The Harrisham, or: Creativity verses form

Sangeetha & David’s new poetry project

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

Once they’d completed their first oeuvre, they decided to continue their journey together; and Sangeetha came up with a fun idea. Beginning in January ’22, they took turns selecting poetic forms beginning with the letters of the alphabet (A through Z) and wrote poems to one another using those forms.

Upon completing that second project, Sangeetha suggested that they go through the alphabet once more, this time with an addition twist… In their new series, for every letter of the alphabet (A through Z), the two would select not only a poetic form but also – a keyword for each poem.

For ‘H’, Sangeetha selected the ‘Harrisham’ form and the keyword ‘Hope’.

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H: Harrisham

Sangeetha’s Harrisham

Hope leads me to magic it seems
Even in the darkness
Night skies hold my daydreams
Tenderly in the mess
Years and moments weave hope in sun-beams
Soothing me in a caress 

David’s Harrisham

Of all the evils in Pandora's box
Flew forth she they all hailed as Queen.
When Hope preached of despair to her flocks,
No scene seen was ever more obscene:
Orgies of flesh, fists, blood; cocks, cum; claws, rocks...
She'd summon hell's every demon unclean.

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Harrisham?

• A six-line rhyming stanza:
  • rhyme scheme: a/b/a/b/a/b;
• In this form, the last letter of the first word of each line is the first letter of the first word of next line;
• No restrictions upon line length or meter.

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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!