The letter F brings the fabulous flamenca for every one. Yes, you heard it right, it is flamenca, not flamenco. Though I will be featuring the flamenco through my flamenca! And maybe one more about flamingos? Or combine the two.. And I also, as I have been doing, feature a poetry (related) book for the letter.

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The Flamenca Poetic Form

The flamenca is a Spanish quintain (or 5-line stanza) form with a staccato rhythm meant to replicate the click of heels by flamenco dancers. It goes by a few other names, including seguidilla gitana (or Gypsy seguidilla), playera, and/or sequiriya.

The Flamenca’s Characteristics

At its most basic, the flamenca’s characteristics are that it is:

• Stanzaic: written in one or more quintains (five-lined stanzas).
• Syllabic: has a syllable count of 6/6/5/6/6 across the five lines of each stanza
• Assonant: Lines 2 and 5 employ assonance, that is, use the same vowel sounds.
  • Note: I have seen examples where the assonance is within the lines and those where the lines share assonance.
    • That is, some examples show line 2 having assonant words within it (like hope, coat) and line 5 having assonant words that might be similar to line 2 or different (like share, wait).
    • Other examples have one or more pairs of assonant words across those two lines (that is, line 2 has hope and light, while line 5 has coat and mile).

My First Flamencas

You can see my two very similar attempts – they use the two different ways in which assonance is employed in the second and fifth lines.

The Frolicking Flamboyance
They swirled in quick flashes
In brilliantly pink tints.
Their feet beat a rhythm
as, twisting, twirling, they
brightly light up this night!!
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

The Frolicking Flamboyance
They swirled in quick flashes
Of vibrant and rich shades.
Their feet beat a rhythm
as, twisting and twirling,
they sure light up this stage!
~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

Further reading and h/t

• Writer’s Digest
• Fake Flamenco
• Poets Collective

The Book

Today’s book actually features a single poem, and it is more than worth every single word in it. It is fantubulously Jason Reynolds, and if you have read and enjoyed any of his other books, you will love this one as well. I first read Reynolds’ Stamped a couple of years ago (and yet to review it like I say in this post!). That was enough to ensure I wanted to read more books by him. I later read his Long Way Down (both the regular and the graphic novel versions are beautiful stunning reads).

While I have many more books to read yet, for today, it is ….

For Every One

My Thoughts

This book is –
about dreams
and doubts that haunt them
about the worries that plague
and the hope that ignites them
the failures, fears, and expectations
about the almost-theres that inspire
and knowing it all matters
for dreamers, people like you and me
and for every one everywhere
This book is beautiful,
is encouraging, heartfelt, and powerful
is sure to inspire just about every one.

Reynolds seems to imbue his words with magic! This short yet stunning poem is a must-have and will make a wonderful graduation gift too.

Get it here

And Now, the End of This Post

Dear readers, have you read the featured book? Or other books by Jason Reynolds? I would love to hear your thoughts of them (if you have read them) as well as recommendations for similar books. What do you think about the flamenca form? Will you try your hand at one? If you do, I would love to read it!

Day 0 Day 1 – A Day 2 – B Day 3 Day 4 – C Day 5 – D Day 6 – E

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