Creativity Forms Verses ~ Updise

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

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. We knew we’re on to something. So we wrote the next set of poetry forms A to Z ~ Creativity Verses Form. Here, we added a little twist for version2.0, with a key word starting with the same letter.

And now, and in December ’22, we’re onto our fourth collaborative writing project ~ Creativity Forms Verses. To form verses, we turned to creativity, inventing new poetry forms, A through to Z.

For ‘U’, David created the ‘Updise’ form.

U: Updise

I. David’s Gogyōka

Would I could write poems all day;
For each who makes a living by writing,
Millions of others do not;
Writing fundraising proposals
Is what I do to survive.

II. David’s Gogyōka reversed

Is what I do to survive
Writing fundraising proposals
Millions of others do not
For each who makes a living by writing
Would I could write poems all day

III. David’s Updise

Is what I do to survive
Somehow lacking?
Writing fundraising proposals
For social service programs brings meaning.
Millions of people do not
Daily get paid to do what they love.
For each who makes a living by writing
Is blessed by Lady Luck, n'est-ce pas?
Would I could write poems all day
To express my deep gratitude.

I. Sangeetha’s Gogyōka

As equations evade solutions 
Mind is drawn into a world of patterns
Parsing perfect circles for clues
As I scramble around the rules
Geometry of the universe looms

II. Sangeetha’s Gogyōka reversed

Geometry of the universe looms 
As I scramble around the rules
Parsing perfect circles for clues
Mind drifting into a world of patterns
As equations evade solutions

III. Sangeetha’s Updise

Geometry of the universe looms,
Infinite thoughts and words tessellate;
As I scramble around the rules,
A poem begins to take shape;
Parsing perfect circles for clues,
Around each pause, a rhythm patiently waits;
Mind drifting into a world of patterns,
Picking and choosing, weaving a tale;
As equations evade solutions,
Boundaries dissolve...Behold! A new creation.

Updise?

Three steps:

Write a poem of five lines (a Gogyōka) about something that challenges you;
Reverse the order of the lines of the poem you’ve written;
Insert a new line immediately after every line from the original poem to turn the new poem into an encouraging, positive piece.