Suzette Prime - the story behind it

by Suzette Richards

The following is an extract from my blog dated August 7, 2013: © Suzette Prime - a dream come true.

How did I come up with the new poetry form, © SUZETTE PRIME (2012)?

As some of you know, I am not a great fan of syllable counts - the main reason is that I am mildly dyslexic and spelling phonetically all my life, which made it difficult for me to express myself in some of the poetry forms where a syllable count is important. I tackled the problem (like I do with most things in life) by facing the challenge head-on. Secondly, Philosophy is a long-standing passion of mine. I have read the classics as well as the modern philosophers. … [To this end, I completed the Introduction to Philosophy through Edinburgh University in April 2013.]

In 2012 when I had started to pen a few crude haiku in honour of a good friend, I came to the realization that many of the haiku written by Basho actually contain philosophical statements - little gems of human nature contained in a reference to nature. But, I wished to say more - much more. 'The Fish Eagle’ was the first Suzette Prime I penned … In December 2012 I hosted a contest on PoetrySoup.com inviting poets to write poetry using the new Suzette Prime poetry form. It coincided with PoetrySoup.com listing Suzette Prime as a new poetry form.

UPDATE

My poem, Time, lent its name to my self-published anthology (plus 9 international poets – winners in my first ever Suzette Prime contest held at PoetrySoup.com), © Time—Suzette Prime Poetry 2014.

The earlier philosophers had all written their scientific and other theses in the form of poems. Poetry, over the ages, had lent itself to the expression of emotions; to heal the spirit; as entertainment; a teaching tool, and many more applications. I find poetry a great vehicle to express my thoughts, often allowing me to voice an opinion in a manner that might be palatable to an audience, mimicking the practice of the ancient philosophers.

Suzette Prime design

A Syllabic Verse form

Prime number syllable count: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, etc; PLUS a philosophical statement. Any combination of a prime number syllable count may be used per line; in open form/free verse and no formal stanzas. Vary the line lengths (no set sequence is required) to create a pleasing cadence or to stress certain points (it has echoes of the ‘variable foot’ introduced by William Carlos Williams in his triadic-line poetry), for example:

 

every day

     every hour

          every minute of my day

is another chance for a different path

 

The line breaks serve as punctuation (suggested maximum of 23 syllables in any given line to allow for breathing) and no capital letters are used, except in the case of proper nouns. Any topic which lends itself to a philosophical statement is suitable for Suzette Prime. It is usually presented flush left on the page.

 

Definition

A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that has no positive divisors other than 1 and itself. As with the Fibonacci sequence, prime numbers are also found in nature: It was found that cicadas only leave their burrows at intervals of 7, 13, or 17 years, depending on the species.

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument & thought.

 

MY LEGACY

you cannot calculate my legacy in monetary value

or in market shares

neither in some property

nor anything tangible

 

I leave you my soul

recorded in poetry

and thoughts

I share

with those of you with an ear for the essence of me

but unlike Keats not have my name written in water

© Suzette Richards 2014

NB No part of my designed poetic forms may be copied/used in any manner, including the unique names of the poetic forms - it would constitute Paraphrasing plagiarism

 

Get a Premium Membership
Get more exposure for your poetry and more features with a Premium Membership.
Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry

Member Area

My Admin
Profile and Settings
Edit My Poems
Edit My Quotes
Edit My Short Stories
Edit My Articles
My Comments Inboxes
My Comments Outboxes
Soup Mail
Poetry Contests
Contest Results/Status
Followers
Poems of Poets I Follow
Friend Builder

Soup Social

Poetry Forum
New/Upcoming Features
The Wall
Soup Facebook Page
Who is Online
Link to Us

Member Poems

Poems - Top 100 New
Poems - Top 100 All-Time
Poems - Best
Poems - by Topic
Poems - New (All)
Poems - New (PM)
Poems - New by Poet
Poems - Read
Poems - Unread

Member Poets

Poets - Best New
Poets - New
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems
Poets - Top 100 Most Poems Recent
Poets - Top 100 Community
Poets - Top 100 Contest

Famous Poems

Famous Poems - African American
Famous Poems - Best
Famous Poems - Classical
Famous Poems - English
Famous Poems - Haiku
Famous Poems - Love
Famous Poems - Short
Famous Poems - Top 100

Famous Poets

Famous Poets - Living
Famous Poets - Most Popular
Famous Poets - Top 100
Famous Poets - Best
Famous Poets - Women
Famous Poets - African American
Famous Poets - Beat
Famous Poets - Cinquain
Famous Poets - Classical
Famous Poets - English
Famous Poets - Haiku
Famous Poets - Hindi
Famous Poets - Jewish
Famous Poets - Love
Famous Poets - Metaphysical
Famous Poets - Modern
Famous Poets - Punjabi
Famous Poets - Romantic
Famous Poets - Spanish
Famous Poets - Suicidal
Famous Poets - Urdu
Famous Poets - War

Poetry Resources

Anagrams
Bible
Book Store
Character Counter
Cliché Finder
Poetry Clichés
Common Words
Copyright Information
Grammar
Grammar Checker
Homonym
Homophones
How to Write a Poem
Lyrics
Love Poem Generator
New Poetic Forms
Plagiarism Checker
Poetics
Poetry Art
Publishing
Random Word Generator
Spell Checker
Store
What is Good Poetry?
Word Counter
Hide Ad