Line Breaks

Yesterday was DigiLit Sunday at Margaret Simon's blog. Today, I am posting my piece on line breaks along with a poem in a form that I never tried-the abecedarian poem. Margaret and her students composed this type of poem based on one being mentioned by my poet friend Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm. Then, Kevin Hodgson created one too. You can find Margaret's, her students', and Kevin's abecedarian poems here.

                                      

Backstory:

Looking for scenic backdrops to capture spring's essence, led me to a pastoral-looking setting on the shore south of Long Island. The site, formerly a landfill, was transformed into Levy Park and Preserve, complete with wildflowers and natural vegetation surrounding walking trails, a chicken coop, and goats resting on a hill. 

While walking the paths for years with my family, today's sighting was a surprising one. 

Perhaps you can figure out what a abecedarian poem is from what I feature below. 

A winding path

buttresses against a slope

calling us toward a 

distant wheel in 

early daylight. 

Full of

glee,

hopes mounting,

inspired photographers

jaunt to the site,

keen on 

looking beyond.

Many stop,

noticing what is  

only seen in distant

peekings that lay

quietly 

right before our eyes.

Stepping lightly

toward an

uncluttered

view,

windswept,

xanthous reeds

yield way as we 

zero in.

©CVarsalona, 2016 

What did I see? 

In the far distance, I viewed (for the first time from this site) the beautiful Manhattan skyline right before my eyes. While I did not have a powerful camera lens to capture the skyline, I just stared in awe. Skylines amaze me. 

On Process:

Line breaks were important to me as I created this poem because I needed to keep to the A-Z format. Please let me know what you think of my first attempt at this poem format. 

For Your Information:

Amy Ludwig Vanderwater describes an abecedarian poem as "a poem that goes right through the alphabet, beginning each line with a successive letter, starting with first and and ending with the last."

It's National Poetry Month so enjoy reading poetry and maybe you will be a risk-taker and try to compose an abecedarian poem. 

Please see what was posted at DigiLit Sunday under the topic line breaks. 

Drop by #NYEDChat tonight. We are celebrating National Poetry Month with a Twitter chat titled, April is Poetrylicious!