Fussy Little Forms: Palindrome

Toads! Let’s have some fun today. Let’s write palindrome poems! LOL.

We all know that a palindrome is a word or phrase that is the same when read forward or backward. Like WOW or CIVIC or LOL or HANNAH. (Hi, Hannah!) Heaven (Grace) introduced the palindrome in the Garden a few years back, HERE. It’s the same idea, except that a palindrome poem can read forward and backward word by word or line by line. Here’s a quick example that I wrote for Grace’s challenge, called “Minor Key Riots”:

Wayward
night, this feeling
like ripe dahlias--
Rioting,
escaping the laden
shrill étude
that is
Life--
Is that
étude shrill,
laden, the escaping,
rioting?
Dahlias, ripe like
feeling this night--
Wayward.

Since then, I’ve discovered the brilliant palindrome skills of smarty-pants comedian Demetri Martin, offered to you today for inspiration:

“Dammit, I’m Mad” by Demetri Martin 

Dammit I'm mad.
Evil is a deed as I live.
God, am I reviled? I rise, my bed on a sun, I melt.
To be not one man emanating is sad. I piss.
Alas, it is so late. Who stops to help?
Man, it is hot. I'm in it. I tell.
I am not a devil. I level "Mad Dog".
Ah, say burning is, as a deified gulp,
In my halo of a mired rum tin.
I erase many men. Oh, to be man, a sin.
Is evil in a clam? In a trap?
No. It is open. On it I was stuck.
Rats peed on hope. Elsewhere dips a web.
Be still if I fill its ebb.
Ew, a spider… eh?
We sleep. Oh no!
Deep, stark cuts saw it in one position.
Part animal, can I live? Sin is a name.
Both, one… my names are in it.
Murder? I'm a fool.
A hymn I plug, deified as a sign in ruby ash,
A Goddam level I lived at.
On mail let it in. I'm it.
Oh, sit in ample hot spots. Oh wet!
A loss it is alas (sip). I'd assign it a name.
Name not one bottle minus an ode by me:
"Sir, I deliver. I'm a dog"
Evil is a deed as I live.
Dammit I'm mad.

Wikipedia says Martin wrote this poem about alcoholism for a fractal geometry class when he was an undergraduate at Yale. Showoff! :)  And Martin wrote a 500-word palindrome poem published in his first book, This Is a Book. The poem is HERE.

Amazing!! Okay, Toads--have at it, palindromes! Like a snake head eating the head on the opposite side (according to They Might Be Giants). 

Sunday Mini-challenge: Palindromes

Hi toads and pond visitors ! I am excited to share another weekend challenge - palindromes. This is also known as mirrored poetry.  

Picture by Grace  

Sotades invented palindromes in Greek-ruled Egypt, back in the 3rd century BC. In fact, palindromes were once known as "Sotadic verses."  Palindrome comes from the Greek words "palin" (again or back) and "dramein" (to run). So if you read that backwards, it translates loosely into "to run back." 

The palindrome simply reads the same forwards and backwards, usually with a central focal point from where it begins to read backwards. There are several ways to write palindrome poems, three are presented here, along with examples.

1. It can be read backwards, with the same words.   Here's how to do this:  Use the same words in the first half of the poem as the second half, but reverse the order for the second half, and use a word in the middle as a bridge from the first half to the second half of the poem.

Example: Love/Hate Relationship

by Paula Brown

Love

Mimics hate:

Passionate always, forging forward.

Unquiet rage screams

Poetry.

Tangled mercilessly;

Emotion 

—mirrors—

Emotion,

Mercilessly tangled.

Poetry 

Screams rage, unquiet.

Forward forging, always passionate:

Hate mimics

Love.

2. Here is another way of writing a palindrome poem, more difficult-- it reads the same forwards and backwards by letter.

Mood's mode!

Pallas, I won!

(Diaper pane, sold entire.)

Melt till ever sere, hide it.

Drown a more vile note;

(Tar of rennet.)

Ah, trowel, baton, eras ago.

The reward? A "nisi."  Two nag.

Otary tastes putrid, yam was green.

Odes up and on; stare we.

Rats nod. Nap used one-erg saw.

(May dirt upset satyr?)

A toga now; 'tis in a drawer, eh?

Togas are notable.

(Worth a tenner for Ate`.)

Tone liver. O Man, word-tied I.

Here's revel!

Little merit, Ned? Lose, Nap?

Repaid now is all apedom's doom.

--by Hubert Phillips: 

3. Another version of a palindrome poem is the line palindrome, which reads forwards and backwards, by lines.

As I was passing near the jail

I met a man, but hurried by.

His face was ghastly, grimly pale.

He had a gun.  I wondered why

He had.  A gun?  I wondered... why,

His face was *ghastly*!  Grimly pale,

I met a man, but hurried by,

As I was passing near the jail.

-- Author Unknown

The challenge:   to write a new palindrome poem.   Please note that only poems written for this challenge may be added to the Mr Linky.  Management reserves the right to remove unrelated links, but invites you to share a poem of your choice on Open Link Monday.

I look forward to reading your words ~  Grace (aka Heaven)