Category: Poems that Aren’t Haikus

07/09/25 A New Novem Poem for A New Day

Photo Credit: Denis

now an error
no progress saved
nothing, just none

what bad Wi-Fi
when even one
webpage can’t load

This is about a bad internet connection. It’s also my attempt at a novem poem. These consist of three three-line stanzas, where each line contains three words. Two of the words must be one syllable and the third two syllables. In the first line, the two-syllable word must be the third word, in the second line, the second word, and third line, the first word. Also, each stanza must have at least four words that start with the same consonant sound.

Blast from the Past:

The waves crash softly.
My phone beeps persistently
Till I throw it over

07/08/25 A New Renga for a New Day

Photo Credit: Mark Pan4ratte

After our break up,
My emotions fall like they’re
Built to lean on you.

I find myself in pieces
I’ll wait to be whole again.

This is a renga I did with a friend who also recently experienced a breakup. A renga is a Japanese haiku-like poem game where one person writes a 5-7-5 poem (so a haiku), and then the other poet completes it with 7-7.

Second poem for today:

In this quiet moment, the one won
By me, because I set set-
Backs aside, I’d
Chose this again, in
Order to make myself myself

This is an echo poem, where you end each line by repeating either the sound of the last word or syllable: https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-poetry/echo-verse-poetic-forms

07/07/25 A New Kwansaba for a New Day

Photo Credit: Andrik Langfield

-for my ex-girlfriend

we set off united with joyful hearts
though we ended up having to part
i still cherish my time with you
writing silly stories, hiking through distant lands
you’ll always have a place in my story
for pushing me out of my rut
hope you say the same about me

We recently broke up, and I used the kwansaba format to reflect on this. It’s 7 lines, with seven words per line, where each word must be less than seven letters. Evidently, they are intended as a praise poem, mostly to celebrate family and African-American, although in this case, I took a slightly looser interpretation of that part. A girlfriend can count as family though.

Blast from the Past:

I feel like this would
Be easier if I could
Simply despise you

07/01/25 A New Poem for a New Day

Photo Credit: Johnny Cohen

goal = 120
motivation = 15
progress = -1

while(progress < goal):
progress += motivation
motivation -= 1

(I wrote my poem for today is in the programming language, Python. For anyone unsure, the trick is to calculate whether I can ever attain my goal as my motivation goes down.)

Blast from the Past (another math equation-based poem about losing motivation to reach one’s goal):

Energy(Attempt) + Initial_Progress = Progress
Wishful_Thinking – Realism = Goal
Learning = Success % Goal
Success = ProgressGoal + Learning Success = (Energy(Attempt) + Initial_Progress)Goal + Learning
Success = (Energy(Attempt) + Initial_Progress)(Wishful_Thinking – Realism) + Learning Success = (Try + (Learning – Past_Failures))(Wishful_Thinking – (Past_Failures – Learning)) + Learning
Success = (Try + (Learning – Past_Failures))(Wishful_Thinking – (Past_Failures – Learning)) + Learning Success = (Try + (Learning – Past_Failures))(Wishful_Thinking – (Past_Failures – Learning)) + Learning
Success = (Failure – Past_Failures)(Developed_Wisdom) + Learning Success = New_FailuresDeveloped_Wisdom + Learning
Success = Fail_Completely + Learning
Success = Learning_Anew

06/21/25 A New Haiku Sonnet for a New Day

Photo Credit: yogendras31

Lush streams flow water
Down the side of the hill to
The creek far below

Covered with green plants
And flowers as it curves through
The valley it formed

It almost wants to
Be beautiful, except it
Is littered by trash

The urban build squelches the
Beauty of the land itself

(This is a haiku sonnet, three haikus and then two final lines to make up a type of sonnet.)

Blast from the Past:

The once vibrant marsh
Polluted by trains, lanes, and
Industrial sludge

06/11/25 A New Waltmarie for a New Day

Photo credit: Max Kukurudziak

It is better we die in our
Eras
With contentedness and
Resolve
With triumph for our brave new world, after
Nothing
Lies in our way than to see it all fall apart
Cursed to
Witness all we hold dear receive a
Slow death

This is the first time I wrote a waltmarie. It’s a 10 line poem where the even lines must be two syllables, and if you remove them form a poem all their own.

Blast from the Past:

After every
Apocalypse, you awake to
Just another day

06/04/25 A New Waka for a New Day

Photo Credit: Adrian Infernus

I sit on the bed
Tired, my eyes hurt, my head spins.
It is when I stop
I feel all the exhaustion
Now all built up within me

Today, I wrote a waka instead of my usual haiku.

Blast from the Past:

In the search for wonder
There are no endings
Only beginnings,
Eternal exhaustion

05/20/25 A New Nonet for a New Day

Road winding along the mountain’s edge
Peaks crest on both sides as they fall
Slowly into the ocean
Sun setting behind
All fall into
The same line
My eyes
Do

Today I wrote a nonet. The first line is 9 syllables; the next one’s 8, all the day down to 1.

Blast from the Past:

Each morning we gaze
At the same sun