb–although many facetious verses composed as epitaphs have not actually been inflicted on their victims' graves. Epitaphs may take the form of appeals from the dead to passers-by, or of descriptions of the dead person's merits.

Etheree - Etheree poetry is a little-known form of non-classic poetry. Since it is such a fun modern form to work with however, we have decided to include it in our classic forms overview. Etheree's form consists of 10 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 syllables.

Fable - a brief tale in verse or prose that conveys a moral lesson, usually by giving human speech and manners to animals and inanimate things. Fables often conclude with a moral, delivered in the form of an epigram.
Example

Ghazal - short lyric poem written in couplets using a single rhyme (aa, ba, ca, da etc.), sometimes mentioning the poet's name in the last couplet.
Example

Haiku - a form of Japanese lyric verse that encapsulates a single impression of a natural object or scene, within a particular season, in seventeen syllables arranged in three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables.
Example

Kyrielle - A kyrielle is written in rhyming couplets or quatrains. It uses the phrase "Lord have mercy", or a variant on it, as a refrain as the second line of the couplet or last line of the quatrain. In less strict usage, other phrases, and sometimes single words, are used as the refrain. If the kyrielle is written in couplets, the rhyme scheme will be: a-A, a-A. There are a number of possible rhyme schemes for kyrielle constructed in quatrains, including a-a-b-B, c-c-b-B and a-b-a-B, c-b-c-B (uppercase letters signify the refrain).
Example

Lanturne - Lanturne poetry is a little-known form of non-classic Japanese poetry. Since it is such a fun modern form to work with however, we have decided to include it in our classic forms overview. A Lanturne is a five-line verse shaped like a Japanese lantern with a syllabic pattern of one, two, three, four, and one syllables.

Limerick - an English verse form consisting of five anapaestic lines rhyming aabba, the third and fourth lines having two stresses and the others three. Early examples use the same rhyming word at the end of the first and last lines, but most modern limericks avoid such repetition. The limerick is almost always a self‐contained, humorous poem, and usually plays on rhymes involving the names of people or places.
Example

Minute Poem - A Minute Poem is a little-known form of non-classic poetry. Since it is such a fun modern form to work with however, we have decided to include it in our classic forms overview. The Minute Poem is a rhyming verse form consisting of 12 lines of 60 syllables written in strict iambic meter. The poem is formatted into 3 stanzas of 8,4,4,4; 8,4,4,4; 8,4,4,4 syllables. The rhyme scheme is as follows: aabb, ccdd, eeff.

Mirrored Refrain - A Mirrored Refrain is a little-known form of non-classic poetry. Since it is such a fun modern form to work with however, we have decided to include it in our classic forms overview. A Mirrored Refrain poem is formed by three or more quatrains where two lines within the quatrain are the "mirrored refrain" or alternating refrain. The rhyme scheme is as follows: xaBA, xbAB, xaBA, xbAB, etc.. x represents the only lines that do not rhyme within the poem. A and B represent the refrain.

Nonet - A Nonet is a little-known form of non-classic poetry. Since it is such a fun modern form to work with however, we have decided to include it in our classic forms overview. A Nonet is a nine line poem, with the first line containing nine syllables, the next eight, so on until the last line has one syllable. Nonets can be written about any subject, and rhyming is optional.

Ode - an elaborately formal lyric poem, often in the form of a lengthy ceremonious address to a person or abstract entity, always serious and elevated in tone.
Example

Ottava Rima - a form of verse stanza consisting of eight lines rhyming abababcc, usually employed for narrative verse but sometimes used in lyric poems.
Example

Pantoum - A poem in a fixed form, consisting of a varying number of 4-line stanzas with lines rhyming alternately; the second and fourth lines of each stanza are repeated to form the first and third lines of the succeeding stanza, with the first and third lines of the first stanza forming the second and fourth of the last stanza, but in reverse order, so that the opening and closing lines of the poem are identical.
Example

Quatrain - quatrain, a verse stanza of four lines, rhymed or (less often) unrhymed. The quatrain is the most commonly used stanza in English and most modern European languages. Most ballads and many hymns are composed in quatrains in which the second and fourth lines rhyme (abcb or abab); the ‘heroic quatrain’ of iambic pentameters also rhymes abab. A different rhyme scheme (abba) is used in the In Memoriam stanza and some other forms. The rhyming four‐line groups that make up the first eight or twelve lines of a sonnet are also known as quatrains.
Example

Rondeau - a medieval French verse form also used by some late 19th century poets in English. It normally consists of 13 octosyllabic lines, grouped in stanzas of five, three, and five lines. The whole poem uses only two rhymes, and the first word or phrase of the first line recurs twice as a refrain after the second and third stanzas. The standard rhyme scheme (with the unrhymed refrain indicated as R) is aabba aabR aabbaR. Variant forms of the rondeau include those using 10 syllable lines and those having only 12 lines, but in all cases the refrain and the restriction to two rhymes are retained. An even more complicated form is the rondeau redoublé, a 24 line poem also using only two rhymes in its six quatrains, with each line of the first stanza recurring in turn as the final line of the following stanzas until the poem's opening phrase recurs after the last line.
Example

Rondel - a medieval French verse form related to the triolet and the rondeau. In its usual modern form, it is a 13‐line poem using only two rhymes in its three stanzas. It employs a two‐line refrain which opens the poem and recurs at lines 7 and 8, the first line (or, in a 14‐line variant, both opening lines) also completing the poem. The rhyme scheme—with the repeated lines given in capitals—is thus ABba abAB abbaA (B). There is no fixed metre.
Example

Rondelet - A short variation of the rondeau consisting generally of one 7-line stanza with two rhymes. The first line has four syllables and is repeated as a refrain forming the third and seventh lines; the other lines have eight syllables each.
Example

Senryu - A three-line unrhymed Japanese poetic form structurally similar to the haiku, but dealing with human rather than physical nature, usually in an ironic or satiric vein. The structure for the Senryu is the same as a Haiku in the sense that it is written in 5-7-5 for a total of 17 syllables.
Example

Septolet - A Septolet is a little-known form of non-classic poetry. Since it is such a fun modern form to work with however, we have decided to include it in our classic forms overview. Septolet's are seven line poetry patterns that use syllable patterns to create the rhythm of the poem. The syllable patterns are 1,2,3,4,3,2,1.

Sestina - a poem of six 6‐line stanzas and a 3‐line envoi, linked by an intricate pattern of repeated line‐endings. The most elaborate of the medieval French fixed forms, it uses only six end‐words (normally unrhymed), repeating them in a different order in each stanza so that the ending of the last line in each stanza recurs as the ending of the first line in the next. The envoi uses all six words, three of them as line‐endings. The established pattern of repetition for the six stanzas is as follows: 1‐ABCDEF, 2‐FAEBDC, 3‐CFDABE, 4‐ECBFAD, 5‐DEACFB, 6‐BDFECA.
Example

Shape Poetry, Concrete Poetry or Pattern Poetry - a kind of picture made out of printed type, and regarded in the 1950s and 1960s, when it enjoyed an international vogue, as an experimental form of poetry. It usually involves a punning kind of typography in which the visual pattern enacts or corresponds in some way to the sense of the word or phrase represented: a well‐known early example is Guillaume Apollinaire's poem ‘Il pleut’ (‘It rains’, 1918), in which the words appear to be falling down the page like rain. For example, you were writing a poem about a Christmas tree, the poem would be written in the shape of a Christmas tree.
Example

Sonnet - a lyric poem comprising 14 rhyming lines of equal length: iambic pentameters in English, alexandrines in French, hendeca‐syllables in Italian. The rhyme schemes of the sonnet follow two basic patterns-

(1)The Italian Sonnet (also called the Petrarchan sonnet after the most influential of the Italian sonneteers) comprises an 8‐line ‘octave’ of two quatrains, rhymed abbaabba, followed by a 6‐line ‘sestet’ usually rhymed cdecde or cdcdcd. The transition from octave to sestet usually coincides with a ‘turn’ (Italian, volta) in the argument or mood of the poem. In a variant form used by the English poet John Milton, however, the ‘turn’ is delayed to a later position around the tenth line. Some later poets—notably William Wordsworth—have employed this feature of the ‘Miltonic sonnet’ while relaxing the rhyme scheme of the octave to abbaacca. The Italian pattern has remained the most widely used in English and other languages.

(2)The English Sonnet (also called the Shakespearean sonnet after its foremost practitioner) comprises three quatrains and a final couplet, rhyming ababcdcdefefgg. An important variant of this is the Spenserian sonnet (introduced by the Elizabethan poet Edmund Spenser), which links the three quatrains by rhyme, in the sequence ababbabccdcdee. In either form, the ‘turn’ comes with the final couplet, which may sometimes achieve the neatness of an epigram.
Example

Tanka - a traditional form of Japanese lyric poem consisting of 31 syllables arranged in lines of 5, 7, 5, 7, and 7 syllables.
Examples

Terza Rima - a verse form consisting of a sequence of interlinked tercets rhyming aba bcb cdc ded etc. Thus the second line of each tercet provides the rhyme for the first and third lines of the next; the sequence closes with one line (or in a few cases, two lines) rhyming with the middle line of the last tercet: yzy z (z).
Example

Terzanelle - is a poetry form which is a combination of the villanelle and the terza rima. It is nineteen lines total, with five triplets and a concluding quatrain OR a total of sixty-six lines, consisting of twelve triplets and a concluding quatrian (for good measure, some say). This thirteen-stanza form is quite rare in english literature, when compared to the 'standard' six stanza alternative. The rhyme scheme is as follows, with bracketed letters representing individual rhymes:

Verse 1 (a)
Verse 2 (b)
Verse 3 (a)

Verse 4 (b)
Verse 5 (c)
Verse 2 (b)

Verse 6 (c)
Verse 7 (d)
Verse 5 (c)

Verse 8 (d)
Verse 9 (e)
Verse 7 (d)

Verse 10 (e)
Verse 11 (f)
Verse 9 (e)

-
Ending Type 1:

Verse 12 (f)
Verse 1 (a)
Verse 11 (f)
Verse 3 (a)

Note that the thirteen stanza form continues in the same manner, ie. with the middle line of one stanza becoming the last of the next, and the first and third of each stanza rhyming.

Alternately, with capital-letter rhyme notation:

ABA'
bCB
cDC
dED
eFE

Ending Type 1:

fAFA'

Note that the final quatrain of the terzanelle is often rearranged to suit the poem and the poet's needs. Because of this, any final stanza arrangement is considered within the scope of the terzanelle form, providing the correct lines are repeated.
Example

Triolet - a poem of eight lines using only two rhymes, the first two lines being repeated as the final two lines, the first line also recurring as the fourth. The rhyme scheme—with repeated lines given in capitals—is ABaAabAB. The triolet is one of the medieval French fixed forms, and may be considered as a simplified form of the rondel.
Example

Villanelle - a poem composed of an uneven number (usually five) of tercets rhyming aba, with a final quatrain rhyming abaa. In this French fixed form, the first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately as the third lines of the succeeding tercets, and together as the final couplet of the quatrain. Representing these repeated lines in capitals, with the second of them given in italic, the rhyme scheme may be displayed thus: AbA abA abA abA abA abAA.
Example

Articles and examples from Wikipedia

How To Write A Poem

2009-07-27T09:47:00.000-07:00

Steps:

1. Read and listen to poetry. It is almost certain, though, that any poet who has been published or who has garnered any following enhanced their skills by reading or listening to good poetry, even if they later scoffed at conventional notions of what was "good." "Good" poems fall into three categories: those that are recognized as classics, those that seem to be popular, and those that you personally like. Poems typically being short, there is no reason not to explore plenty of both.
2. Find a spark. A poem may be born as a snippet of verse, maybe just a line or two that seems to come out of nowhere. That's what's usually called inspiration, and once you have that beginning you simply need to flesh it out, to build the rest of the poem around it.
At other times you may want to write about a specific thing or idea. If this is the case, do a little planning. Write down all the words and phrases that come to mind when you think of that idea. Allow yourself to put all your ideas into words.
It may sound difficult, but do not be afraid to voice your exact feelings. Emotions are what make poems, and if you lie about your emotions it can be easily sensed in the poem. Write them down as quickly as possible, and when you're done, go through the list and look for connections or certain items that get your creative juices flowing.
3. Think about what you want to achieve with your poem. Perhaps you want to write a poem to express your love for your boyfriend or girlfriend; perhaps you want to commemorate a tragic event; or maybe you just want to get an "A" in your poetry class. Think about why you are writing your poem and who your intended audience is, and then proceed in your writing accordingly.
4. Decide what poetry style suits your subject. There are a great many different poetic styles. [1]. If you see "Winter icicles / plummeting like Enron stock..." perhaps you've got a haiku in your head. As a poet, you have a wide variety of set forms to choose from: limericks, sonnets, villanelles ... the list goes on and on. You may also choose to abandon form altogether and write your poem in free verse. While the choice may not always be as obvious as the example above, the best form for the poem will usually manifest itself during your writing.
5. Listen to your poem. While many people today have been exposed to poetry only in written form, poetry was predominantly an aural art for thousands of years, and the sound of a poem is still important. As you write and edit your poem, read it aloud and listen to how it sounds.
6. Write down your thoughts as they come to you. Don't edit as you write, or do edit as you write - the choice is yours. However, you should try both methods at least a couple times to see what works best for you.
7. Choose the right words. It's been said that if a novel is "words in the best order," then a poem is "the best words in the best order." Think of the words you use as building blocks of different sizes and shapes. Some words will fit together perfectly, and some won't. You want to keep working at your poem until you have built a strong structure of words. Use only those words that are necessary, those that enhance the meaning of the poem. Choose your words carefully. The differences between similar sounding words or synonyms can lead to interesting word play.

8. Use concrete imagery and vivid descriptions.

- Love, hate, happiness: these are all abstract concepts. Many, maybe all, poems are, deep down, about emotions and other abstractions, but it's hard to build a strong poem using only abstractions - it's just not interesting. The key, then, is to replace or enhance abstractions with concrete images, things that you can appreciate with your senses: a rose, a shark, or a crackling fire, for example. The concept of the objective correlative may be useful. An objective correlative is an object, several objects, or a series of events (all concrete things) that evoke the emotion or idea of the poem.
- Really powerful poetry not only uses concrete images; it also describes them vividly. Show your readers and listeners what you're talking about--help them to experience the imagery of the poem. Put in some "sensory" handles. These are words that describe the things that you hear, see, taste, touch, and smell, so that the reader can identify with their own experience. Give some examples rather than purely mental/intellectual descriptions. For example: "He made a loud sound" versus "He made a loud sound like a hippo eating 100 stale pecan pies with metal teeth".
9. Use poetic devices to enhance your poem's beauty and meaning. The most well known poetic device is rhyme. Rhyme can add suspense to your lines, enhance your meaning, or make the poem more cohesive. It can also make it prettier. Don't overuse rhyme. It's a crime. In fact you don't have to use rhyme at all. Other poetic devices include meter, metaphor, assonance, alliteration, and repetition. If you don't know what these are, you may want to look in a poetry book or search the internet. Poetic devices can make a poem or, if they bring too much attention to themselves, they can ruin it.
10. Save your most powerful message or insight for the end of your poem. The last line is to a poem what a punch line is to a joke--something that evokes an emotional response. Give the reader something to think about, something to dwell on after reading your poem. Resist the urge to explain it; let the reader become engaged with the poem in developing an understanding of your experience or message.

11. Edit your poem. When the basic poem is written, set it aside for awhile and then read the poem out loud to yourself. Go through it and balance the choice of words with the rhythm. Take out unnecessary words and replace imagery that isn't working. Some people edit a poem all at once, while others come back to it again and again over time. Don't be afraid to rewrite if some part of the poem is not working. Sometimes you just can't fix something that essentially doesn't work.
12. Get opinions. It can be hard to critique your own work, so after you've done an initial edit, try to get some friends or a poetry group (there are plenty online) to look at your poem for you. You may not like all their suggestions, and you don't have to take any of them, but you might find some insight that will make your poem better. Feedback is good. Pass your poem around, and ask your friends to critique your work. Tell them to be honest, even if it's painful. Filter their responses or ignore them altogether and edit as you see fit.

Tips:

- Do you find that you never feel inspired when you sit down to write a poem? It's a common problem, and you can solve it by carrying a notebook with you everywhere in which you can jot down poem ideas as they come to you. Then, when you're ready to write, just get out the notebook and find an idea that catches your fancy.
- You might want to listen to soothing music or look at pictures to calm and inspire you.
- Don't forget that surprise makes art (writing) extra special. If you're going to drag out the tired old rose metaphor in a love poem, put your own twist on it.
- Don't give up. You'll probably find that your poems become better and easier to write as you write more of them.
- Poems can make a great gift.
- Keep all of your poetry in a book whether you like it or not. In the future, you might be able to salvage some of the throwaways or publish your best work.
- When writing poetry, try to plan it out, use all the senses and base it on one or two main ideas.
- Avoid cliches or overused images. "The world is your oyster," is neither a brilliant nor an original observation.
- If you are writing a poem to be sent to a newspaper or a family-friendly magazine, choose your words and topic with care. You don't want the paper to censor your original work or reject it because of profanity.
- Try to think of words that rhyme before you put them down on paper. This saves you from erasing over, and over again.

Warnings:

- Avoid sharing your work with people who do not appreciate poetry. This is a mistake that can discourage you from being a poet. It is often difficult to explain that you are just trying your hand at something new. The best thing to do is ask someone you know who will support you (who also happens to appreciate the art of the written word) to kindly critique you.
- To guard against plagiarism, do what you can to reinforce your copyrights to your work. One way to do this is to make a copy of your work, seal it into an envelope, place a stamp on it, and mail it back to yourself. When you receive it in the mail, don't open it. The un-opened envelope can provide additional evidence that you are the copyright holder should it ever be in question, although it is not guaranteed to prove it in court.
- If you have too much imagery, it can actually hurt your poem. "Explosively radiating sunshine slammed through my window" is just over the top.
- If you want others to read your poetry, ask yourself "If somebody else showed me this, would I like it?" If the answer is "no," edit the poem some more.
- If you're simply brimming with ideas and inspiration, don't try to fit it all into one poem. You'll have the chance to write more in the future.

Things You'll Need:

- Paper
- Pen/Pencil
- Time
- Great idea(s)

Article from WikiHow

Definition Of Poetry

2009-07-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

Poetry is language with musical elements. Some experts maintain that poetry must contain such literary elements as metaphor and simile. Others stress rhythm and rhyme as the most essential parts of poetry. As with art itself, the definition of poetry is under constant debate. To shed some light on the subject, let's explore the history, function, types and features of poetry, and take a look at some misconceptions.

History:

It is impossible to trace poetry to a definite beginning, as it is likely as old as the human spoken word. The oldest recorded poetry is contained in the cuneiform tablets of ancient Mesopotamia circa 3,000 B.C. Classical Chinese poetry has its roots in the form of song lyrics dating to 1,000 B.C. Poetry appears in all the major religious canons, such as the Sanskrit Vedas, the Hebrew Tanakh and the Greek Bible. In the West, poetry has evolved from such ancient Greek masterpieces as Homer's "Odyssey" and "Iliad" circa 900 B.C., on into the Romantic poetry of Western Europe, and through the modern and postmodern periods to the present.

Function:

Poetry was born of a basic human desire to communicate not just the meaning of words, but also the sense or feel of them. Writers use poetry to evoke a mood in the reader or listener, so that the experience can occur on multiple levels of the human psyche. In rhetoric, elements of poetry are used to help the audience comprehend the message more clearly. In music, poetry is often used to evoke laughter, tears and other human emotional responses.

Types:

Poetry takes on many forms. One common type of poetry is rhyming couplets, in which each successive pair of lines are approximately the same length and rhyme with one another. In free-form poetry, rhyme and meter are loose, allowing for complex rhythms and greater contextual freedom. Poems can be long or short. "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is a well known long-form poem that tells a story. Haiku, a short form of poetry, strives to evoke a moment or mood in just three short lines. With the advent of post-modernism (and even post-post-modernism), the rules have been successively cast out, reclaimed, taken apart and reassembled countless times. As a result, the "types" of poetry will never be completely standardized.

Features:

Poetry contains the features of both literature and music. One of the most recognizable elements of poetry is metaphor, a literary technique used to compare one thing to another ("A" is like "B, or "X" is "Y"). Imagery, another basic literary element of poetry, is often used to paint a picture in the mind of the reader or listener. To evoke a sense of authenticity some poets use vernacular language, as in the language of hip hop. On the musical side of poetry, there is rhyme, rhythm, meter, tone, pacing and other aural elements. Whether written or spoken, the musical features of poetry appeal to the human ear and thus play a crucial role in establishing mood.

Misconceptions:

Not all poetry has to rhyme. Yes, rhyme often helps a poem to succeed, as the human ear enjoys hearing things in pairs. But just as with symphonic music of the modern period, poetry can be musical without rhyming. On the other hand, free-form poetry does not mean "anything goes." All poetry, by definition, must contain musical elements, however subtle, and some intentionality with regard to the language. It can be difficult to distinguish between a free-form poem and a string of random words, but that is part of the attraction of poetry: aesthetic quality is in the ear of the beholder.

Article by: Will Conley (eHow)

Poetry Help

2009-07-27T09:30:00.000-07:00

Featured Articles Are Listed

*Note: If you want to suggest an article, simply send me an Email or put it in a comment under this post. More articles coming soon :)

Bookmarks

2009-07-26T02:56:00.000-07:00

*

- Book Recommendations / Wishlist:

"Junaci Urbane Bede" by Trablmejker (serbian)
"Mala Ramona" by Siniša Radanović (serbian)
"Taste the Textures" by Ian Adam Bravestone (english)
"The Simon Collective" by A.M. Hess and P. Carson (english)

*

- Personal Poetry Web Pages:

*

- Online Communities:

The Poet Sanctuary (english)
The Creative Pen (english)
Svet Knjiga (serbian)

*

- Famous Writers Pages:

*Note: If you have your own book or work out online for reading or purchase, you're the owner/admin of an active online poetry community or would like to see your own personal page here among these links - send me your link via Email or leave a comment under this post with a short description and I will put it on this list if I like it. Please don't spamvertise, though.

Short Biography

2009-07-26T02:42:00.000-07:00

Verica Sirgic, born in Sabac, Serbia in 1982, first started writing poetry at the age of 13, after the loss of her father. For a while she wrote in her own language, but stopped, in order to continue writing in English, five years later, in her first year of college.

Graduated in Hospitality Industry Management in Belgrade (2007) and at the time being is unemployed after years of working in the Industry and never actually took writing as her real job. After nine years of writing and over 150 pieces of poetry and prose, Verica has published several paperback editions on her personal expense, that didn’t get further then 100 copies. The rest of the time, she kept publishing her works online and earned herself fine recognitions of her name and skills.

From rhyming to free verse and from beginners to complex poetry, she has nourished her writing ego, never letting it go, growing into a mature critic and poet. Now writes in two languages, four different forms and listless amount of topics, all awarded and well appreciated in several poetry communities.

~ Influences:

- William Shakespeare
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Oscar Wilde
- Charles Bukowski

~ Available publications:

"The Book Of Memories" (2009) - [download .pdf]

~ Contact:

[Email 1]
[Email 2]
[Email 3]

The Book Of Memories

2009-07-25T18:22:00.000-07:00

This is the download page for "The Book Of Memories"!
To download the full PDF publication, click here.

* Info on this publication:

Type: Book of poetry
Language: English
Author: Verica Sirgic
Format: PDF file - eBook [1,87 MB]
Pages: 110
Pieces/Poems: 70
Tools used for creation: MS Word 2007, Cute PDF Writer
Licence: Free of charge for personal use

copyright©2009
all rights reserved

No parts of this publication may be sold, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the author.

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