Written for:  dVerse Poets Pub – Poetry:  a Piece of Written Art  (posted by Victoria)

In our current form challenge, the Pantoum, we are working with both structure and repetition—techniques much like pattern in visual art. This form, and others which will soon be on our “to write” list, all turn to these artistic tools. So, let’s don our smocks, gather brushes and paints, and prop up a blank canvas on the easel, as we look at repetition: why and how to choose the lines or words we will repeat.

What does repetition add to the poem?

Most often as we prepare to write a poem, there lurks deep in our consciousness or maybe floating on the surface, a message that had meaning to us and that we want to communicate to our reader. It could be as complex as an emotion or a socially significant issue or as simple as the beauty we find in a moment of time. Repetition is a tool that is much gentler than a hammer with which to drive home the point we want to make.

The use of auditory sounds helps the words or phrases stick with the reader, much like those tunes that create earworms that drive us to distraction—think “It’s a Small World”—the song that keeps on giving a message that wants to be heard.

Repeating a word or line underlines the importance of that word or line. Often all the other lines or words in the poem build on the repeated line or word—giving the poet a springboard in which to dive into developing the rest of the work.

In midst of a field of sunflowers,
a dream of chocolate and butter
becomes true, as they nod their heads.
Contentment is provision of nature.

A dream of chocolate and butter
image, conjures up a cake to some.
Contentment is provision of nature,
who says, stay as long as you like.

Image conjures up a cake to some,
those that see with stomach, not eyes.
Who says, stay as long as you like?
Mother Nature is generous.

Those that see with stomach, not eyes,
become blind as sunflowers nod their heads.
Mother Nature is generous,
in midst of a field of sunflowers.

https://dversepoets.com/