Connor Sansby

There are a million ways to edit a poem, a dozen ways to punctuate and almost anything being removed can make a poem stronger. The art of an editor is knowing what the truest shape of the poem is, what the poet […]

The title “writer” is a prized one. For many, the idea of having a novel published is the ultimate mark of success – it isn’t based on sales or chart positions, it’s the simple accomplishment of having completed […]

As writers, we’re often at a loss for time. Our days are filled with regular jobs and our nights are filled with the vague remains of social lives. So how do we find time to write, publish, push our work e […]

It seems like a good idea on paper, right? Dedicating a book to a chosen charity. Surely people will pick up the book in order to donate. Maybe the charity will help market the book. It might buy you some good PR […]

This has been on my mind for a while. It’s advice I’ve privately dished out over the last three years. The time for poets to struggle is over.

As poets, we invest hours of our time into writing, editing, per […]

there used to be a nightclub up there,

suspended in heaven

where the stars would dance
like we did
synced in binary rotations with the planets
twirling around our hips
as we dreamt of music…

gravity w […]

While rhyming is by no means the be-all and end-all of poetry, many writers and readers find well executed rhymes to be a pleasing quality in poetic writing. Yet, there are also huge, passionate groups who are […]

A Kimo is a short, haiku-like poem, originating in Israel.
History
The haiku has spread all over the world, and in turn it has been adapted by different cultures to suit their needs and means of expression. In […]

An Aubade is a love song set in the morning, as opposed to a Serenade which is at night.

History

The term Aubade first appeared in France in the 1600s, where it referred to a song sung in the morning. It’s l […]

A Monostich is a single-line poem which expresses a complete thought.
History
Single-line poetry has existed in some variation for a long while, however it is perhaps in Russia that we find the first examples of […]

Erasure poetry is a form of graphic found poetry, including blackout poetry, as well as other styles of poetry.

History
The first use of erasure poetry may be in the 1965 work by Doris Cross, entitled […]

Epic poetry is a form focusing on long narratives, often used to tell stories of exceptional people, both real and fictional.

History
We are all familiar with the term ‘epic’—it is synonymous with great […]

Diamante are a form of concrete poetry, in which the poem forms the shape of a diamond.

History

The Diamante was first established as a form in the 1969 article ‘A New Poetry Form: The Diamante’ by Iris Tie […]

The Zajal is a traditional form of Arabic poetry, sometimes improvised to music.

History

No one can say for certain when the Zajal first originated, but the earliest records we have date from around the […]

Contrapuntal poems are those that weave two poems together.

History
It’s difficult to know who invented the idea of contrapuntal poetry, though it is probable that it evolved from the musical idea of c […]

The triolet is a short form of French poetry that has been adapted to be used in the English language.

History

Triolet first appeared in Northern France as a close cousin of the Rondel, in the 13th Century. […]

Ae Freislighe is an Irish form of poetry—a family of poetic types rooted in the history of Ireland.
History
Until the 5th Century, the only written form of Irish was Ogham, and the alphabet was mostly known f […]

Landay is a short form of Afghan poetry consisting of a single couplet, much like a Ghazal.

History

The Landay is believed to have been first brought to Afghanistan by Indo-Aryan nomads around 1700, though […]

The Nonet is a form of poetry where each line has one less syllable than the previous line.

History

Not much is known of the history of the Nonet. It is possible the form originated from Western interest in […]

The Burns Stanza is a form of poetry made famous by Scottish poet Robert Burns, and used in many of his poems.
History
While the Burns Stanza is named after Robert Burns, it was not invented by him. Originally, […]