Cleo_Serapis
Aug 30 03, 08:42
The Diamante is fun and challenging poetic form. This form was invented by Iris Tiedt, and is shaped like a diamond. The ruled don't control the number of syllables; they control the parts of speech used.
The purpose of a diamante is to go from the subject at the top of the diamond to its opposite subject at the bottom. The structure is:
line 1 - one noun (subject #1)
line 2 - two adjectives (describing subject #1)
line 3 - three participles (ending in -ing, telling about the subject #1)
line 4 - four nouns (first two related to the subject #1, second two related to subject #2)
line 5 - three participles (ending in -ing, telling about subject #2)
line 6 - two adjectives (describing subject #2)
line 7 - one noun (subject #2- the antonym of line 1)
Here's an example written by Mary Elizabeth:
Music
Tender, Evocative
Consoling, Beautifying, Enchanting
Counterpoint, Orchestration, Wail, Cry
Scraping, Scrunching, Screeching
Harsh, Grating
Noise
Cleo_Serapis
Aug 30 03, 08:46
Here's my first attempt: :farmer:
Pulsing Electricity
Pulse
Perpetual, Rhythmic
Throbbing, Expanding, Contracting
Sonar, Generator, Circuit, Amp
Charging, Transmitting, Shocking
Static, Conductive
Electricity
JustDaniel
Oct 27 03, 07:25
Serious Fun
sobriety
formal, rigid
defining, restricting, focusing
gravity, seriousness; laughter, frivolity
diverting, amusing, entertaining
dizzy, giddy
fun
© Daniel J Ricketts 23 Jan 2003
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST
human
sensible, sane
giving, understanding, loving
hardwork, sobriety, evasiveness, deception
taking, spinning, taxing,
opinionated, selfish
politician
Alan McAlpine Douglas
Cleo_Serapis
Oct 28 03, 18:10
QUOTE (Just Daniel @ Oct. 27 2003, 07:25)
Serious Fun
sobriety
formal, rigid
defining, restricting, focusing
gravity, seriousness; laughter, frivolity
diverting, amusing, entertaining
dizzy, giddy
fun
© Daniel J Ricketts 23 Jan 2003
I find these very hard!!!
Cleo :pharoah2
Cleo_Serapis
Oct 28 03, 18:11
QUOTE (Alan @ Oct. 28 2003, 18:05)
Human
Sensible, sane
Giving, understanding, loving
Hardwork, sobriety, evasiveness, deception
Taking, spinning, taxing,
Opinionated, selfish
Politician
Alan McAlpine Douglas
What valid points ehre "A"! :read:
Excellent!
:pharoah2 :pharoah: :lovie:
JustDaniel
Oct 29 03, 07:53
Presently I don't have the inspiration to write a new one, but I think you'll find this interesting, Alan. I like yours. Would you consider removing the CAPITALS. Politicians end up there, I know, but... 
Come on, LorII, what can't you do?!
deLightedly, Daniel 
Free Meter Re Verse
Free
footloose, unbound
gliding, dreaming, wandering
story, ballad; rhyme, sonnet
guiding, moving, driving
steady, patterned
Meter
© Daniel J Ricketts 10 July 2002
Dear Daniel
Thanks for the info you liked my diamante. Strangely enough perhaps, I don't. In a sense it was just a few words thrown togetehr, to get the feel of the form, but there was not much "inspiration" there.
I was wondering about the Caps - I've removed ALL of them. Is that better, or should I do what you did and jusr CAP the two opposed words ?
Whereas I think yours has an elegance which I don't see in mine.
Love
Alan
JustDaniel
Oct 29 03, 21:26
Good questions, Alan, I think! Remember that I have no claim to expertise in this form whatever. I've written maybe 15 of them. That surely isn't a bunch! But if this is your first one, as you said, you're getting the FEEL of the form. It will grow on you as you keep playing with it.
You've started well, as far as I'm concerned... and I like it better without the capitals. Capitalizing the first and last word? Well, you the writer are the last word on that! *smile* 
Remember, you chose two words that aren't exactly opposite each other, so it is harder to see a transition, methinks. Even though the stereotype politician may net be 'human'; politician is not exactly an antonym! So for your next attempt, choose direct opposites and play a little. It will grow on you.
Here's a variation on a diamante I wrote recently. Istead of two sets of opposing words in the middle line separated by a semi-colon as I usually have done, I chose to place TWO words in the middle where the 'opposite' words (in my conception, at least) meet. In all other ways it's a diamante.
Tell me what you think?
Poetry:
where thought and emotion meet
Thought
cerebral, effective
cogitating, reckoning, considering
conception; Poetic Expression; daydream
sensing, experiencing, feeling
affective, diffuse
Emotion
© Daniel J Ricketts 20 Sept 2003
variation on a diamante
Sharin' de Light, Daniel
Dear Daniel
Before I handle the content, I want to tell you of a very weird sensation I have just experienced : Reading what you wrote in "straight" language was very hard to do, as I am so used to your extraordinary ability to have every singlet vest turn into a doublet intendre !
Now, if'n you ain't no expat, then you'll still do fer me. What you say about gaining experience, and about choosing true opposites, rings true. As you will know I tend towards the satirical, so would dispute that humas and polits are not opposite ! But I do take your point.
And your acceptance of my first diamante is very pleasing.
The example you give is, of course, brilliante ! In fact I PREFER this form, the two middle words acting as a pivot for the whole exercise, and think I will adopt this in any future ones I attempt. They in fact justify the shape, make it whole. Otherwise one could simply write 2 lines :
human sensible, sane, giving, understanding, loving hardwork, sobriety,
evasiveness, deception taking, spinning, taxing, opinionated, selfish politician
Having the first/last words as the hook to hang on is dispersing, putting the pivot in the middle turns this into a real art form, and I def approve ! One could NOT do that to your Thought/Emotion poem, so well done on defining/improving the form.
We'll need to have the right name for this variation : Diamante Delightly ? Diamante Juste ? (This one also makes SENSE !)
Love
Alan
JustDaniel
Oct 30 03, 06:43
Thank you for your thoughtful observations, Alan. I've certainly never been one to shy from variations to a form... sometimes before I've really learned them. I do like to play... serioiusly!
Let's continue this discussion. I think it may even turn out to be educational for both of us?
Evolution of a Friendship
Distant
aloof, remote
removed, abstracted, reserved
acquaintance, associate; friend, companion
confiding, unrestrained, beloved
intimate, dear
Close
© Daniel J Ricketts 01 Jan 2003
deLightedly, Daniel
P.S. Note I've broken the 'rule' of using present participles or gerunds in lines 3 and 5 by using past participles as well.
Dear Daniel
OK, I'll play. Still tend to think that these poems are straight out of a thesaurus ! (Used only once, to no avail, for this one)
Chalk and Cheese
Friends :
respectful, cautious
talking, cheek-pecking, goodbye-ing,
mildness, chalk/cheese, maturity
hello-ing, all-embracing, committing
involved, passionate,
Lovers !
Love
Alan
JustDaniel
Oct 31 03, 08:14
Chalk it up to experience, Alan! That one doesn't seem cheesy to me... but then who am I to cut it?
leaving Lightning-fast, Daniel
Multitude
helpless, shepherdless
wandering, teeming, searching
fruitlands, sheep; reapers, shepherds
harvesting, discipling, tending
grounded, compassionate
few
© Daniel J Ricketts 25 August 2002
Dear Daniel
Another nice one !
It occurs to me that my middle pair of chalk/cheese could sit in any one of the diamantes we've written, so was not as clever as I first thought.
Let me rephrase my comment : MY diamantes are thesaurus-laden, yours are not !
Love
Alan
JustDaniel
Jun 7 05, 06:30
Euphonic Cacophony
a forged diamante
You Phoney!
fraudulent, synthetic
simulating, imitating, impersonating,
wannabe, counterfeit; deception, misrepresentation
dissembling, feigning, falsifying
twisted, lopsided
Cockeyed phony!
© Daniel J Ricketts
JustDaniel
Jun 7 05, 06:33
bottoms up
bottoms
shot, depressed
whimpering, sniveling, drinking
taproom barstool; twelfth-step coffee-shop
listening, reflecting, sharing
rested, refreshed
up
© Daniel J Ricketts
Daniel,
Your last poem's hillarious :claps:
I'll have to come back 'n see what I can doo.
:troy: :troy: :troy: :troy: :troy:
:pilgrim: :pilgrim: :pilgrim: :pilgrim: :pilgrim: :pilgrim:
Diamonte.
The Diamonte poem is a grammatical exercise.
Line 1-one noun (subject)
Line 2-two adjectives (describing subject #1)
Line 3-three participles (ending in-ing, telling about the subject #1)
Line 4-four nouns(first two related to subject #1 second two related to subject #2)
Line 5-three participales ending in-ing, telling about subject #2)
Line6-two adjectives(describing subject #2)
Line7-one noun(subject #2)
This is my Diamonte.
Duck/Hen
Duck
white, yellow-billed,
quacking, paddling, wagging,
fat, friend, feather, busybody,
pecking, scratching, laying,
broody, clucky,
Hen.
Arnie
Yeah Arniiiiiiiiie,
This looks like great fun, and you wrote about one of my very favourite boids. (The duck that is) 
Copying the rules and am shooting thru to play now.
See ya cobber. 
Cleo_Serapis
Jun 4 05, 08:43
Hi Arnie the Finn! 
Some refer to this form as the Diamante. I have a thread here in Karnak here:
http://forums.mosaicmusings.net/cgi-bin....9;t=278
Should we merge them together and call it by both names?
~Cleo
Hi Lori,
Hey this goes back to the beginning of MM.
Ah well, a bit of revision Lori.
I've got this and a few other poetry styles from a library book.
I'll have to check out the the types of poems listed before I post again.
John.......
:speechless:
AMETHYST
Dec 21 05, 17:57
Growing Old
Nascent
Innocent, illuminant
experimenting, dscovering, accepting
family, adventure, disappointment, disease
praying, grieving, appreciating
cynical, wisdom
Senescent
AMETHYST
Dec 21 05, 18:00
Dear Daniel,
Your examples of the Diamante' form are incredible. Especially LOVED Bottom's Up. It is absolutely the best I've ever read... :)
Hugs, Liz
AMETHYST
Dec 21 05, 20:57
Light
spectral, bright
revealing, healing, embracing
purity, exposure, experience, shadows
dimming, droning, dying
dismal, alone
Dark
Alone, Dismal
Dying, Droning, Dimming
shadows, experience exposure, purity
embracing, revealing, healing
bright spectral
Light
AMETHYST
Dec 21 05, 22:54
Union
Alone
Solitude, silence
thinking, reading, longing
rocker, porch, stranger, friend
talking, laughing, loving
comfort, home
together.
JustDaniel
Dec 23 05, 10:57
Thank you so much, Liz...
and I especially like your double, Light and Dark!
mourning star
slump
broken, collapsed
descending, falling, plummeting
darkness, black-hole explosion, star-burst
arising, ascending, spreading
awesome, joyous
elation
© Daniel J Ricketts 23 Dec 2005
AMETHYST
Dec 26 05, 18:47
Hi Daniel,
This is excellent work! The build up, the mid-way twist and turn about is done with precision and skill. Blessings, Liz
Hey Daniel and Liz,
Are you two having a vocabulary tussle?
Put your diamonds in a ring setting and let them glistle.
Don
AMETHYST
Dec 26 05, 22:26
Hey Don,
Ah, yes a vocabulary expo... And the bell rings! LOL Cool idea. Daniel has a way with form and I am glad to have the inspiration that he leaves with his poetry.
And thank you for the encouragement. Jump in any time! :)
Hugs, Liz
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