User talk:SimonPoet

A rictameter is a nine line poetry form. The 1st and last lines are the same with the syllable count as follows:

line 1 - 2 syllables - same as line 9

line 2 - 4 syllables

line 3 - 6 syllables

line 4 - 8 syllables

line 5 - 10 syllables

line 6 - 8 syllables

line 7 - 6 syllables

line 8 - 4 syllables

line 9 - 2 syllables - same as line 1

The form was made public in 2000, when the following poems were submitted to shadowpoetry.com:

Satin

As your lips are

Pressed to mine as velvet

Soft and full with rounded sweetness

Two gentle petals alive with the night

Misted in the summer beauty

Of rains that shower love

'Pon your lips of

Satin

submitted by Jason D. Wilkins

Treasure

Placed in your view

So close but out of reach

Torturous to all your senses

For they each cry aloud to possess it

Their desires forever unquenched

For the things some want most

They cannot have

Treasure

submitted by Richard W. Lunsford, Jr.

The reason behind it's introduction as a form, seems to have been a weekly contest between the above two poets who ran a weekly poetry contest in their club, The Brotherhood of the Amarantos Mystery, inspired by the Robin Williams movie "Dead Poet's Society".

It has been frowned on by many of the “syllable-counting-poets”, but personally, I see it as a great opportunity for the story-tellers in the poetic world. There is no rhyming involved, simple the discipline of the syllable count, and the art of finding the beginning and end words to suit.

In addition to this, it is a great visual form, particularly when centered, and a chain of more than one rictameter has a very pleasing effect. I would put it alongside the etheree, for visual appeal.

Poetic devices can make this a wonderful form, and one that I would recommend to anyone.

Here is an example of a triple rictameter:

Pirate

hoists the mainsail

that billows in the wind.

He embarks on a sea voyage,

and doesn't know if he'll ever return.

His voyage is to his true love,

his rare and true treasure,

and she needs her

Pirate

lady

waits patiently,

across the main ocean,

strong winds carry her gentle voice,

to be with him as he battles the storms.

He feels her loving presence close;

it speeds his long journey,

He's soon with his

lady.

so now

they're together,

in passionate embrace;

hungry lips are soon satisfied,

forgotten are the many lonesome days

when the oceans divided them;

as they whisper that they

love each other

so now.

The visual effect is wonderful, and it allows a story to unfold. Although it is a comparatively new form, it is one that I like, and it allows the non-rhymers an opportunity, to write form poetry. http://planetpoet.com/content/rictameter-form-tutorial http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rictameter

Simon Downes SimonPoet (talk) 20:55, 5 December 2009 (UTC)