Risk Off
Poem #103 - Fun with Poetic Form Series - The Pantoum
Risk Off Poem #103 - Fun with Poetic Form Series - The Pantoum David Angel It only just occurred to me How wild and crazy I could be In my youth, those younger days Amazing risks I used to take! How wild and crazy I could be Climbed high up the tallest trees Amazing risks I used to take! Hit the ground with one mistake Climbed high up the tallest trees Bodysurfing pedigree Hit the ground with one mistake Quadriplegia, piece of cake! Bodysurfing pedigree Poking nests of killer bees Quadriplegia, piece of cake! Stung until my body ached Poking nests of killer bees Backcountry powder skiing through trees Stung until my body ached Raced my jet ski round the lake Backcountry powder skiing through trees The wildest rivers were for me Raced my jet ski round the lake Hydraulics flipped my raft mistake The wildest rivers were for me Promiscuous beyond my dreams Hydraulics flipped my raft mistake On VD, could give you my take Promiscuous beyond my dreams In my youth, those younger days On VD, could give you my take It only just occurred to me Copyright ©️ 2026, David Angel, All Rights Reserved The Pantoum “A Malaysian verse form adapted by French poets and occasionally imitated in English. It comprises a series of quatrains, with the second and fourth lines of each quatrain repeated as the first and third lines of the next. The second and fourth lines of the final stanza repeat the first and third lines of the first stanza.” - poetryoundation. org There’s something very powerful about repetition, probably because of a psychological truth about the human brain. Many studies have shown that we like and trust things that we’ve heard or seen before. So when a poetic form repeats words or lines, it gains traction in the reader’s mind because the reader keep seeing things come back. There are a number of poetic forms that rely on repetition of words or lines. The villanelle, the sestina, and the ghazal are all forms that do this, and you may well have used them yourself. The pantoum is a repeating form that takes this to an extreme! It’s not just some words or a few lines that reappear : in a pantoum, every single line gets repeated! How to finish a pantoum Now, you may have noticed a problem! I said that every line in a pantoum gets used twice But hang on—what about lines one and three of the very first stanza? Those were not re-used in stanza 2! Where do they come back? The answer is, at the end. When you are ready to conclude your pantoum, the final stanza is composed entirely of repeated lines: Line 1 of the final stanza is line 2 from the previous stanza. Line 2 of the final stanza is line 3 from the first stanza. Line 3 of the final stanza is line 4 from the previous stanza. Line 4 of the final stanza is line 1 from the first stanza. This way, not only do we use those two lines that hadn’t been recycled yet, but also we end the poem with a return to its opening. This can be a very satisfying way to end the poem: it’s good to hear the opening come back, but it’s bound to sound different this time, because of everything else that has happened in the poem in between. It only just occurred to me - writebetterpoems. com
The Fun with Poetic Form Series:
#1 When Her Poetry is Good
#2 Bad, Poetry, Society,
#3 Hard Pass on Poetry Contests
#4 Living Yesterday
#5 When Poetry Inspires Rhyme
#6 Appetence for Poetry
#7 Free Poetry & Worth Every Cent
#8 Patchwork Poetry
#9 First Stab at a Senryū
#10 Of the Ether
#11 When Allegory Inspires Rhyme
#12 On Poetic Form and the Value of Time
#13 Limerick
#14 Better than God
#15 Professor of Poetry
#16 A Mouthful of Hendecasyllables
#17 Write to Win
#18 The Ontology of Poetry
#19 "Express Dick," Learn Siri!
#20 Placento - the "Cento"
#21 The Slave of Poetic Duty
#22 Birth of the "Lowku"
#23 Why Dimeter has Four Syllables per Line
#24 They're Just Dead Leaves - the Villanelle
# 25 (a-e) - the Haiku
Breakup Haikus
Om Haiku
Haiku Contest - Subject: The Future
Alpha-Bit "Haikus"
Haikus of Hope
#26 Short Poet Society - Short Poets
#27 I Mean Like Fortune Cookies Sonnet
#28 (a-d) - the Ekphrastic poem -
Hidden Meaning
Speak No Evil’s All Too Short Love Affair with See No Evil’s Wife
The Rift Between the Wall
Did the Princess Lose her Pet?
#29 (a-e) - Love Lost Series -
a. Limerick b. Haiku c. Sijo d. Sonnet e. Blank verse
#30 Egghead "Poetry"
#31 Blunt Instruments - On words
#32 On Gleaning Meaning from a Poem and The Four Questions
# 33 The Lune
#34 The Evil Genie Said "Choose!"
# 35 Feather and Chain - The "Decrescendo"
# 36 Walkin' the DOGE - Political Satire
#37 The Second Coming? - Rap
# 38 Prosody for Dum-dums
# 39 The ABCs of Gloating - The Rhyme Scheme
#40 Fluckmeter Sonnet
#41 Breaking the Tomatometer
# 42 Erasing Erasure Eyewash
# 43 The Trump FUKKU
# 44 Can't Stop Rimming
# 45 Sell No Rhyme Before It's Time - The Slant Rhyme
# 46 The Free Verse Curse - Vers Libre
# 47 Postmark BFE - The Prompt
# 48 Soft Spot for Animals - On Inspiration
# 49 Pita and Circuses - Satire
# 50 The Vomitcratic Party - Free Verse
#51 Wood You Like More "Haikus?" - The "Funku"
# 52 - A Good Geek'll Do That - Write it down or lose it!
# 53 - Aerodynamics of Flight - Evolution of a Poem
#54 - London Bridge is Falling Down Haiku - The Renga
#55 - The Desaltery - Poetic License
#56 - Dumbwasteoftimedoh - The Rondeau
#57 - Yes It Does! - The Slant Rhyme
#58 - Temptation Sonnet - The Angelspearean Sonnet
#59 - A Poet Worth Her Salt - Write Only from the Heart
# 60 - The Enquirer - Literary Criticism for English Minors
# 61 - Storge: Not Exactly My Plan - The Acrostic Poem
# 62 - Two Wings to Fly - The Parable
# 63 - Rimshot - Satire vs. Parody
# 64 - Night School of the Fine Art - Alliteration
# 65 - A Lune to Make You Swoon
# 66 - Feeling Like a Dead Duck - Slant Rhyme for the Third Time
#67 - AABBA - More Pathetic Limericks
#68 - Prayer Time! - The Dizain
#69 - Ain't Got that Shwing - The Free Verse Limerick
#70 - Worse than Light Verse - Death by Gingivitis
#71 - LimTrumpericks - Fit for a King! A New Limerick Form is Born
#72 - Good & Hard - The Homophone
# 73 - Countdown to Zoharanistan: A Hendecasyllabic Lament
#74 - The Drunku
#75 - Fifty-two Times Easier - The Prime 1 is Born!
# 76 - Cracking / the Prime 1 Code
#77 - Eleven Places Not to Fly to Because (Hendecasyllabic fun)
#78 - Old Resentments Never Die, They Just Fade Away - Free Association
# 79 - Happy National Nookie Day, Everyone! - Finding Your Groove
#80 - Hey Good Buddy, Handle's "Messiah" - The Fourteener
#81 - Dueling Diets Sonnet - The Hybrid Sonnet
#82 - What's New... - The Liposong
#83 - Sydney - The Triolet
# 84 - One More Week of Spring - Another Triolet
# 85 - Three Rehashed Villanesques
#86 - Third Night Sestina
#87 - Jesus, Enough Enjambments Already!
#88 - Twisted Tie Rods - two more triolets
#89 - Worst Wights in the Whole Wide World - Anaphora, Alliteration & Aardvark Words
#90 - The Scrounge - The "DUOlet"
#91 - "How Did You Escape Trump, Supreme Leader?" "I Ran" - The Twelve to One
#92 - Don't Disdain Me Dizain - Another Dizain, Yawn
#93 - Wet Horse - The Caesura
#94 - But We Can't Afford to Fly to Florida, Hon! - Why published formats of the same famous poem are so different
#95 - 17 Days 'til Groundhog's Day -Long Winter Calls for Long Lines
#96 - Why I Write Like This - Acrostic Amusement
#97 - It Will Always Be the Fault of Minnesota Politicians & Media Scum - A Haiku variant - the Noemku
#98 - Bring a Gun to a Gun Fight? - The Terza Rima
# 99 - My Little Slice of Americana - The Quatrain
#100 - God of Fertility - Anaphoric Acrostic Fun!
#101 - Still Hope - AI ain't No Substitute for the HUMAN Writer (Yet?)
# 102 - X-ed Out - The Concrete Poem
# 103 - Risk Off - The Pantoum
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