Accomplishing

A nonet poem about persistence

There’s not time enough to accomplish all I would like to do today. I fall and can’t rise again… until I try once more. I might fail, sure, but not giving up’s the only way to win.

I always tell my daughters that I don’t care the outcome of what they do as long as they try. No one’s perfect — we can’t come out on top all the time. But, in my book, we’re all successful as long as we try. That’s the most important lesson— to not give up.

This poetic format is a nonet, which is a 9-line poem with a specific syllable count. The first line is 9 syllables and each consecutive line takes away one syllable until you’re left with only 1 syllable at the end. It’s a short poem, but helps quite well to condense the meaning of what you want to write — you only have a short space to talk about one central idea.

There’s no rhyme scheme, although you can definitely rhyme if you’d like (it’s not required at all, and my poem certainly didn’t).

Hope you might want to give this poetic format a try. If you do, please post a link to your poem in the chat. Would love to read it!

Want to check out some other great nonets? Here are three that show a great variety of themes:

“Embodied Spirit” by Jackie Ann talks about love and imperfections:

Sally A Mortemore’s poem “Deeds Not Just Words” explores the idea of advocacy:

And to end on a fun & humorous note, give a read to “Don’t be a crawfish” by My Cozy Den.

✍ — Published by Libby Shively McAvoy at Dancing Elephants Press. Click here for submission guidelines.