Day 3!
Beverly Tan here, your resident anarchist of form with today's prompt "The Taste of Metal"
We're going to start today's tip with one of my latest favorite poetry forms. This year I started writing cheritas. Cheritas first caught my attention on the blog of one of my favorite indie poets Gabrial Gadfly. His introduction to the form included the fact that it was from Malaysia, being the Malay word for "story." Being of Malaysian-Chinese heritage myself and being a full time storyteller, I had to know more.
The golden rule about a cherita is that it tells a story.
What I really love about Cheritas is that it's a very loose form. Cheritas are a stanza based form rather than a syllable-based one.
It's really simple:
1 line stanza.
2 line stanza.
3 line stanza.
The lines can be any length you choose.
Cheritas are also traditionally not titled.
Now for the word prompts.
Metal. Fun fact: upon research, I did find a cooking show called "Taste of Metal" where musicians from heavy metal bands cook.
Metals have been associated with everything from alchemy to astrology to chemistry to (the obvious one) geology. Without metal we wouldn't have much of what we call modern civilization. When was the last time you tasted metal? Your fork as you ate breakfast? A dental tool? The iron when you bit your tongue? Growing up with braces? What memories and emotions are attached to those moments?
Word bank prompt:
The taste of metal
Ice from the sky
The stars around her
A hollow ring
From the shadows
Under the moon
Visual prompt:
Cheers & Sunshine,
-Beverly
-Beverly
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