A little while ago, I found an interesting poetic form called ‘cleave’. You can read about it here. Basically, it’s a type of poem that has three levels. Each line is split into two halves. You begin be reading the left half, then the right, and then the whole thing together. Make sense? The idea is that each ‘level’ makes sense on it’s own, and then reading it all together brings out new meanings from the words.
Cleave is an interesting name I think, because it can either mean to split something apart or binding it together.
Anyway, I’m not much of a poet, but I like the technical challenge of having to make the words ‘work’ within the different contexts, and the artistic challenge of trying to surprise the reader with their fusion. Please tell me what you think — if a few people like it I may try to write a few more. Ready? Here we go:
| when i look into your eyes | silent, unmoving – |
| i see a universe inside | the stillness of that moment |
| a world of possibilities | untouched by the surrounding noise |
| waiting to be realised | in the world outside |
| slowly, gradually – | with a subtle beauty |
| like the colours of the sunrise | invading the darkness |
| that is reflected in your eyes | with paradoxical charm |
Tags: cleave
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Were you thinking of Livey when you wrote this?
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Haha, yes in the beginning! But then I ended up thinking more about the form and so the subject became more general.
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