Here’s a summary of all the poems I’ve posted on my blog, including a note of the structures I’ve used. I’ve marked my favourites in bold.
A quick note on critiquing. I do value frank feedback as a way to improve as a poet, but there are several poems here which are very personal to me, where critique might inadvertently touch on vulnerable spots.
Poems where technique is less important than the need to express a wound that’s still hurting.
So please feel free to share your personal reactions to any poem on this site – whether the poem is deeply personal or less so, it’s fascinating to know what it stirs in readers. But probably it’s best for all concerned if you don’t pull things entirely apart unless I’ve actually asked for critique!
March
Invitation – four verses using 3 rhymes
A tribute – free verse
Meaning is optional – nonsense poem
February
Cold flame, dry potion – free verse
Hope – free verse
My heart’s song – free verse with repetition
Eyes and heart – sonnet
Alchemy of flame
Transformation – free verse
Nearly – non-rhyming couplets
January
Against the night – repetition structured
Stories from the surface – sestina
Creation – free verse
Snow bliss – haiku
December
Dream – haiku
Impossible bridge – free verse
Ochre afternoon – sonnet
What remains – terza rima
Riddle – free verse
Dandelion – ABAB with refrain
Fleshplumes – nove otto
Man in my mind – Burmese climbing rhyme
Ocean – free verse
November
Breaking the rules – rebellious sonnet
I want a shell – free verse
Room in my heart – free verse
Unseen horizon – rhyme and repetition
What I have learned – list poem
And should we meet as strangers – sonnet
No, really – free verse
Tigress – free verse
Day and night – pair of poems based on a word cloud
October
Antiques – free verse based on a RWP collaboration
Naranjo en flor – free verse inspired by a famous tango song
Abrazo – free verse
Fledgling-haiku
September
Through a haze – structure based on repetition
Unsent letters – free verse
Insomnia – just rhymed
Fenced in – free verse
Seed – haiku
Winter morning – haiku
What we thought was true – collaborative line by line poem
Song of fragility – free verse
Choreography – free verse
Changes – free verse
Time to leave – free verse
Time to leave – sonnet
Weeping – free verse
Time – sonnet
Experience – haiku
Explosion – sonnet
August
Dancing – aaB, ccB etc
Annunciation -free verse
Vibrancy – free verse
Red river morning – haiku
One way – tanka
Hormonal winter – free verse
Flesh and rock – fairly free but shaped into verses
Weekend – free verse
Sun, sky and stork – free verse
Bones of the earth – ABAB
Summer – tanka
Coming home – free line lengths with a little rhyming
Enthralled heart – sonnet
Pickpocket time – modified cascade poem
Monkey mind – chained lune
Forest soul, savannah soul – free verse
Sage and brushstrokes – free verse
The mind sends a love letter – shaped poem
Scent story – freeish verse based on images from another poet
Months – not rhymed, but structured
Thresholds – free verse
Carefree – free verse
Vigil – a sonnet
Seven things that chase the shadows away – 7 lines of 7 syllables
Mountain story – free verse
Maze – more or less free verse
Memories – free verse
July – my personal NaPoWriMo month (37 poems in 31 days!)
Doubt and fear – a sonnet
Awkward doubts – clerihewish rhyming
Smell of the earth – repetition structured
Hot summer roads – haiku
Traveller’s tale – six haiku
Fighting love – haiku
Beauty – a sonnet
Loyalty – repetition structured
Solace, a reflexive verb – one rhyme per couplet
The way back – a ballad (loosely!)
Spleen – ABAB, echoing Paul Verlaine’s poem “Spleen”
A dream – ABAB
Standing still – a ghazal
I is for… – alliterative verse
Between nowhere and goodbye – free verse
Seduction – free verse
Now – fib chain
Welcome to your garret – free verse
Together – Burmese climbing rhyme
Escapist reading – two haiku
Dancing – Ghazal
Just like cats – ABBA
In the night – modified triolet
Dancing feet – free verse
If your blog is your home – free verse
My oldest friend – sonnet
Myths – free verse
The condor soars – paired line sonnet
Nude – ABAB
Slow times – free verse
Inner light – just rhymed
Window into the past – ABBA
Disentanglement – rewritten as a villanelle
Inevitable chance – sonnet
Disentanglement – free verse
Church of the old mermaids – paired line sonnet
Waiting-free verse
June
Winter and summer – three haiku
Vision – ABBABAAB, both verses identical rhymes.
Here is today’s news – found text
Words – repetition structured
Heartbreak tapas – free verse
Opening the door – sonnet
Being melody- just verses
Stars and fire and bliss – pantoum
Women that will be – other rhymed structure
Kraken (revisited) – other rhymed structure
Scrambled horoscope – just verses
Story within a story – structure based on repetition
Primary fears- free verse
When I watch you – terza rima
Waiting to be rescued – sonnet
Wood woman, wise woman – structure based on repetition and rhyme
Little boy’s toy – sonnet
Little boy – echo poem
Strange sunset – haiku
Elite – acrostic
Haiku based on CA Duffy’s Valentine
May
Private passions – patchwork poem
Illness – free verse
Kraken (version one) – free verse
Freedom of speech – Triolet
The voices – patchwork poem
Flotsam of broken dreams – ABAB
April
Creativity – bout-rime sonnet
Everywoman – patchwork poem
Friendship – from Songs to heal a broken heart
The eye of the paradox – from Songs to heal a broken heart
Aphrodite Abandoned – alliterative abecedarius
The memory of the feeling – from Songs to heal a broken heart
You – patchwork poem
Reception – free verse
Phoenix tears – ABCB
Thirteen ways to enjoy a papaya – each a haiku
In transit – ABCB
March
Tree life – shaped poem
To touch is to be human – structured with repetition
Winter and Spring – two haiku
Returning from the dead – a patchwork poem
Alone in darkness – just verses
Seas of dreams – terza rima
Every puddle has a silver lining – haiku
Edinburgh castle – haiku
It is all over – from Songs to heal a broken heart
A wanderer returns – pantoum
Interpretin’ tannin – haiku
Heartsong – structure based on repetition
February
Fighting for love – patchwork poem
Questions and fears – structure based on repetition
Open heart surgery – haiku
To my valentine – structure based on repetition
Silence – free verse
Dried tears – haiku
Words that sing 