John Anderson Poet Other

Notes About The Poem

This poem uses a NEW FORM I developed called Criss-Cross Pivot
The shape is an 'X', but it's more than that.
The idea develops, getting stronger to the pivot word at the center.
Then fades away, getting weaker and drifting to less meaningful and weak
Each line has only 2 (or 3) words.

It's too hard to do using the center indent, so begin the First Line with a full stop (.) => Then use spaces to position the words on that line, and following lines. No need for a full stop to start each line (optional).

 

Listen to poem:

Criss-Cross Pivot - Friends

.      Hello                                                Stranger
.       stolen                                            glances
.           eyes                                        meet
.          smiles                                     returned
.            stories                                 shared
.                laugh                             freely
.               curious                         wonder
.              common                      passions
.                     finish                  sentences
.                        seek               company
.                    growing            together
.                           trust         mutual
.                         always      there
.                             we're  together
.                                FRIENDS
.                             often  apart
.                        missed      calls
.                           ring          voicemail
.                     replies              delayed
.               forgotten                  birthdays
.               silences                      misheard
.              familiar                          assumed
.              doubt                               grows
.        changes                                    resented
.        drifting                                        apart
.   pathways                                           diverge
.  awkward                                               silences
. different                                                   values
Thanks                                                        Goodbye

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Constance La France July 1, 2026 at 8:46 AM John, your creation is truly amazing, I will try to write one for your contest, a FAV~ John Anderson July 1, 2026 at 10:01 AM The layout is best done using a word processor. Start with #....... 28 spaces before each of your word pairs. eg #........... one....two. Then you start at the central pivot word and position the first pair above it with 4 spaces from the end of the left word to the start of the right word, making the slopes. Then you word upward so that there is 8 spaces (2 extra each side) to position the next pair deleting and adding spaces #... three........four; #......five............six: use find and replace to add extra spaces to each line if needed. When complete replace '#" with "."

Tom Cunningham June 27, 2026 at 10:33 PM Very creative John, you had great patience to create that. Well done. Tom

Karen Croft June 27, 2026 at 10:00 PM interesting challenge!

Alison A Smith June 27, 2026 at 3:58 PM A challenge accepted. I enjoyed making poems have shape. Really love this form.

Andrea Dietrich June 27, 2026 at 3:12 PM Wow. I really like this example. What a fun contest idea, John! John Anderson June 27, 2026 at 3:15 PM WOW indeed => have FUN - a tad odd! The spacing task is a challenge but there you go! Look forward to what you come up with. Cheers!