A Pocketful of Palindrome Poetry

Posted on by evelyn

As I work through The Roar on the Other Side this year (amazing book on poetry, 10/10 recommend) I’ve been learning all types of poetry schemes, methods, and tropes.

Some of them are fairly simple while others seem nearly impossible.

Such as writing a poem with twenty six words, each one starting with a different letter of the alphabet, descending in order from A to Z.

I have yet to try that one, but one such daunting kind was palindrome poetry, which turned out very interesting and fun to write!

While the crafting is not so simple, the idea is: Palindrome poetry is composed so that read backwards it is the same, word for word, as it is read forwards.

I quickly discovered I couldn’t start the poem with a “the” or an “a,” or really use them at all.

Here was my first poem:

NIGHT

Darkness caught stars
with nets
maybe

or maybe nets with stars
caught darkness

I really enjoyed making it, so I tried another! (The night I wrote all these, I was amidst wading through Beowulf for school…)

BEOWULF

Hopes and memory of courage built Beowulf so
Beowulf built courage of memory and hopes.

That one was… okay, but didn’t turn out the way I had wanted it to, so I wrote a third one, which by far is my favorite.

TIME

Years waste bodies.
Our lives are frail and short.
Away slinks time.
We may understand that
Eyes and sight change.
Oh yes, we stumble.
We are wispy and hollow wind –
Hollow and wispy are we.
Stumble we, yes.
Oh change sight and eyes that
Understand may we
Time slinks away.
Short and frail are lives.
Our bodies waste years.

And so ended my little palindrome poetry session. (:

Which one do you like best?

~ evelyn ~

Published by evelyn

heyo! my name is evelyn and i like things like stories, people, elephants, hot tea, chocolate, dancing in the rain and reading poetry out loud in the dark and also driving with the windows down and music up. i name my plants weird names.

28 thoughts on “A Pocketful of Palindrome Poetry”

        5. No… sadly. I decided it would be too much amidst preparing for my big bro’s wedding. 🙂 How is it going for you? Is this your first time doing it?

          Like

        6. I tried it and literally felt like I fried my brain lol….

          Sounds Of Blackness

          Blackness of nights
          Soundless with a troubled mind
          A heart heavy with tears
          Depressed and lonely feelings
          Hopeless and restless
          Aggravated and afraid
          *******
          Afraid and aggravated
          Restless and hopeless
          Feeling lonely and depressed
          Tears with a heavy heart
          A mind troubled with soundless nights of blackness~
          Emunah

          Liked by 1 person

  2. I love this!! You have such talent, Evelyn. I can’t even imagine trying to do something like this! 😀 I think the last one is my favorite…but I like all of them. So beautiful!

    Liked by 1 person

  7. I’ve got the Roar on the Other Side after Daeus recommended it, and I love it! I read it all the way through, and I plan to go through it and do all the exercises.

    This is too cool. I love the first and last!! I’m saving them!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Isn’t it amazing? I love the book… it’s just so rich and lovely and fresh. 😊 And it’s been such a different experience going through and doing the exercises! I hope it goes well for you. 😄

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Yes! It’s not baptized poetry either–she has great taste while maintaining a Christian worldview. The book introduced me to a lot of new favorites. Maybe I’ll tag you for some poetry challenges sometime. ;P

        Liked by 1 person

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