Poetry Play Thursday – Diamante
Welcome back to Poetry Play Thursday where each week we discuss a different form of poetry and try our hand at writing it. I had fun reading everyone’s poem last week and I hope you did, too! This week’s form will be:
DIAMANTE (or DIAMOND)
(I bet you thought it would be a limerick!)
A diamante poem is a poem in the shape of a diamond. The words do not have to rhyme but each line uses specific words like nouns, adjectives and -ing words. It can be about one topic (synonym) or two separate topics (antonyms).
An excellent example of this form would be the following poem written by Spiritual Poet at Allpoetry.com:
faith
assurance confidence
knowing trusting believing
certainty confidence fearful unbelief
shaking faltering hesitating
suspicion uncertainty
doubt
Here’s what you need to know:
Guidelines for a two topic diamante poem:
Line 1: A one word noun that is the opposite of the noun in Line 7
Line 2: Two adjectives that describe the top noun in Line 1
Line 3: Three verbs that describe what the top noun in Line 1 does
Line 4: Four nouns that the noun in Line 1 and the noun in Line 7 both have
Line 5: Three verbs that describe what the bottom noun in Line 7 does
Line 6: Two adjectives that describe the bottom noun in Line 7
Line 7: A one word noun that is the opposite of the noun in Line 1
Guidelines for a one topic diamante poem:
Line 1: A one word beginning topic
Line 2: Two adjectives about beginning topic in Line 1
Line 3: Three -ing words about beginning topic
Line 4: Four nouns or a short phrase linking your topic or topics
Line 5: Three -ing words about ending topic
Line 6: Two adjectives about ending topic in Line 7
Line 7: A one word ending topic
Have fun writing your diamante poem! I do hope you’ll share it with us either in our comments or by adding your link to Mister Linky. Please support the efforts of the other participants by checking out their poems as well! 
P.S. April is National Poetry Month. Look for some related activities I’ll post about soon!
~ Pamela
Tags: diamond, Poetry, Poetry Play Thursday
This one was hard! Some of my thoughts…
As I thought about trying out a different poetry form every week, I had an idea! (Yes, that light bulb is dusty, but it works occasionally.) I will keep the subject matter the same, so that I could observe the different ways the same idea can be addressed through the various poetry forms. Last week my subject was menstruation.
I did an antonym:
Flow
Picky Perceptive
Careen Create Chase
Sister Sense Support System
Breathe Balance Be
Soft Still
Ebb
My conclusions:
This week’s was so much harder than last week’s to me! First, it’s difficult to not just make the poem completely disgusting based on the subject matter. Second, I didn’t want to use words like “crazy” because I feel, as a feminist, that our reproductive systems are used against us all the time. How many times have you heard a snide remark about a woman’s period and her inability to do something? Or a workplace taking a dim view of a woman’s pregnancy? So I wanted to make the ideas here about how sensitive and aware our bodies are. I hope I succeeded.
I also found the diamante form to be more conducive to a thoughtful poem, rather than a funny or pithy type.
What an excellent idea, Lucy! I have a feeling that light bulb is never dusty.
I didn’t post an optional subject because I thought it would be too limiting in this case. Keeping the subject matter the same each time should definitely prove interesting. I look forward to your discoveries.
Your diamante is beautiful and I’m so glad you chose to keep it soft. You definitely succeeded!
I appreciate not only your poem but your thoughts on the poetry form and why you chose to write it the way you did. I do hope others will feel free to post and offer their comments as well.
Thanks, Lucy. I can’t wait to read more of your writing!
Running late — again! Sorry!
(Sore throat and sinus headaches apparently impede the writing part of the brain…)
Here’s my diamante. I chose “dragon” for my subject, considering that I love them dearly. (And these are hard to write!)
Dragon
Serpentine Fanged
Soaring Fire-breathing Guarding
Treasure Gold Cave Fire
Burning Smoldering Roaring
Powerful Spell-bound
Legend
Excellent diamante, Pamela! I love dragons, too! Yours sounds magnificent.
Thanks for participating again and I hope you feel better soon! Sinus headaches can be awful.