The YaDu, 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.

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Y for YaDu

Sangeetha’s YaDu

monsoon wedding
raindrops sing songs
hoping for chance
to romance all
evening as skies and stars fall

magical eyes
mesmerize mine
sunrise blushes
blood rushes up
like a spring to fill my cup

I relented
hearts melted as
scented earth told
tales of old friends
chasing monsoons till the end

David’s YaDu

late summer night
sparkling bright stars
'twas quite ~sublime~
how the time stilled
and, become one, our heart thrilled

'neath ancient walls
our guests all were
enthralled with you
and we two smiled
at each other all the while

air of romance
a shared glance blazed
we danced for hours
that night our own
loving eyes sparkled and shone

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YaDu?

• each stanza —up to three in all— has 5 lines;
• the first four lines have 4 syllables each; the last one can have 5, 7, 9, or 11 syllables;
• the last two lines rhyme in the usual way; the climbing rhymes occur in syllables four, three, and two of both the first three lines and the last three lines of a stanza;
• there should be a reference to the seasons since the word ‘yadu’ means ‘the seasons’

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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!