One of the joys of poetry comes when I discover a new form that I haven't seen before. Such was the pleasure today of encountering reversos on Gregory K's Gotta Book blog.
Over at The Miss Rumphius Effect the challenge had been set to write them and if you read down the page you will see what people came up with.

The idea is simple, and the execution is really rather difficult.

You must write a poem, in any form that you like (though blank verse is rather easier to do than anything else) where the lines, when read in reverse order give another, different, poem.

Naturally I had to have a go.
My first effort strikes me as a bit of a cheat as it just uses the trick of applying pre- and post- modifying adverbial phrases and gives what amounts to exactly the same poem. Nevertheless here it is - forwards and backwards.

quote:

Night and Day

Night falls
but
day breaks.
Night spreads quietly,
a cold enveloping sheet.
Day shatters,
hurling diamond fragments.
Night announces itself in whispers,
"Here I am,"
screams day,
"Look at me!"
Night falls
but
day breaks.


Day and Night

Day breaks
but
night falls.
"Look at me,"
screams day,
"Here I am!"
Night announces itself in whispers.
Hurling diamond fragments.
day shatters.
A cold enveloping sheet,
night spreads quietly.
Day breaks
but
night falls.

I followed this with a second attempt which is markedly different when read backwards, hence the two different titles.

quote:

Struck By Lightning

He was alive,
Then
He was dead,
By the strange mechanism
Of mortality.

In defiance
He had called the lightning
To him.

Neither Gods nor fate meant anything.

No one tried to save him.

From the folly of his hubris
Life and death became one.

Frankenstein's Triumph

Life and death became one.

From the folly of his hubris,
No one tried to save him.

Neither Gods nor fate meant anything
To him.

He had called the lightning.

In defiance
Of mortality,
By the strange mechanism,
He was dead,
Then
He was alive.

Give it a try. It's harder than it looks.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

It looks hard, Bob. I have to get the hang of it.