Monchielle Stanza

[Tinker]

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Invented Forms

The Monchielle Stanza is a relatively new and very popular stanzaic form invented by Jim T Henriksen of Norway. He posted his innovation at All Poetry.com in 2005 and the form seems to have found its way onto several poetry sites since. Of course, we can't leave it out of this forum.

The form is named for Jim's wife Monica and the Kyrielle which also uses a refrain within its frame. It seems to me that the form is more conducive to lyrical images and the repetition of L1 in L1 of subsequent stanzas is closer to the rentrament of the Rondeau Family of forms than the refrain and narrative nature of the Kyrielle, but I didn't invent nor name this new form.

The elements of the Monchielle Stanza are:

1. stanzaic, written in any number of cinquains. (The original poem suggests 4 cinquains but the stanza frame will work equally as well with 2 or more stanzas.)
2. syllabic, 6 syllable lines or if you prefer iambic trimeter
3. rhymed, rhyme scheme From Axbxb Axcxc Axdxd Axexe etc. x being unrhymed or Abcbc Adede Afgfg etc.
4. written with a rentrament L1 is repeated as L1 in each subsequent stanza.
   
   When in the Woods by Judi Van Gorder
   
   Settling into stillness,
   spine straight, shoulders relaxed,
   lines from a Robert Frost
   poem glide through my thoughts,
   images never lost.
   
   Settling into stillness
   I open to the sounds
   of a grey squirrel up high
   gathering for winter
   and never asking why.
   
   Settling into stillness,
   a single beetle crawls
   across a lacy fern,
   graceful feathered leaves fan 
   to usher my return. 
   
   Settling into stillness,
   the minutes drop away
   Pain and joy become one,
   one moment, one lifetime,
   one with the silent sun.