Novems

The novem is a 3-line, syllabic form created by Robin Skelton (1925–1997) in which each line has 4 syllables divided between 3 words—two 1-syllable words and one 2-syllable word. The 2-syllable word is the third word of the first line, second word of the second line, and first word of the third line. Here's what this looks like (“x” is a single-syllable word; “a”, “b”, and “c” are separate syllables of 2-syllable words):

x-x-a-a/
x-b-b-x/
c-c-x-x

The final requirement is that, in each stanza, one consonant sound should occur 4 times.

Notes

: The form feels really over-determined to me, between the very short length, strict consonance, and precise word-and-syllable counts. In the few I wrote, the form ended up dictating what came next far more harshly than other forms I've tried, to the point that I couldn't really write what I actually wanted to write. I don't think I'll write more of them.

: Taking back my earlier comments—a bit. It's still pretty over-determined, but I just play it fast and loose.

Poems

  1. 2026-01-20

    herds of nightmares
vault headland waves,
bringing hell home

    Eh.

  2. 2025-12-08

    lost leaves return
for longest night,
leaving at dawn

  3. 2025-12-08

    in black rivers,
sharp slivered stars
escape the sun

  4. 2025-12-08

    fresh in disguise—
skinned loggers' hides—
dryads count coup

    Kinda tricky to identify the consonant sound that happens exactly 4 times here, maybe the sibilant “s” in “disguise”, “loggers”, “hides”, and “dryads”, or the kinda-hard “k/c/g” sound in “disguise”, “skinned“, “count”, and “coup”. At first I had this poem as “sly grey dryads / slit loggers' throats / disguised as wives”—but quickly rewrote it in this new form because it feels more interesting and complete, to me, on top of having a more playful phrasing.

  5. 2025-10-25

    box the skinner,
whose fateful scars
scaffold our skein

  6. 2025-10-23

    in the lighthouse,
leashed lupine moons
orbit the lamp

  7. 2025-09-08

    clouds are creeping
through cluttered skies,
ankles cliff-high

  8. 2025-08-25

    on the mountain
soft stormclouds sing
against the sun

  9. 2025-06-02

    night heat fireflies
flirt around your
glowing flush ears

  10. 2025-06-01

    long white fingers
sell seasons' scalps
embalmed in slag

  11. 2025-05-12

    their art's dying:
sirens sing slop,
killing critics

  12. 2025-05-11

    ask the hagfish
how holy eyes
handle crush depth

  13. 2025-05-10

    seek the portal
whose profane path
parlays to hope

  14. 2025-05-10

    I see heartbeats
so heavy I
hardly hear them

  15. 2025-05-10

    fall through fathoms
of friendships lost,
phantoms of smiles

  16. 2025-05-02

    warn my Midas:
faint silver comes
begging for more

  17. 2025-05-02

    quick, tell Laplace,
his demon's loose,
lurid and lost

  18. 2025-05-02

    no more sombre
songs circling heads
better off strong

  19. 2025-05-02

    free the people
from dreary days
filing old forms

  20. 2025-05-02

    Rome is burning—
dam bursting slow
breaking bare hopes