An Evening Etheree
September 8, 2012 
one
heron
following
the tidal flow
glides over wavelets
prepossessing, strengthened
for the final flight to come
daylight soothing into evening
moonrise lighting decision's pathway
windsweeping wings tucked and folded in rest
The world is filled with extraordinarily fine collaborations - peanut butter and jelly, Campari and soda, Vision and Verb. One of my favorite personal collaborations is with photographer Judy Lovell. In the days following the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, she graciously allowed me to use her portrait of Plato the Pelican to help send a message to British Petroleum.
Today, a lovely white heron has flown in from her site, Janthina Images, to complement my words. While I have several great blue herons in my files, none of them suited this poem and I wasn't certain I could scare up another heron to model for me on such short notice. Thanks to Judy, you can enjoy this beauty with great legs and elegant feathers along with the words.
The poem itself takes a form that may be unfamiliar to you. The etheree, a syllabic poem containing ten lines and a total of fifty-five syllables, is named in honor of Etheree Taylor Armstrong, an Arkansas poet who died in 1994. As you can see, the structure is simplicity itself. The first line contains one syllable, the second line, two, and so on.
All syllabic poetry counts syllables rather than focusing on their stress. Perhaps the most familiar form of syllabic poety is the haiku. Other forms include the cinquain, the lanterne, the tanka and the renga - by its very nature, a collaborative poem.
Each of the forms has its virtues. One of the delights of the etheree is the way the words present themselves on the page. In this instance, they seem to flow out like ripples moving across a bayou, disturbing the silence as little as a heron's step.
Everglades, birds, poetry
Reader Comments (22)
I had never heard or read about this form of poem, Linda and I am glad you wrote about it :-) The photograph illustrates it perfectly
...moonrise lighting decision's pathway... This is my favourite stance of this beautiful etheree, both for the meaning it conveys and for the music it makes when I read it out loud.
Thank you :-)
I'd never heard of this style of poetry before either and I find it quite intriguing, melodic and delightful.
The image of course is a stunning accompaniment.
this is amazing, i'd also never heard about this style of poetry - i love learning something new :)
gorgeous collaboration
This is beautiful!! I've never before heard of this style of poetry (as it seems no one else has either). I especially love the 'visual structure' of the poem. Such an inspiring collaboration!
Thank you so much. Both the etheree and the heron are simple, elegant and beautiful.
Beautiful and inspiring post. I love how you have artfully woven together the beautiful image, the lovely poem, all while sharing some fascinating information.
A beautiful poem and beautiful image. I have never heard of that type of poem before so I have also learned something new.
I so appreciate this photo and poem. I, too, had not heard of etheree before. Beautifully done.
Thank you. I learned something, and enjoyed both image and poem.
So lovely ~ thank you for sharing the words & image & your knowledge about something new for most of us.
simplicity itself....just those 2 words are a deep exhale. what an elegant post from vision to the introduction of "etheree" to...well...me!
loved this from start to finish. gentle applause.
A beautiful, beautiful shot of a beautiful bird!
What a wonderful collaboration. And I love the simplicity, yet challenge, of this poem's structure. Which you have demonstrating so beautifully.
How fun to come back home to the Netherlands, unpack, take a shower, and then open up my laptop and find this! Interestingly, I knew about the 55-syllable poem but had no clue of its name. How fun. And what a great collaboration with Judy's fabulous heron! BRAVA to you both.
The photo of the great white heron is extraordinary - I didn't even know that there are great white herons, I only knew of great blue herons.
Your post reminded me of a German form of poem called "Elfchen". It uses eleven words spread over five lines (the number of syllables doesn't matter). It is a wonderful practice for playing with words - as are haikus, another form I truly adore.
I'm so glad to have been able to introduce something new here! I'm glad you all enjoyed it. It certainly was fun working with the form.
Anyes ~ Isn't it fun to read poetry aloud? We do it too rarely, I fear - it resonates in a different way when heard.
Marie ~ It does have a bit of melody, doesn't it? We're so accustomed to thinking of poetry in terms of meter and rhyme, this seems at first not to be "poetic". But of course, it is.
Eliza ~ We don't have to leave learning to the children, do we? Or perhaps that's how we can recapture some of the delight of childhood - through the excitement of learning.
Marcie ~ The visual really caught me, too. I posted another version of this at my WordPress site, about night herons. I was amazed to see the "visual" on that one look quite different, rather like the hunched-up form of the bird!
Elephant's Child ~ I love the simplicity, myself. And although I do enjoy haiku and have written a handful, I enjoyed having a little more "space" in the etheree.
Sue ~ The image and words to work together well, don't they? I don't know how most of you do it - I suspect you often begin with the image and then write - but I almost always write, and then look for an illustrative image. The trick in that is finding just the right one - none of my images captured the feeling I wanted, but Judy's did, particularly with this treatment.
Cherry Pie ~ I learned a lot about a whole assortment of forms while I was writing this. The one that amazed me is the Fibonacci - a form that grew out of a mathmatical construct! Math and poetry - who knew?
Deborah ~ So you didn't know the etheree, either? There's something truly wonderful about being able to share something new. I'm usually the last kid on the block to pick up on things like this!
Elena ~ Thank you so much - I'm glad you enjoyed them!
Susan ~ Of course, the secret is I just learned about the etheree recently, myself. I think it was a year ago I bumped into on another person's blog. More recently, I came across it again, and told the person whose blog I was reading I was going to give it a try. And so I did!
Honey ~ The words do seem to flow from the image, don't they? As for elegance, if the etheree were created by a fashion designer, I think it surely would be Chanel, rather than de la Renta!
Puna ~ I thought it was an egret at first. Judy pointed out that (ahem) "white heron" was at the bottom of the photo! I'd never heard of such, and discovered it lives only in the Florida Keys. That's a good reason for the confusion. It is beautiful, and she captured it well.
Brenda ~ These simple structures do present a bit of a challenge. Counting syllables is easy. Saying something in the process is a little harder!
Ginnie ~ I wasn't sure where I first heard of this, but you comment made me think of Ruth. I did a search, and sure enough, there was a good bit of conversation about etherees there. I think her blog must have been my first exposure. I think it's a hoot that its named after a woman - who happens to be buried in the Hot Springs, Arkansas area. There's hardly any information about her life, but thanks to the wonders of the internet, we can see her gravestone. What a world!
Carola ~ I've learned that the white heron is a color-phase of the Great Blue heron - and, that they're often mistaken for egrets. So I'm not the only one who made that mistake! As a species, they nearly were decimated because of the passion for using their feathers in fashion. Now, they're protected, and are on the way back.
As for form, there's this interesting quotation from Annie Finch, a poet who teaches at the University of Southern Maine. She suggests a reason for the growing appeal of counting syllables. "Poets are very, very hungry for constraint right now," she says. "Poets are often poets because they love to play with words and love constraints that allow the self to step out of the picture a little bit. The form gives you something to dance with so it's not just you alone on the page."
Sorry to be late to the comment party...but thank you Linda! This is one of the many reasons I love the sisterhood here at V&V! To learn and grow!
Robin ~ Oh, my! There's never "late" when it comes to comments. That's why I don't close comments on my regular blog - I'll have people show up a year later and leave a comment, and I treasure it just as much then as if it had been posted the first minute of the entry's life.
I'm glad you enjoyed the entry. I've spent much of the early evening watching videos on the Fibonacci sequence. It turns out that 55 - as in the 55 syllables of the etheree - is a Fibonacci number. Who knew? Not me!
Thank you for the beautiful poem and Judy for sharing her photo!
Maery Rose ~ You're welcome, on behalf of both of us!
I am late as well, but oh my, it was so worth the wait! what an incredible image, and I love your poem. just fabulous!!
Kelly ~ I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Judy's a wonderful photographer, and sometimes I can make words behave - a little!