Writing Prompt: Shape Poetry
One of my favorite concrete poems is actually a dedication in E.E. Cummings’s book No Thanks, which takes the shape of a funeral urn and holds the names of fourteen publishers who rejected his work. Shape is integral to the success of this poem, yet one suspects that the ninth-century Sanskrit theoretician Anandavardhana would struggle to call it a poem, finding it aesthetically deficient—too literal, not enough suggestion. I think the poem is funny, clever, and redemptive (it must feel good to give the finger), but because it constitutes a list of names, the poem may be thought of as lacking in rasa—an emotional flavor or core. Traditionally, the sonic and iconic worked together not just to be fanciful, but to generate texture and power. So my prompt is this: Write a poem in the shape of a funeral urn, but try to infuse your poem with one of the nine rasas—the comic (amusement), the fearful (fear), the violent (anger), the erotic (desire), the heroic (courage), the tragic (sorrow), the fantastic (astonishment), the peaceful (detachment)—or better still, begin with one rasa and, by the end of the poem, leave us with another flavor on our tongue.
This prompt appeared as part of the series “Not Too Hard to Master,” a new series of poets writing on form and sharing a prompt. You can read Tishani Doshi’s essay, “In Praise of Shape Poetry,” as well as two of her shape poems, “The Comeback of Speedos” and “Tigress Hugs Manchurian Fir.”
Poet, writer, and dancer Tishani Doshi was born in Madras, India, to Welsh and Gujarati parents. She earned a BA from Queens College in North Carolina and an MA from the Writing Seminars from the Johns Hopkins University. After working in the fashion magazine industry in London, Doshi returned to India. An unexpected meeting with one of Indian dance’s leading choreographers, Chandralekha, led Doshi...