Haiku and The Simple Idea of Folding Mirror

The folding mirror poetry can be as simple or complex as you want to make it.

Haiku

Take the haiku form, which was the main inspiration for the folding mirror.

Haiku works on a five seven five syllable format, so that’s:

syllable syllable syllable syllable syllable
syllable syllable syllable syllable syllable syllable syllable
syllable syllable syllable syllable syllable

Over the centuries and many miles of travelling the  haiku form has been experimented with and adapted, and the same has already happened with the folding mirror form.

Haiku Inspires Folding Mirror

When I first thought of the folding mirror I just thought that the structure of two halves of poetry should mirror each other either side of a folding middle line. 

For example, in the structure below, the lines on the outside have three words, the middle lines have two words and the lines nearest to the folding mirror line have four words:

word word word
word word
word word word word

folding mirror line

word word word word
word word
word word word

The Development of Folding Mirror

However, when Writelink ran a folding mirror competition some poets interpreted the form more strictly, with even the words mirroring each other in the two halves, while others tried a looser form, with the two sides not even mirroring each other structurally.

It was great to see the form developing so quickly, and also how it inspired lots of great ideas and poetry.

Recent Experimentation and Inspiration

Recently, I’ve been experimenting with the folding line, and how it can either stand alone, link the two halves, end the first half of the poem or begin the second half.

It has also inspired me to read and interpret ten Romantic paintings in a way that I wouldn’t have done without the form.

So hopefully there is a lot of use for the folding mirror form, and it will inspire poets to pen innovative poetry for years to come.