Return Song is a Shadorma poem about coming together to march towards true freedom. The Shadorma poetic form is a six-line poem that doesn’t have to rhyme. The syllabic structure is as follows: 3 / 5 / 3 / 3 / 7 / 5. 

At Land’s Edge is a sestina verse poem that accentuates a journey across the Atlantic Ocean during the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The Sestina Verse form is a form that poets either love or hate. To achieve this form, you pick six words, rotate them as the endings of each line in each stanza (without repeating the same position) and then include two word endings per line in your final stanza. That’s a lot to take in, I know. The bottom line is that you’ll have six stanzas, each containing six lines, with each line alternating between the six words you’ve chosen in the beginning. To see this poem in action, visit www.thomaskneeland.com/blog. 

2,023 Miles is a nonet poem that tells a grandfather and grandson’s journey from California to Mississippi in 1995. A nonet poem is comprised of nine lines; the first line contains nine syllables. Each line after that decreases by one syllable (i.e., 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1). To see this poem in action, visit www.thomaskneeland.com/blog/nonet 

The imayo poetic form is a four-line Japanese poem. It is comprised of twelve syllables in each line. Each line contains an intentional caesura between the first seven syllables and the last five.

The villanelle is comprised of five tercets and one quatrain. This poetic form relies on the structure of rhyme and refrain.

Spectre is a poem that starts the dark and terrifyingly beautiful journey of the African Diaspora. Prepare to feel the oceanspray land on your skin like goosebumps of sheer excitement. Feel the spirit of light and the thrill of escape as you take a spiritual journey from the past to the future.

Thomas Kneeland delivers an original poem about fatherhood.