Thanks to Eclectic Ali for hosting the weekend coffee shares.
I’m so glad I have some time to share coffee with you guys this week — because I am really excited to share with you about my newest venture. I have recently created a brand new poetic form. At least, I think I have. With all the searching I’ve done, I’m fairly certain no other poets have this form out there. I’m excited, not only because I loved the challenge of creating a unique form, but also because there is only one poetic form that is generally recognized as being ‘American’ by the poetry world. So this new form that I’ve created — being American myself — will be the second.
And to make it even more truly American, I borrowed from my own Cherokee culture to give the form a name. I’ve called it Tso’i. That word is pronounced “cho-ee,” and it is the Cherokee word for the number ‘three,’ and I chose it because the syllable count for the 5 lines of the poem are in multiples of three. I’ve posted about the form — along with examples of poems that follow it — in more than one post on my author’s site and my poetry site. So I don’t want to be too repetitious here. But I know there are a few people who read the “Coffee Share” posts who don’t read my others.
That being the case, I want to tell you the details of my new form so that any of you out there who enjoy writing poetry can try it if you’d like. So here’s the scoop:
A Tso’i poem must meet the following guidelines:
It must have 5 lines
Lines 1, 3, and 5 must have end rhyme.
Syllables:
Line 1 has 3 syllables.
Line 2 has 6 syllables.
Line 3 has 12 syllables.
Line 4 has 6 syllables.
Line 5 has 3 syllables.
Lines 1 and 5 follow a dactyl meter.
Lines 2, 3, and 4 follow an iambic meter.
Subject matter and theme are open to the poet’s imagination and preference.
Here’s one example from my own work:
PARAMOUNT KNOWLEDGE
Knowing God:
Oh, what a wondrous thing
To comprehend such pure love; I’m completely awed,
Learning I am priceless
To my God.
If any of you poets out there would like to try this form yourself, please do and leave a copy of it — or a link to it — in the “Comments” section below. And have a great weekend!
~~~
The Happy Wordcrafter 
Love your poem – that is quite beautiful. I don’t think I could even begin to put toghether a T… a Tso’i poem – in fact I’m quite sure I couldn’t. You did a lovely job.
Thank you. Actually, I find this form a little difficult myself — even though I invented it. But all the “easy” stuff’s already been done, so I’m determined to keep at this from until I get good at it. But in the mean time, I keep writing in the more normal, comfortable forms anyway.