Wednesday 24 June 2009

Wonderful Words (7): Ouroboros

I came across the word 'ouroboros' ( or in Greek, Ουροβόρος) on Nic Sebastian's Very Like a Whale blog - see Question 5 - and was immediately intrigued, particularly when I discovered that it was linked to a poetry form.

Thank you, Nicolette Bethel, editor of tongues of the ocean for the introduction to the ourobotic poem by , editor of The Caribbean Review of Books.

Those who know me will know that I am always on the look out for new forms in poetry. I have enjoyed writing about the following ones (with the help of their respective creators):
  • The 'Fib' form - after Fibonacci - created by Gregory K. Pincus of Gottabook.
If you would like to read about these in Wendy Webb's eTIPS magazine, I suggest you leave a comment here or visit Wendy's blog. My third piece on (short) forms in this occasional series is due to appear later this year.

Incidentally, the latest edition of Wendy's TIPS for Writers (72) is out, and as usual, contains a feast of poems, competitions and news. Many congratulations to Tina Negus on winning the Margaret Munro Gibson Prize. This TIPS competition was judged by Alison Chisholm.

My thanks to Mand for the link to The Ouroboros Review. (See Mand's comment below).

5 comments:

Nicolette Bethel said...

Thank you, Caroline, for making the journey.

You can find Nicholas and his work online here and here (I neglected to link to the Caribbean Review of Books, something that's now rectified on tongues of the ocean). It's a fun form, isn't it?

Cheers.

http://tonguesoftheocean.org/

poefusion said...

It's always fun to try new poetry forms out, isn't it? I try to post different ones on my blog from time to time. If you want to take a look you can find them under the tab called Poefusion. If you click on the label called poetic form it will bring up only those posts. Have a great day.

Caroline Gill said...

Thank you, Nicolette, for finding me over here in Wales! I'm very grateful for the new links you have posted.

Thank you, Michelle, for the Poefusion tip-off. I will explore under the label on your blog.

mand said...

Ouroboros has always been one of my favourite concepts - and i'd forgotten it's a poetic form, so thanx for this elbow-jog!

Even better, it's a new(ish) online-and-print magazine of poetry and art, ouroboros review: http://www.ouroborosreview.com/

My humble judgement is that it's pretty high quality.

Susan Richardson said...

Really interesting post, Caroline (as always!) - I love to discover new forms too!

And 'Ouroboros Review' is indeed excellent - new, and beautifully produced.