How To Write A Diamante Poem

I Googled 'types of poems' and I found all kinds of unusual names for all sorts of unusual poem structures--the most symmetrical and awe-inspiring of which I found the diamante poem.

Diamante (pronounced dee-uh-MAHN-tay) poems are in the shape of a diamond, and have seven lines; the first and seventh lines have one word each, the second and sixth lines have two, the third and fifth lines have three words each, and the fourth line has four words. 
Lines one, four, and seven have nouns.
Lines two and six have adjectives.
Lines three and five have verbs.

The writer Kenn Nesbitt, on his website, has provided a very useful way to remember all these rules:

Noun
Adjective, Adjective
Verb, Verb, Verb
Noun, Noun, Noun, Noun
Verb, Verb, Verb
Adjective, Adjective
Noun

There are two kinds of diamantes: synonym diamantes and antonym diamantes.
Synonym diamantes talk about two things of the same kind; for example:

Monsters
Evil, Spooky
Howling, Shrieking, Wailing
Ghosts, Vampires, Goblins, Witches
Flying, Scaring, Terrifying
Creepy, Crawly
Creatures

Antonym diamantes talk about two opposite or different things:

Cat
Gentle, Sleepy
Purring, Meowing, Scratching
Whiskers, Fur, Collar, Leash
Barking, Licking, Digging
Slobbery, Playful
Dog

In the fourth line, the first two nouns describe the noun in the first line and the last two nouns describe the noun in the last line.

Personally, I think diamante poems would be easier to write if we just made sure that the poem ended up looking like a diamond, instead of having to write nouns, or adjectives, or verbs in a particular line; but then, I suppose the pleasure is in sticking to the rules as much as possible, and churning out a masterpiece anyway.  

Semper gratiam habebo, lector! (I hope Google Translate's right.) Good bye, and good night!  See you on the next post! (Coming soon.)

The Hope Diamond, The Museum of Natural History

References:

Poetry4Kids: http://www.poetry4kids.com/blog/lessons/how-to-write-a-diamante-poem/

Two-Word Poem #2

My second two-word poem. I'm a fan of these; so much can be said in just two words.
It's what you don't say that matters in this kind of poetry more than what you do say. The rest is up to the imagination of the reader.

“She laughed."

Being Lost.

I've given myself a challenge.

It's called 'The Write a Free-verse Poem in Three Minutes Challenge'.

So here goes.  (I'm writing this poem like I wrote 'Stars in the Sky': spontaneously.)

Being Lost.

The little girl
Wearing a red dress
With yellow polka-dots
And blue ribbons
Went for a walk 
On the dirt road
Leading into the forest
Where she saw a lake
That she couldn't cross
So she sat there on the shore
She sat there for a thousand years
The immortal girl cries immortal tears
Her tears flow into the lake
The lake gets bigger and bigger
And scarier and darker
Until it goes full circle around the girl
Immortal girl with immortal curls
Swirling violently
To sink a ship
To sink a ship of immortality
She shudders and takes a deep breath
And falls asleep on the small island
The small island that is now her land
Two hundred years later
The lake has dried up
But the immortal girl
With her immortal tears
With her immortal curls
And her immortal fears
Is nowhere to be found.

~Vruta Gupte.

The Beast In The Tree

THE BEAST IN THE TREE

I once went for a walk

Along the cobblestone path

That generations past had not dared to traverse

For fear of being eaten by a beast

Who, it was said, screamed at night

The most pitiful sounds

That would make even lions cower in its presence.

The beast, they said, it lived in the hollow of the Great Big Birch Tree

It had built a door at the opening, and at night

It would push the door—and the door would make

A terrifyingly shrill squeaking sound.

But I, I was brave

And so I went along the cobblestone path

I walked, and I walked

I stopped, and then I walked some more—

And what did I see?

I saw a very lonely tree;

And then the wind rustled through its leaves

I thought the tree was screaming and then

I looked up, petrified.  I saw nothing.

I waited

And waited

Till it became dark and the sun would shine no more;

I heard the squeak—of the beast’s door, I presumed—

And shuddered in terror.

When I finally felt brave enough

To look up, I did.

And I saw an owl

Making all the squeaking noises

….And I fled.

~Vruta Gupte.

(I tweaked a poem I wrote last year to match the 'dark yet hopeful' tone of the idea I had for the poem.  I think I wrote it as a metaphor for when a person is about to realize their dream, having conquered all other obstacles, but then turns back at the last moment for fear of discovering something they had always known about in the back of their mind: their greatness.  

It's a little negative, but I think there's no point editing it now--it's beautiful as it is, and says what I need it to say.)

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