Astute poets work hard to match the content and form of a poem. Their work is redoubled when the perfect form turns out to be a nightmare challenge. The Malayan pantoum form is one such. Every line of the poem is repeated, and while the first and third lines don’t recur until the last stanza, all the other repeats are uncomfortably close together. The requirement to move the poem forward between repeats, so that the words have fresh significance when they are re-read, can seem impossible.
The thought of this did not deter Gill Hawkins of Wimborne, Dorset. She launched into the form and produced a delightful poem – and then dropped it into an email conversation that it was her first ever attempt at a pantoum. In the correspondence, she agreed that they really do drive you mad, and went on to add but when they work they’re almost musical. They certainly are, as her poem demonstrates.