Has the muse moved you?
Interested in trying your hand at sijo? Post a poem at www.boston.com/living by Friday, and David McCann will choose his favorites. Boston.com will publish the winners July 14. Here’s a description of sijo and a guide to the syllable count in each line:
◼ Sijo is a traditional form of Korean poetry that was originally meant to be sung. Like the haiku, it consists of three lines, but its lines are much longer.
◼ Like the haiku, the sijo contains a turn at the end. In the haiku, the turn combines images presented in the first two lines. The sijo’s final line starts with a twist and ends with resolution.
◼ Each line of a sijo consists of a string of four shorter phrases. In lines one and two, the first phrase is three syllables long, the second is four syllables, the third is three or four syllables, and the last phrase is four syllables. The syllable count in the final line is 3, 5, 4, 3. 