This is a NaPoWriMo prompt that I was intrigued by but have not done yet. As I’ve mentioned, I am familiar with pantoum form, but not its predecessor, the pantun. I also read that the poetic form often has a link between nature and love–which, as you know by now, are two of my favorite subjects!
“Write a pantun. Not a pantoum — though they are related. The pantun is a traditional Malay form, a style of which was later adapted into French and then English as the pantoum. A pantun consists of rhymed quatrains (abab), with 8-12 syllables per line. The first two lines of each quatrain aren’t meant to have a formal, logical link to the second two lines, although the two halves of each quatrain are supposed to have an imaginative or imagistic connection. The associative leap from the first couplet to the second allows for a great deal of surprise and also helps give the poems are very mysterious and lyrical quality. Try your hand at just one quatrain, or a bunch of them, and see how you do!”
“Sight”
By: Amanda K. Fowler
Azure stretches as far as the eye can see;
Sky and sea blend together in the atmosphere.
When I turn my sight towards eternity,
Many things are foggy, but you are always clear.
Jelly-Side Up 