The Naani is a poetic form from India consisting of 4 short lines — no more than 20 to 25 syllables total — and very few other rules. (Which always sounds freeing, but isn’t.) We added a twist, because we’re fun that way, focusing on foresight, or fall, or both.
Foresight. These days. Ha! My response was to look to the natural world because nothing about the human world seems predictable at all anymore. There are messages for us in eggs and trees and maps, though, and we can read those…
An egg uncracked,
a mystery unsolved,
what waits for us tomorrow –
one sun or two?
Inside the tree
sits a clock, ticking off days,
seasons, shades of yellow,
predicting what comes next.
Topographic lines
read like fingerprints:
Go this way. This will be steep.
This will be beautiful.
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Enjoy these other poems, friends, and stay safe and well…
Laura
Sara
Tanita
Tricia
Kelly
Andi
Poetry Friday is at Teacher Dance this week!
OH! And would you like to join us next month? Our theme is hindsight and the goal is to pick one of your old poems to revise and/or write a new poem in conversation with it… Try it!
Oooh….”this will be steep. This will be beautiful”. That’s a tiny definition of a poem right there.
Love these — so beautiful and calming. Sigh . . .
Beautiful. Even though these are shorter than most of her poems, the voice in these reminds me of Naomi Shihab Nye’s. The first two lines of the egg one are my most favorite bit.
I love that you can make a poem out of a both an egg, and a topographical map. Liz! Poet Extraordinaire I name you…
I do love the topo naani, Liz, extraordinary to be so brief & true. And having those things from nature like the topo lines, the balanced egg, & a tree’s secrets is something to cling to. Beautiful ‘looking forward’!
I love these, but I’m especially fond of the last one. I adore topographic maps and this poem about them is just perfection.
Liz, this naani format is interesting and I am ready to give it a try. Thanks for the examples. I really liked your poems and your perspective of looking at the natural world. You are so right: “nothing about the human world seems predictable at all anymore”. Nature Nurtures us as we look forward.
My favorite is the topographical lines – they are like fingerprints!
I love your choice of topics. The egg, full of hope; the tree, with its hidden predictions; the map, encouraging us to seek adventure.