Today’s form is the Zip, another haiku variant; and the book is all musical, as you Zin Zin Zin to the violin and a whole orchestra too! Seems pretty apt to feature it on the 30th of April, which is International Jazz Day. Having reached the end of this 30 day A to Z challenge, it feels like I have reached the zenith, that highest point, right?

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The Zip Poetic Form

The zip is another haiku variant, one of many. I have already presented a few variants and forms inspired by the haiku on my blog, including the ukiah and the xiaoshi most recently.

So What is the Zip?

The zip form was developed by John Carley. This form has 15 syllables just like the haiku. But unlike the haiku, the zip only has two lines with no specific syllable count for each of the two. Each line contains one internal caesura represented by a double space. Also, there is no seasonal theme, which means the zip can be about anything.

The Zip’s Characteristics

So the zip’s elements are that, at its most basic, it is:

• a two line poem (again, nothing says it cannot be a series of zips)
• syllabic: 15 syllables over two lines
• with an internal caesura represented by a double space splitting each of the two lines
• titled or untitled: there is no specification anywhere regarding a title, so I am guessing this could be up to the poet

h/t and further reading

• The Poets Collective
• Wikipedia

My Zip Series for the NaPoWriMo prompt

NaPoWriMo’s Day 30 prompt is to write a cento. This is a poem that is made up of lines taken from other poems. While I already did write one for day 4 (which was the letter C, and hence the cento poetic form), I decided to make this a twofer post — a cento zip, or a zip cento — however you chose to call it. And I am keeping it short, with each half of each zip line made up of of words/phrases/lines from poems I read in books featured this past month on my blog, and one from earlier.

The List of Original Poems for the Cento

Note that the links for the books will take you to my Instagram posts for each book. For reaching these within my blog, you can simply click on the starting letter of the title in links at the end of this post.

1. I’m a dancer –> Douglas Florian (UnBeelievables)
2. buoyant with hope –> Reem Faruqi (UnSettled)
3. I crave art –> Bob Raczka (Lemonade…)
4. in my moments –> Jane Hirschfield (I Would Like) –> from The Path to Kindness book
5. Did you know –> Dennis Canfield (There’s an N on Your Nose)
6. it’s you I like —> Fred Rogers (It’s You I Like)
7. I hear you laughing –> Shel Silverstein (Years From Now) –> from Every Thing On It
8. and I sing –> Amanda Gorman (Change Sings)

Pin Me

The Books

Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin!

Not only is this book full of rhythm and rhymes, it is also a cool counting book that takes young readers from one to ten; and as they learn these numbers, they also learn of one new instrument (and a little bit about the instrument as well) for each number, and like a cherry on top, also learn the word for each musical group of ‘x’ numbers (like solo, duo, trio, and so on and so forth!!).

The vibrant illustrations with details that will delight flow and move with the music perfectly, and take us into the concert halls with all its wondrous energy.

Get it here

Related Reads

• Another wonderful book about the orchestra (non-rhyming though) is How to Build an Orchestra
• Check out this post on 8 Cool Facts About Infinity where I talk about Zeno’s paradox (the one today’s poetic form is inspired by)

And Now, the End of This Post

Dear readers, have you read the featured books? Or any similar reads? I would love to hear your thoughts and recommendations. What do you think about the ya hoo form? Will you attempt it yourself?

Previous posts for these challenges (the A2Z, NaPoWriMo and UBC) are in links below.

Day 0  Day 1 – A  Day 2 – B  Day 3  Day 4 – C  Day 5 – D  Day 6 – E  Day 7 – F   Day 8 – G   Day 9 – H   Day 10  Day 11 – I  Day 12 – J  Day 13 – K  Day 14 – L  Day 15 – M  Day 16 – N Day 17  Day 18 – O  Day 19 – P   Day 20 – Q  Day 21 – R  Day 22 – S  Day 23 – T  Day 24  Day 25 – U  Day 26 – V  Day 27 – W Day 28 – X Day 29 – Y

Linking up to BlogChatterA2Z, Blogging from A-to-Z April Challenge, NaPoWriMo, and the Ultimate Blog Challenge