So once upon a time, there were Simply Sunday posts. And then there was the beginning of Sunday Scribblings.

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Poetic Sundays: Where the Beginning is the Same

I continue to feature poetic forms created by or popularized by women for Women’s History Month as mentioned earlier this month. Today’s form is called the trolaan, created by Valerie Peterson Brown.

What is the Trolaan?

The trolaan is a poem consisting of 4 quatrains, where each quatrain begins with the same letter and has a rhyme scheme of abab. Starting with the second stanza you use the second letter of the first line of the previous stanza as the starting letter for every line of that stanza.

The Trolaan’s Characteristics

At its most basic, the trolaan’s characteristics are that it is:

• Stanzaic: has four 4-line stanzas, or quatrains
• Rhymed: with rhyming scheme of abab/cdcd/efef/ghgh across the four quatrains
• Alliterative (kind of): that is, each line of a quatrain begins with the same letter
• Interlinked: each quatrain has a lettered link to the previous quatrain. The common starting letter of each quatrain’s lines comes from the previous quatrain; each time, it is the second letter of the first line of the previous quatrain

The Beginning or First Attempt

The Beginning: A Tall Tale?
“Once upon a time, my child,
over those hills kissing the skies,
one heard tales cool and wild,
of an ogress who sang to mice!”

“Nenek, tell me more,” said Jess.
“Now I really need to know!! Did
no one ever know the ogress?
Not one man, woman, or kid?”

“Eager as always to learn
everything, my sweet! One fine
evening, my kakek took a wrong turn,
entered a wood almost divine!

As he stood there in awe,
astonished, truly, and
amazed at all he saw
a sweet ‘hello’ beckoned.”
~vidya tiru @ladyinreadwrites

Further reading and h/t

• ShadowPoetry (you can also find examples of this form through the provided link)

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On My Blog & at Home

My recent posts since and including my last Sunday Scribblings:

• Sunday Scribblings #99: A World of Unusual Words & More
• The Magic of Pi
• Springing Into Reading With Beautiful Books and Wondrous Words
• A Twofer One Post That is a Bit Revealing!

Upcoming

On My Blog & Homefront

My college freshman son is home for spring-break! Which means that we can finally setup that shelf we ordered a while ago – I had kept the box aside for both of us to put together when he is here. There was a time when I was the official-furniture-put-together-er, and the rest of the fam pitched in to help during those stages where more than one pair of hands were needed. Now, I am the helper to my son 🙂

I have a few (well, tons more than a few) reads that I need to review so I will try to do a couple of mini-reviews to feature a few of them at a time before April’s craziness begins (AtoZ, NaPoWriMo, UBC etc).

This Week’s Celebrations

Literary Celebrations (close-to-it also!)

• Literary birthdays this week of March include: Oyinkan Braithwaite and Phyllis McGinley on the 21st; Billy Collins, James Patterson, and Louis L’Amour on March 22nd; Jonathan Ames on the 23rd of March; Lawrence Ferlinghetti, and Muthuswami Dikshitar on March 24th; Kate DiCamillo and Linda Sue Park on the 25th of March; Erica Jong, Richard Dawkins, Robert Frost, Tennessee Williams, Mahadevi Varma, and Viktor Frankl on March 26th; Julia Alvarez on March 27th
• The 21st of March is World Poetry Day and World Puppetry Day
• National Tolkien Reading Day is on the 25th of March
• March 27th is National Scribble Day

Foodie Celebrations

• March 21st is National French Bread Day and National California Strawberry Day
• National Bavarian Crepes Day is on the 22nd
• The 23rd of March is National Chia Day, National Chip and Dip Day, National Tamale Day, and National Melba Toast Day
• March 24th is National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day and National Cocktail Day
• The 26th is National Nougat Day and National Spinach Day
• National Spanish Paella Day is on March 27th

Other Celebrations

• March 21st is International Day of Colour, International Day of Forests, and World Down Syndrome Day
• It is also National Common Courtesy Day, National Countdown Day, and National Fragrance Day
• March 22nd is National Goof Off Day, World Water Day, and International Day of the Seal
• The 23rd of March is World Meteorological Day, National Near Miss Day, and National Puppy Day 
• March 24th is International Right to Truth Day
• The 25th of March is National Medal of Honor Day.
• March 26th is Epilepsy Awareness Day – Purple Day
• Week of Solidarity with the Peoples Struggling Against Racism and Racial Discrimination – March 21-27

In the Beginning, there Were Other Similar Reads

• Sweet Beginnings
• To New Beginnings

Wrapping up my Sunday Scribblings

So dear reader, you have reached the end of this Sunday Scribblings! As always, I welcome your thoughts, comments, and suggestions about this post. And do let me know if you plan to celebrate any of these mentioned celebrations this coming week/month? Also, what are some of the wonderful things that happened recently to you or that you heard of?

Linking this to the Sunday Post over at the Caffeinated Reviewer and the Sunday Salon