Creativity Verses Form ~ Raay(or Rai)

David  of The Skeptic’s Kaddish and I began a fun poetry partnership in April. We celebrated writing together a 100 verse renga, The Hyakuin  And within days, decided we would absolutely love to continue our writing collaboration and what has grown to be a warm friendship with a new poetry project.

We decided to explore poetry forms. A to Z. Each week one of us chooses a poetry form the other responds to. We completed our first series Form verses creativity in June ’22. And we’re now on to the next set of poetry forms A to Z ~ Creativity Verses Form. We added a little twist for version2.0, with a key word starting with the same letter.

For ‘R’, Sangeetha selected the ‘Raay’ form and the keyword ‘Roots’.

R: Raay (or Rai)

Sangeetha’s Raay (or Rai)

Roots flow underneath
Sheathed in history
Weaving tales for you
To trace old to new
Beautiful journeys
Seasoned with much Time
Primed to make you see
Beyond here and now
How deep roots do reach
Each life knows somehow

David’s Raay (or Rai)

Let roots not ravel-
Tell the tales of yore;
Stories need not soil,
Coiling through your soul;
Whole without water,
For they grow in love;
Of your inner light
Might old wisdoms flow;
So, honor the past,
Lest you come unmoored.

---

Raay (or Rai)?

• Stanzaic: written in a series of couplets;
• Syllabic: 5 syllables per line
• Chain rhymed: the last syllable of L1 rhymes with the first syllable of L2; the last syllable of L2 rhymes with the first syllable of L3; etc.

Read all the poems in our series ~ Creativity Verses Form where we explore poetry forms

• A ~ Alliterisen Alternatives
• B ~ Bragi Books
• C ~ Cadae Crisis
• D~ Dodoitsu Desire
• E ~ Emmet Elves
• F~ Fold Friend
• G~ Golda Gravity
• H~ Harrisham Hope
• I ~ Inverted Refrain Imagination
• J ~ Jram Jubilee
• K ~ Kōel Kismet
• L ~ Lai Love
• M ~ Monometric Motivation
• N ~ Novo Otto Night
• O ~ Ovillejo Origins
• P ~ Purely Hopeful Poetry
• Q ~ Quatern Quiet
• R ~ Raay Roots

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