Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

Your Poet Laura Has Been Up to Something (About Form Poetry)

By Tania Runyan 12 Comments

Rock line on beach
So you haven’t heard from me, your official Poet Laura, for a couple of months. But there is a very good, very poetic reason for that.

I’ve been working on my newest “How-to” book, How to Write a Form Poem, off and on for the past couple of years. But over the past month or so, I’ve really

Tweetspeak Poet Laura Chicken

hunkered down––partly because quarantine has given me no choice but to hunker––to make enough headway for what T.S. Poetry Press plans as a summer release.

One of my Poet Laura duties is to read a poem every weekday and encourage others to do the same. In writing How to Write a Form Poem, I have fulfilled this duty to the extreme, not only rereading the poets I love in search of the best found poems, but discovering new voices as well.

Here are the ten fabulous forms I cover in the book:

Villanelle
Sonnet
Sestina
Acrostic
Ghazal
Pantoum
Ode
Rondeau
Haiku
Found Poem

I devote a chapter to each of the forms, including a definition and background, classic and contemporary examples, my own personal writing journey, and detailed guidance on how to try out the form yourself. In the back of the book, I provide more poems and exercises. In all, we’re looking at around one hundred poems, and I’ve gotten to know them quite intimately.

In the coming months, I’ll be offering opportunities to “Meet the Poets” from How to Write a Form Poem with snippets of their work and personal travels with form. In the meantime, here’s one of my own that I feature in the book. Can you guess the form? And once you guess it. . .can you relate?

From the Anxiety Series

Whatever this is about, I’m sure it’s humiliating,
Even paralyzing because

Never have I forgiven myself for disappointing someone
Else. Grieve me instead, please.
Eke out a reason to offend me and I will
Drench you with understanding.

To be in pain is easier than having caused it
Or, worse, waiting for the conversation

That for now has stopped time
And told my stomach that danger
Lurks in the hours ahead, as I reply and wait,
Keening for your love again.

Featured photo by Guiseppe Milo, Creative Commons license via Flickr. Post by Tweetspeak’s inaugural “Poet Laura,” Tania Runyan.

Browse more Poet Laura

__________________________

How to Read a Poem by Tania RunyanHow to Read a Poem uses images like the mouse, the hive, the switch (from the Billy Collins poem)—to guide readers into new ways of understanding poems. Anthology included.

“I require all our incoming poetry students—in the MFA I direct—to buy and read this book.”

—Jeanetta Calhoun Mish

BUY HOW TO READ A POEM NOW!

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Tania Runyan
Tania Runyan
Tania Runyan lives in Lindenhurst, Illinois, a sort-of suburb, sort-of small town, where the deer and the minivans play. She's a 2011 NEA fellow and mama to four poetry books—A Thousand Vessels, Simple Weight, Delicious Air, and What Will Soon Take Place—and three (much cuter and noisier) human children. Tania is also the author of five non-fiction books—Making Peace with Paradise, How To Read a Poem, How to Write a Poem, How to Write a Form Poem, and How to Write a College Application Essay. Visit her at TaniaRunyan.com
Tania Runyan
Latest posts by Tania Runyan (see all)
  • Flowers of California: California Poppy - December 8, 2022
  • Flowers of California: Lily of the Nile - October 13, 2022
  • Flowers of California: Crape Myrtle - October 5, 2022

Filed Under: How to Write a Form Poem, Poet Laura

Try Every Day Poems...

About Tania Runyan

Tania Runyan lives in Lindenhurst, Illinois, a sort-of suburb, sort-of small town, where the deer and the minivans play. She's a 2011 NEA fellow and mama to four poetry books—A Thousand Vessels, Simple Weight, Delicious Air, and What Will Soon Take Place—and three (much cuter and noisier) human children. Tania is also the author of five non-fiction books—Making Peace with Paradise, How To Read a Poem, How to Write a Poem, How to Write a Form Poem, and How to Write a College Application Essay. Visit her at TaniaRunyan.com

Comments

  1. Maureen says

    July 2, 2020 at 8:08 am

    Looking forward to this, Tania!

    Reply
  2. Sandra Heska King says

    July 2, 2020 at 10:03 am

    I know!!! Love it!

    Reply
  3. Tania Runyan says

    July 2, 2020 at 10:59 am

    Thank you, friends!

    Reply
  4. Monica Sharman says

    July 2, 2020 at 11:30 am

    “To be in pain is easier than having caused it”

    Oh yes, I can relate! But what I tend to do is avoid the talk altogether, needed though it is. :-\

    Can’t wait for this book! Thank you for writing it!

    Reply
    • Tania Runyan says

      July 3, 2020 at 2:42 pm

      Thank you, Monica! I’m excited, too!

      Reply
  5. Megan Willome says

    July 2, 2020 at 12:30 pm

    Yes, I got it.

    Can’t wait to read this, Tania! I need my Poet Laura to guide me into form poetry, which is interesting me more and more.

    Reply
    • Tania Runyan says

      July 3, 2020 at 2:43 pm

      Megan, this book will keep you plenty busy! So excited to have one of YOUR poems in it, too!

      Reply
  6. Bethany Rohde says

    July 2, 2020 at 4:37 pm

    Oh yes, I absolutely relate to this, and I am sorry you’ve also gone through it. (But what a great poem.)

    Looking forward to the book. Will be such a valuable resource in my school-from-home bookcase. This last school year, I used How to Read a Poem to introduce poetry to my middle-grade son. We both loved it.

    Reply
    • Tania Runyan says

      July 3, 2020 at 2:45 pm

      This makes me so happy to hear, Bethany! I hope you and your son love How to Write a Form Poem!

      Reply
  7. Bethany says

    July 3, 2020 at 2:52 pm

    Yes, the days I’d announce my ELA lesson plan included your book, he’d smile. After reading a chunk at a time, some great chats went down around our electric fireplace.

    Reply
  8. Lana Phillips says

    September 13, 2020 at 11:53 pm

    It’s September!! Will it be much longer?

    Reply
    • Tania Runyan says

      September 14, 2020 at 10:32 am

      I know, Lana! I’m feeling the same way. We are waiting on permissions for a few poems, still. Don’t worry–we will make a big announcement when the time comes! Thank you so much for your interest!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our May Menu

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

The Graphic Novel

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

meet The Yellow Wallpaper characters

How to Write Poetry

Your Comments

  • Glynn on World War II Had Its Poets, Too
  • Sandra Fox Murphy on World War II Had Its Poets, Too
  • Glynn on Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and “The Mother of All Words”
  • Bethany R. on Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and “The Mother of All Words”

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2025 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy