Eratosphereans,
I don't know if this is a new form, but if it is, I'm tentatively calling it the Grammar-kofa, a portmanteau melding of grammar and Sankofa. The Sankofa bird is African and is depicted as bird looking backwards, yet flying forward. The grammar kofa takes a line (syllables and meter may vary from poem to poem) with one internal punctuation mark. The line and punctuation remains the same throughout the poem. The only thing that changes with each first line of each stanza is the position of the internal punctuation. In "Rehearsing Ecstasy," the colon is the punctuation that changes position with each new stanza:
Rehearsing Ecstasy
Consider the glory of us two creatures: breathing
is a vicious alchemy; tongue and fingers
potion a lucid aloe vera sap.
Consider the glory of us two: creatures breathing
surrender ghosts and language;
only the rain has syllables.
Consider the glory of us: two creatures breathing
pair like lungs, well-hung in the anxious air;
we are the talk of spring.
Consider the glory: of us two creatures breathing,
who is wiser to the passing hours? Our tongues
have swallowed whole our names.
Consider: the glory of us two creatures breathing
quivers like red, melting suns;
ululates through spheres wider than alleluias.
So is this a legitimate form? Anyone want to try to write one?
jr!
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