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Attempting a Ramage

Earlier this week, I happened upon a used copy of a tiny book called Turkish Pears in August by Robert Bly, and in it, he uses a form he developed called the "ramage" in which you have 8 lines of roughly 10 syllables each, and each line is also supposed to contain a repeated sound/syllable. OK, so below I am trying to repeat a sound like "air." I like trying to repeat a sound without using end rhyme; I try to do this anyway but not so specifically as trying to do it in every line. I may experiment more with this form, as an exercise to get myself writing if nothing else!

Cheers

Mortgaged as everywhere, our suburb
is sometimes carefree. For example, take me—
I bake brownies and bid for rare knick-knacks
on eBay, in a pair of plaid pajamas
until two or three. I do laundry when I dare
let it air-dry on warm afternoons
as I sit in my plastic chair. I sip
tap water or beer—come on by, and I’ll share.

Comments

Great form, great poem! are you going to use this in one of your classes?
Thanks, Barb! If I were teaching poetry writing this quarter, I think I would try assigning the form, but alas, I'm teaching two sections of English 100, no poetry.

I hope you have a good spring quarter!

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