This month in the Teach Write Academy, we have a list of November prompts that are words and phrases created to inspire writing. What I love about these prompts is that I never know where they are going to take me. What words are going to come. What memories I am going to find.
One of the prompts last week was "whispered secrets." These two words begged for a poem, and after trying out several forms, a skinny was created.
The Skinny Poem is short poem form that consists of eleven lines. The first and eleventh lines can be any length (although shorter lines are favored). The eleventh and last line must be repeated using the same words from the first and opening line (however, they can be rearranged). The second, sixth, and tenth lines must be identical. All the lines in this form, except for the first and last lines, must be comprised of ONLY one word. The Skinny was created by Truth Thomas in the Tony Medina Poetry Workshop at Howard University in 2005.
Whispered secrets
from
me
to
you
from
confidential
to
betrayal
from
secrets whispered.
from
me
to
you
from
confidential
to
betrayal
from
secrets whispered.