Lune

It’s Fun Friday again and we are doing a form that has been invented twice. In the 1960’s poet Robert Kelly invented the lune based on the haiku. He set it up with three lines having syllable counts of 5-3-5 per line. He called it the lune because the resulting shape reminded him of the crescent moon and lune is French for moon.

Later the poet Jack Collom remembered it as counting words, not syllables, in line lengths of 3-5-3. So the lune is three lines of 5-3-5 syllables, except when it is three lines with 3-5-3 words. Since this form along with it second iteration came about in the 1960’s I suspect there have been even more variations sine. It’s Fun Friday. Have fun.

A Kelly lune:

trees never wander
but still spread
across open fields

A Collom lune:

An envelope labeled
loose change holds coins meant
for loose teeth.

Both of these examples came from Writer’s Digest, which is itself a fun site. Lune: Poetic Forms - Writer's Digest (writersdigest.com)

Comments

  1. PondgirlApril 24, 2022 at 9:42 AM

    Interesting. I have never heard of either. I have been experimenting with modern haiku for several years. I think I'll give these a try, esp.
    counting words not syllables.
    Don't know if this is allowed but here's an example of my take on modern haiku
    first lesson
    how the palm leaf
    holds rain
    Thank you for post.

    ReplyDelete

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