Re: A form of poetry - "octricle"

J Y S Czhang wrote, quoting myself:

> > The name I have chosen is "Octricle". 'Oct' because it has eight
> > lines, 'tri' because it can be divided into three parts headed by
> > lines 1, 3 and 7, and 'cle' to invoke a sense of nature and
> > serenity through resonance with words such as "icicle" and "trickle".
> >
> > What do you think?
>
> Niceness. Your octricle form vaguely reminds me of Chinese _ch'an_
> poetry, which influenced Japanese poetry.
> Interestin' that you have creatively assimilated some Asian
> sensibilities - consciously and/or sub- (well, afterall you are in
> Australia, right? & the 20th Century has been called the "Pacific
> Century"...).
I'm really interested in what you say here.

The only Asian poetry I'm familiar with is haiku (I've written a few),
and here I agree that it's similar in the sense of being conductive to
meditative verse about simple, isolated events (a difference is that
an octricle places more emphasis on movement/progression rather than a
photographic moment), and also in the sense of utilising rhyme or
metre yet still having a structure into which the poet must mould the
thought (by contrast, European poetry tends to *either* emphasise
rhyme and metre, as in traditional verse, *or* have very little
structure at all, as in free verse - what we're talking about here is
structure but a different kind).

It's nice to have someone of Asian background confirm that there's a
connection with Asian poetry (I had, in fact, sort of wondered what
the great Japanese poets like Basho would have made of it) but it
sounds like you might be seeing more subtle similarities than I'm able
to. So, starting from what I've described above, please tell me, how
do you think it resembles and/or differs from Asian poetry? (And what
is this _ch'an_?)

> > Good word?
>
> I can't get my brainie around it too well (the surreal image of a
> frozen octopus - wearing a surgical mask - impaled on a stick keeps
> poppin' into my mind's eyeball ;)
I'll keep it as a working title, at least. Then again, if you think
the Asian resonance is strong enough, then could it use an
Asian-derived name, perhaps? -- just an idea. (BTW, is your frozen,
impaled, surgical octopus prophecising the future as in oracle?)

> > Can you write one using your conlang (or otherwise, for that matter)?
>
> I shall attempt to some time sooner (or later...)
If anyone does write any (in whatever language, provided an English
translation is provided), then I'll stick 'em on my website sometime.

Adrian.