The Waltz Wave, or: Form verses creativity

Sangeetha & David’s new poetry project

Once upon a time, two poets who’d never met in person spontaneously began writing verses back and forth to one another over the Internet. Their first poetry project took them some nine months: a 100 verse Hyakuin.

Once they’d completed their oeuvre, the two decided to continue their creative journey together; and Sangeetha came up with a fun new idea, which David loved – to explore different poetic forms together, working through the Alphabet from ‘A’ to ‘Z’.

Every week, for twenty-six weeks beginning in January of the year 2022, they would take turns selecting poetic forms beginning with the letter corresponding to that particular week (1=A, 2=B, etc., etc.) and write poems to one another using that form.

David suggested they call their new project ‘Form verses creativity’, and so it began.


W for Waltz Wave

Sangeetha’s Waltz Wave

step
sliding
so
suavely,
caressing
music
with
feathered
feet, gliding
in time with mine,
nevermind
all else
as
we dance
the waltz wave
with words
strung
just for
us

David’s Waltz Wave

vers-
es dy-
nam-
ical-
ly undu-
late; o-
ver-
flow vel-
vety tem-
po; passionate-
ly whirl a-
about ca-
denc-
es, e-
ven as feath-
ered ca-
ress-
es cas-
cade

Waltz Wave?

  • a one-stanza titled poem;
  • nineteen lines;
  • each line has a set number of syllables;
    • 1/2/1/2/3/2/1/2/3/4/3/2/1/2/3/2/1/2/1


Let’s write poetry together!

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

Ben Harper (b. 1969)

Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!

22 thoughts on “The Waltz Wave, or: Form verses creativity”

  1. Hehe! I love Sangeetha’s and yours makes me laugh – you know what you want to say and bend the form to your will! I saw in my mind’s eye you bending the poem in a deep dip, spinning and then twirling it until dizzy!!!

  2. Lovely
    Dancing in
    Circles
    Together

    Soft soothing and poised formations
    How verse waltz with
    The both of you
    As Sanghita says
    You need feathered feet,
    And finely sharpened pens
    For this rhythmic whirling and circular dance with words

    Applause 👏

  3. Both of these are so appealing in both imagery and structure, and there’s certainly a musicality about them. My mom’s favorite song was “The Blue Danube” and I can imagine reading these while it plays in the background. Wonderfully done, Sangeetha and David. 🙂

      1. I seem to remember that from Music Theory class in college. It went together with Chaikovsky’s waltz from ‘Onegin.’ we had a sadistic professor who would drop the needle for a few seconds in the middle of something, and we had to recognize where it came from, composer, and significance to the entire piece. Trust me, everything I learned in that class has stayed with me forever.

Leave a Reply

Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s