I am not a poet.

I think I have been quite clear on the matter. When it comes to writing poetry I am a “learn as I go” and “fake it” kind of girl. My style (if you could call it that) is rhyming verse. That’s it. That’s what I call it because it rhymes. But I really couldn’t explain one type of poem from another. In my playbook, it really comes down to rhyming and non-rhyming. And for me, rhyming poems are easier to read and remember.

But yet, I share a poem once a week.

I came thisclose to stopping that all together. Even I realized my poetry was bland and formulaic. I seriously considered to stop sharing my poems and bring my posts down to one a week.

But I didn’t.

Why not?

Thanks to a fellow blogger, (frankhubeny.com) I discovered the poetry form called decima. Or, I should say, partly discovered it. Here is the brief rundown of what I found when I looked it up. It is a poem that has 10 lines (or some forms have up to 44 but I skipped over that part). Each line has 8 syllables (I choose not to adhere to this part) and the rhyming pattern looks like this: ABBAACCDDC. The pattern is what I focused on.

First of all, writing a poem specifically 10 lines long is a challenge. A complete and coherent story has to be told within 10 lines. It saves my poetry from being too short but also from dragging on. Concise and clear is the objective and I enjoy the task.

The second part of that is the rhyming pattern. It’s not an every other line or something similar it mixes it up a bit. It gives the poetry a different rhythm than my past work. The pattern is what caught my eye and tempted me to try it for my work.

The fact each line should be 8 syllables is something I will have to warm up to. I used to do 8 beat lines and for me it lost its rhythm. Extra words were thrown in that I normally wouldn’t use and others were left out just to hit that 8 syllable mark. So, I may warm up to it again but for now, I am focusing on the other factors.

This little discovery saved my poetry. It breathed new life into something that was slowly dying. I have enjoyed the challenge of fitting my words into this format. I guess, in the end, I just want to thank Frank for sharing his work and that I was slowly able to catch on and try it.

My writing is and always will be a work in progress.