Styles and Techniques: Shape

Shape poetry is one of the things that separates simple prose from poetry. Poetry can come in many different styles, but perhaps the most unique and inventive style is for the poetry to take on the shape of its subject. So if the the poem's subject is a fish, then the words and lines would be formatted in a way that the poem itself looks like a fish. Here is an example, entitled "Forest King".

Far away,

deep in the shadowy

wood stands a royal forest king,

so grand and majestic that even the birds

dare not desecrate its tangled labyrinths of

shining, shifting emerald. Long it has stood,

watching with unseen eyes the changes

the world has undergone. Silently

it weeps, longing for

day that

it knows

will nev-

er come

again. t-

he world

has chan-

ged, and it

is going to

stay as such.

Naturally, the color in this particular shape poem is not a necessity. I merely took advantage of my own creative freedom during its conception. Black and white is perfectly fine as well.

Personally, I love shape poetry. It is incredibly fun and surprisingly easy to write, and the complex shapes you end up creating may surprise even you. Though slightly unorthodox, this is one of my favorite types of poetry ever.

~ Adam B.