Hexaduads?

There are “poets” that I know that I would more likely classify as a “Rhymer”. What is a Rhymer you ask? It is somebody that writes metered or un-metered rhymes. For example, rap is rhyming. It even tells a story sometimes. Although technically telling a story to rhyme and rhythm can be considered poetry, I still maintain that there is a difference. To me, poetry is capturing an emotion for all eternity. Whitman talks about poetry written for now, and poetry written for all of time. Of course he advocates poetry written that will last for a thousand years. Why not? Leaves of Grass is genius! Whitman is genius! And his argument in the beginning of Leaves of Grass is what I am referring to. But anyway, rhyming is a skill, and some people can get very good at it. They can talk about a pot of flowers, or a season, or a state, person, etc. But my POV is that you can write a rhyming poem about a pot of flowers, if you are conveying what they stir inside of you. Where does that pot of flowers take you? Perhaps a fond memory of when you and your mother used to plant flowers every spring, and you miss her very much and wish to have that magic again, and your heart longs for the comfort and security in which those times with your mom brought you? That’s a poem. But if it starts “Roses are red…” then it’s a good sign that it is a Rhymer.

Good golly I sound like a literary snob! There is a writing group from a different part of this region that sponsors a category in my local poetry societies (poetry club) annual contest. Their category is technically perfect Hexaduad’s. Hexaduad’s? What in this world is a Hexaduad? Well not only is it extremely complicated, and although I had it explained to me, I still don’t understand them. But seriously, technically perfect Hexaduad’s? Let me go over them briefly:

Think in a series of blocks extending from a vertical line, horizontally. Like a graph. Starting from block A, each syllable is a block. So across the top you can put Block A, B, C, D and so on till you have eight blocks, which is the letter H. Now, moving down vertically you want to number the amount of blocks you can use. The first two lines are two blocks. The second two lines use six blocks. The next two lines across, use four blocks, then two with six again, and two more with four again. So, the first line is two syllables, as is the second line. The third and forth line use six syllables and so on. Each two lines with the same amount of syllables, or blocks, must rhyme. Here is an example:

The main
[Do] [main]
Of cats is any where
[They] [saunter] [in] [to] [dare]
Current long term inhabitants.
Throw a ways with intelligence
[Find] [the] [good] [life]
[With] [good] [less] [rife.]
[Sam] [a] [ri] [tans] [who] [feed]
And care for cats in need
[These] [cats] [en] [thrall]
And do give all.

In some of the lines, I used boxes. I wanted to show you that they are not supposed to show the boxes, but I wanted to show the boxes to make my point. So anyway, that’s a Hexaduad. Well, some of the other area’s of competition in the contest is themes, like sonnet, religious, free verse, Haiku, etc. Of course, since poetry is my Kung Fu, perhaps I should have entered just to see what happened. Tragically, I let other things besides this contest take my time. Well, tomorrow is the post date dead line, so perhaps there is a Hexaduad in me!

But one thing is for sure, Hexaduad is a technical poem, that a Rhymer could do. My goal is to write a Hexaduad with passion. Wow that’d be tough. Well, I have tonight and tomorrow day to work on it. After I enter it, I'll publish it here on this blog, so stay tuned. Oh, and if you want to be a great Rhymer, then go for it! Poet? Then pour on the passion, emotion, and capture the moment!