A couple of weeks ago, Michelle Heidenrich Barnes featured an interview with poet J. Patrick Lewis on her blog. Lewis challenged Michelle’s readers to write a “zeno,” a poetic form he invented. Inspired by the mathematical “hailstone sequence,” a zeno, is “a 10-line poem with 8,4,2,1,4,2,1,4,2,1 syllables that rhyme abcdefdghd.”
I think students will have fun with this form, so I spent some time playing with zenos today. They are quite a challenge! Here’s the example I came up with to share with my students before they try their own:
In October apples ripen,
orchards are full.
Fruit hangs
thick.
Plump, juicy macs,
winesaps,
slick
with morning dew.
Fun to
pick!
© Catherine Flynn, 2014
![Winslow Homer, 1878 [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://readingtothecore.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/winslow_homer_-_apple_picking.jpg)
Reading to the Core 
They are such fun, and yours is great, Catherine.
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What a fun form. I love it. – and the fact that you played around with it before giving it to your students. I think I’ll have to try one of these! 🙂
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Woohoo! This is wonderful, Catherine! Love the apple theme and your terrific use of thick/slick/pick. Great accompanying artwork too.
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How neat! I am mentoring a fellow for our Writing Project site. She is looking at poetry as her inquiry project. I will definitely share this with her on Saturday. thanks for sharing.
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I really enjoyed reading your zeno, Catherine. It looks like you found fall and paired up a great Winslow Homer piece of art with it. I tried one too but it will be posted later this week for Holly Mueller’s Spiritual Journey Thursday.
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Beautiful. I agree with MIchelle! Students (and I) wold love playing with this.
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Beautifully written, Catherine! I like the idea of a zeno, but it’s not something I’m ready to tackle at 9 p.m. Maybe this weekend…
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Thanks, Stacey! It was quite a challenge, but lots of fun. I have at least 5 different versions. BTW, yes, the grandmother in my story is the same one I wrote about last week.
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Catherine,
By the way….loved your zenos. I read this one when it was first published and had planned to write one for last Friday’s Poetry Friday. That formula is a little tougher than it appears. It’s the rhyming lines that got the best of me. Your zeno created beautiful images.
Cathy
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