Poem created using the Visual Poet app on my i-Pad

This image was created using a new digital storytelling app that was recommended to me called Visual Poet. It is fun to create with, but I am underwhelmed by the quality of the resulting image. The smaller one on the left is the original; the one below I doubled in size, and, of course, lost quality. Boo! Hiss!

Sevenling (When We Courted)

Sevenling (Where You Courted)

Where you courted me, there were hot springs

in the McKenzie, and a string of perfect amber; I

remember melted chocolate at Triangle Lake, a raft in hot sun.

We had to wait until dark to see

the secretive creatures swim

out of the forest, into the reeds and open lake.

We paddled home by moonlight.

–Sandy Brown Jensen

For my poet friends, in a  Sevenling, the first three lines should contain an element of three – three connected or contrasting statements, or a list of three details, names or possibilities. This can take up all of the three lines or be contained anywhere within them.

• Then, lines four to six should similarly contain an element of three, connected directly or indirectly or not at all.
• The seventh line should act as a narrative summary or punchline or as an unusual juxtaposition. There are no set metrical rules, but being such as short form, some rhythm, meter or rhyme is desirable.
• To give the form a recognizable shape, it should be set out in two stanzas of three lines, with a solitary seventh, last line.
• Titles are not required. A sevenling should be titled Sevenling followed by the first few words in parentheses
• The tone of the sevenling should be mysterious, offbeat or disturbing, giving a feeling that only part of the story is being told.
• The poem should have a certain ambiance which invites guesswork from the reader.

“I want the concentration and the romance, and the worlds all glued together, fused, glowing: I have no time to waste any more on prose”

–Virginia Woolf