THE PLEIADES...........
INTRODUCTION & CONTENTS
 

Among The Clusters . . . John Daleiden, US Craig Tigerman, Sol Magazine's Lead Editor, invented The Pleiades form in 1999. The poem must be seven lines long. The title must contain a single word and the first word of each line must begin with the same letter as the title. In Volume 4, 2004 of The World Haiku Review, the WHCpoetrybridge column published two Pleiades written by Hortensia Anderson; she added the requirement that each of the seven lines be restricted to six syllables. In May 2005, WHCpoetrybridge Director, Karina Klesko, proposed that forum members experiment with The Pleiades form. Ten members responded creating forty poems representing the twenty-four letters of the alphabet. The Pleiades is a star cluster in the constellation Taurus.  It is a cluster of stars identified by the ancients, mentioned by Homer in about 750 B.C and Hesiod in about 700 B.C.  Six of the stars are readily visible to the naked eye; depending on visibility conditions between nine and twelve stars can be seen.  Modern astronomers note that the cluster contains over 500 stars.  The ancients named these stars the seven sisters: Alcyone, Asterope, Celaeno, Electra, Maia, Merope, and Tygeta; nearby are the clearly visible parents, Atlas and Pleione. The poetic form The Pleiades is aptly named: the seven lines can be said to represent the seven sisters, and the six syllables represent the nearly invisible nature of one sister.  “Within the Same Boundaries” is an abecedarian poem that figuratively reflects additional aspects of the star cluster.  Ten writers experimentally collaborated to create a poem offering an infinite variety of textures utilizing The Pleiades structure; there are poems of wit and humor—poems of love and alienation—poems reflecting the natural beauty of the earth and poems of philosophical contemplation. Some writers used The Pleiades form to narrate a story, while one poet created a list poem; other writers wrote haunting lyrics.  Clearly, just as the star cluster is wealthy with a myriad number of stars, so the poets are gifted creators experimenting with a variety of modes in The Pleiades.

Copyright Anglo-Astralian Observatory/Royal Observatory, Edinburgh
Photo Credit Copyright: David Malin
 

THE PLEIADES:

"WITHIN THE SAME BOUNDARIES"
 

The Poets of the Pleiades:

John Daleiden, US

          Albatross, Fantasia, Judgments, Kerygma, 

          Quintessential, Xenos, Yo-Yoing,  Zones

Katherine L. Gordon, CA

          Secrets

Deborah Humphrey, US

            Defined?

Karina Klesko, US

            Feast, Latchkey, Pantomine

Mary Lee McClure, US

            Foibles

Shanna Baldwin Moore, US

            I

Clive Oseman, UK

            Broken, Calling, Harmed, Intransigence, Melancholy, 

Rebel, Shine, Tears  

Zhanna Rader, US

            November

Adelaide B. Shaw, US

            Alone, Dream, Eyes, Fate, Gargoyles, Home, Letters,  

          October, Unending, Vanishing, Waking, Xanadu, Youth

Marie Summers, US

            Tangerine

Craig Tigerman, US

            Biscayne  

          

              Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade,

            Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid.

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)

Locksley Hall

 

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