AND SO WE BEGIN!!

Hello!

I thought it best have the first thing you would see at Cherita Fitzgerald be a . . . Cherita Fitzgerald! This new-born Muse has begun to have a distinct personality to go with her blended form. Cherita Fitzgerald is the melding of two poetic forms, the Fitzgerald which requires exactly 55 words and the Cherita, (pronounced CHAIR-rita) a Malay poetic form consisting of a single stanza of a one-line verse, followed by a two-line verse, and then finishing with a three-line verse.

Of course Cherita Fitzgerald is just the catchy name that I choose to call this Blog, what we do here certainly need not be restricted to these two forms. Poetic forms are practically endless and many of them lend themselves to partnering and cooperative poetic blending and reflecting.
Renga, Sijo, Tanka and Hakiu are a few other forms that spring to mind. And Tan Renga! Which, like our friend Cherita Fitzgerald is a combination of forms . . . looking like a tanka and working like a renga.

If you are new to these forms - or to poetic forms at all - do not be concerned. They are easy to learn and often very easy to use. Several of us have recently discussed the fact that, though it seems strange, working within a poetic form often makes writing poetry easier. It can act as a laser and bring your focus to a point where the words flow in a way they otherwise wouldn’t.

After quite a bit of thought, I believe the best starting place for our weaving is with a regular Fitzgerald. (We will let Cherita sit out until next time.) According to faucon, who introduced many of us to the Fitzgerald, it is a poetry form popular in Northern California, that embraces the discipline and exactitude of a Haiku and Sonnet, but allows much greater flow of creative inspiration and ease of focus. The title can be of any length (a way of cheating), but the body of poem, song, prose, essay, whatever – must be exactly 55 words long.

The idea of the weaving begins when the next participant takes a line from the original Fitzgerald and uses it to begin a new Fitz of their own. Thus, the first poem is reflected in the second and woven into it as well. The third person takes a line from the second and it goes on.

At the LivePoets Blog http://livepoets.blogspot.com/
you will see several of these woven poems that were begun and continued there.

We will have to see how the flow goes, but I envision it will be quite possible to have several different poems going at the same time so that participants can pick up and weave from an existing poem or begin a new one, if the muse moves them. If this gets too confusing, we’ll pull things back at that time.

In a separate posting I will lay out a Fitzgerald waiting for someone to pick up a line and weave it into something luminous and new. I have designated the poem as Fitzgerald #1. Anyone who picks this particular piece up should add that designation to their heading. I also indicated that it was ‘First Strand.’ When someone picks it up, takes a line and makes their own poem, they will designate that piece as Fitzgerald #1 - Second Strand. The third person will take a line from the second strand and their poem will be Fitzgerald #1 - Third Strand . . . and on it goes. I think this should keep track of things. Keeping track of things is not my long-suit in life, however, so we will see what we will see and perhaps need to be flexible.

And so we begin!

Za vashe zdorovye the weird, wide world! Skal to the dance of words! And of course, and always . . . . . l'chaim ~ to life!

~ Winnie

Here are some sites where you can read about different poetic forms. I can’t find anything on the Fitzgerald . . . maybe we be breaking ground!

http://poetry.about.com/blglossary.htm
http://thewordshop.tripod.com/forms.html
http://www.thepeoplespoet.com/pages/poeticforms.htm
http://poetry.about.com/od/poeticforms/
http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Literature/Poetry/Forms/
http://poetry.about.com/blglossary.htm