In the looplink
Alison Chisholm explores a work by a poet playing with a brand new form
If you would like your poem to be considered for Poetry Workshop, send it by email to: jtelfer@writersnews.co.uk
One of the greatest excitements of writing poetry is the production of a brand new form. You are in control. You choose the name of the form. You make the rules. You may be making them for just one idea you want to explore; but the excitement redoubles when you realise the device has more to give, and that other people have picked up your form and run with it.
Poet Francesca Hunt of Llanfair Caereinion, Powys devised a new pattern for poetry, the looplink, that is simple to work (encouraging poets to try it), but has plenty of scope. Simplicity is never a dumbing down of content, of course; often the simplest wording communicates the most powerful thoughts.
Incidentally, the name looplink is still under discussion; but it seems an ideal, descriptive term for the style. Let’s have a look at a poem written in the new form, consider the form’s rules, and think about possible tweaks to develop them.