If you are wondering about the word contrapuntal in the title, read on. July 9th observes an unusual holiday – Call of the Horizon Day. According to the NationalToday website, we can observe this by “seizing the day looking into the horizon, enjoying the little moments, and concentrating on what matters most in life. It is a day to help us start working towards our dreams by doing tasks that we keep procrastinating on or have yet to plan out. ” So, something we can and should do everyday!

With that day in mind, I looked for a poetic form where two distinct things meet, like with the horizon. What I found: the contrapuntal form. Find out more about it and other upcoming events as well for the week

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Poetic Sundays: Contrapuntal Form: Call of the Horizon

The contrapuntal poetic form comes from music where two or more distinct melodies come together in a piece of music or a song. The word itself comes from counterpoint.

So What is the Contrapuntal Poetic Form?

Contrapuntal is a poetic form that interweaves two or more poems to create a single poem. This resulting poem is to be read depending on how the poet plans for it to be read. There is no specific theme, rhyme, or rhythm for all of that is up to the poet. There are only a couple of things central to this form:

• first, counterpoint. To effectively employ the concept of ‘counterpoint’ within the poem where the two (or more) distinct poems (like point and counterpoint) can be put together to be something more.
• second, layout. To display the poem on the page in such a way that it is clear to the readers

While there are many ways to come up with a contrapuntal poem, the goal is always to write two poems that come together in some way to present a third poem. The way the two different poems converse with one another results in a really cool totality, whether it be one of harmony or dissonance, like two distinct melodies that come together to create a whole new wonderful song.

How to Write a Contrapuntal Poem

There are many ways to approach writing a contrapuntal poem. Let us explore a few of them here.

Side by side

Simply place the poems(can be two, or even more!) side by side in columns on the page, so you can read each poem separately on its column, and then read across the whole page for the new poem.

Venn Diagram

Like a Venn Diagram, the two poems overlap and the common words are the third poem in this case. Like with the side-by-side, readers read the two poems separately on each side (including the common words). Brian Bilston’s ‘At the Intersection‘ is an excellent, excellent example.

Dialog style

Simply alternate the lines of the two original poems as if in dialog with each other.

References, h/t, and Further Reading

• Poets.org (contrapuntal)
• Thanet (contrapuntal)
• The Cleave Poetic Form

My Contrapuntal Attempt

One of my attempts is in the linked post (cleave above). The cleave poetic form is a kind of contrapuntal form (side by side).

Here are a couple more (please note, attempts only, and inspired by Brian Bilston’s poem linked earlier). Include the words within the / / for each side, as in ‘He walked into her life. ‘ and ‘Her life was her own.‘ And for the third poem, just the words within the / /. Note that this is not a poem to be read across the whole line.

He walked into / her life / was her own
It changed her / so very / carefree and cool
Much, she became a / new / things she did each day
Her. Yet, nothing really / exciting / too
~ vidya @ ladyinreadwrites

He walked into / her life / was her own
It changed her / so very / carefree and cool
Much, she became a / new / things she did each day
Her. With perspectives different yet / exciting / too
~ vidya @ ladyinreadwrites

Recently

At Home and On My Blog

A visit to the beach this weekend but the weather proved to be way more colder than we expected (for summer) but it was still fun to get to the ocean. Plus, we got a new faucet for our kitchen sink (long overdue) so that is nice too.

For recently on my blog, here are the posts since the last Scribblings:

• Sunday Scribblings #151: Fluttering Words in the Beauty of the Butterfly Cinquain
• Words Rock and Shine Through the Book of Time
• Call Me Adnan + Books of Color: Diversity is Wonderful
• Dark Was the Night: Thus Begin Great Mysteries and Stories
• Magic of Frida Kahlo and Shakespeare in Everyday Life
• Finding Peace and Love + Fun Fire & Flapping Flip Flops
• Grey Matters: Wonder If I’m Growing Right and True

Upcoming

On My Blog & Homefront

Another month, another UBC, so this means a post everyday here on my blog. I am playing catch up currently but hope to be on track soon.

This Week’s Celebrations

The Literary and Close-to-it Celebrations

• Literary Birthdays this week: July 10th celebrates Alice Munro, Karen Russell, Marcel Proust, and Seth Godin; the 11th is Amitav Ghosh, E. B. White, Jhumpa Lahiri, and Min Jin Lee; July 12th celebrates Henry David Thoreau and Pablo Neruda; the 13th is for David Storey and Jane Hamilton; Brian Selznick and Irving Stone on the 14th; Clive Cussler and Iris Murdoch on the 15th of July; Tony Kushner on 16th.
• The 10th is National Clerihew Day as well as International Town Criers Day. Check out my post on the Clerihew here
• The 16th is the start of Hemingway Days (through the 21st)

Foodie Celebrations

As always, we are in for a whole range of treats from appetizers to desserts

• Starting with National Piña Colada Day on the 10th followed by
• National Blueberry Muffin Day and National Mojito Day on the 11th. Also National Rainier Cherry Day
• The 12th is National Pecan Pie Day
• National French Fry Day is on the 13th
• Followed by National Mac and Cheese Day on the 14th of July
• And then it is National Tapioca Pudding Day as well as National Gummi Worm Day on July 15th.
• The week ends with Fresh Spinach Day, National Cherry Day, National Ice Cream Day, and  National Corn Fritters Day on the 16th.

Other Celebrations

• The 10th is National Kitten Day, so share those cute kitten videos today to your heart’s content!
• It is Cheer Up the Lonely Day on the 11th so do your best to reach out to those who are alone, and even those who are among others but still lonely or aloof. Maybe they just someone to say hello, to extend a handshake
• The 12th is Etch A Sketch Day, New Conversations Day, and Paper Bag Day
• And then it is Fool’s Paradise Day on the 13th as well as International Rock Day and National Barbershop Music Appreciation Day
• July 14th is National Tape Measure Day
• Let us Give Something Away for July 15th is National Give Something Away Day. The 15th also happens to be World Youth Skills Day and Celebration of the Horse Day
• Another thing we need to observe more often – Toss Away the “Could Haves” and “Should Haves” Day – is celebrated on the third Saturday every July. What we need to do: let go of the things that have been burdening you and live in the now.
• The 16th is World Snake Day, and well apparently also Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day (in today’s world, with AI everywhere, even in blog posts – though not in this one today! – AI appreciation seems to be something everyone is doing)

Related Reads

• The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch! Love reading Munsch books.
• The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. If you are yet to read this one, do read it. My review of the book/movie is here.

Wrapping up my Sunday Scribblings

So dear reader, this was it for this post. As always, appreciate and totally welcome your thoughts, comments, and suggestions on these scribblings on Sunday! And which of these days in this wonderful week do you plan to celebrate?

Linking this to the Sunday Post over at the Caffeinated Reviewer and the Sunday Salon. And 👍🏻, also to the Ultimate Blogging Challenge throughout this month.