Poetry Directory, Issue #1
A small directory of formal poetry works by friends and Substack authors!
Today is the day where this once-little project makes it beyond Scheming Rhymes and comes into the possession of our growing Substack community. It is my belief that, to keep formal poetry relevant, we must come together and share the spotlight with each other, and thus this series of posts will be a platform for us to know our fellow writers’ work. For everything that you’ve done for and with us, thank you so much. We can’t wait to offer you even more in the future. -B.
Welcome to our very own Poetry Directory, compiled and curated by Brooklyn Crane on The Formal Poetry Directorate! Quaterns, sonnets, sestinas; rhyme, meter, rhythm. All those things seemingly lost in the age of Instapoetry and the thought of “How can this still be a thing online?”—clustered in one page for you to read.
Below, you will see poems gathered over the past couple of weeks, by genre and form. Please check out the authors’ pages and publications. To support each other is to support the art that has made us who we are today. Comment if you belong among us and would like to be involved!
My most sincere gratitude to, in alphabetical order, Blue-Collar Theology, Frater Asemlen, J. Tullius, Kate Bluett, Metrical Poet, Narcisse Tardif, Ross Ion Coyle (M), Steven Kent, 林 Vanya Evangeline; for writing these pieces and carrying our traditions forth through time. I claim no credit for their works.
→ Couplet
A stanza or section of a stanza constituted by two lines that rhyme.
→ Ghazal
An Arabic form consisting of couplets and repetition.
→ Quatern
A 4-quatrain poem with a refrain which advances positions as the stanzas progress.
→ Quatrain
A stanza or poem section of four lines, rhyming in ABAB, ABBA, AAAA, or any derivatives of these.
→ Sestina
A poem of six sestets and a three-line envoi (or summation) wherein the last words of each line in the first stanza repeat in the following sestets albeit in different order. Each line of the three-line envoi contains two of these words in order to total all six.
→ Sonnet
A poem form totaling fourteen lines in varying arrangements, either separated in groups or written as one whole. Traditionally written with iambic pentameter.
Please follow and support each other. Check out everyone’s work and other posts. We are all making an effort to preserve the roots and traditions of poetry while experiencing the world and capturing our experiences in verse. The only way we keep our niche alive is to face the future together. -The Directorate
This is such a generous idea. Communities grow stronger when we celebrate each other’s work instead of competing for attention. Wishing this directory every success.
I would like to join and participate in your site. I write mostly formal poetry, including sonnets, a pantoum, common metre, etc. So how do I submit? Thanks.