Nonce Poetry: Zig-Zag Sonnet

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In celebration of National Poetry Month @murisopsis from A Different Perspective is once again hosting a poetic scavenger hunt. This year’s theme is “nonce” form poetry. What is nonce form poetry? Well, it’s basically a form that was created by a poet for their own use. What’s interesting about a nonce form is that if it is adopted by other poets and used more often it will no longer be considered a nonce form, but rather become recognized as a “valid” poetical form.

The scavenger hunt features thirteen nonce form challenges all to be completed within the month of April. I highly encourage you to check out the prompts and participate here.

Ok, now onto the thirteenth (and final) challenge…The Zig-Zag Sonnet

The Zig-Zag Sonnet

Three quatrains (4 lines) followed by a coda (2 lines) for a total of 14 lines. There are 10 syllables per line. The first word of L1 rhymes with the last word of L2 and the first word of L3 rhymes with the last word of L4 and keeps repeating for all 14 lines.

Bonus: n/a

Christine Bialczak

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The End Has Come

Once again we have come to a sweet end
This time we have learned the art of the Nonce
With a Mouse, a Tail, and a fun Whimsey
And the Trioku of haikus as the fifth

We wrote DoReMiDo’s full of singsong
And Inside Outs, not to forget the Dizzy
Colored brightly with our Interspersed words
And American Paragraphs were heard

We also read the words of each other
And borrowed the Silver ones all for free
Repetition occurred repeatedly
But never were we in competition

Nonce forms are fun, like Zig-Zags and He-
Lipads, they deserve a try at least once.

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Well there you have it! Another fantastic challenge in the books! A big thanks again to @murisopsis for creating and hosting this wonderful celebration of poetry. I’m looking forward to continuing to read everyones contributions. Happy poetry month!

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Be well,

Monty

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• Horizon
• Wound Up
• Playful