Happy Valen-Tendi!
Happy Valentine’s Day! Ever since St. Valentine defied Emperor Claudius II of Rome’s orders by secretly marrying couples, we’ve been celebrating Feb. 14th with hearts, flowers, romance and poetic gestures—including names plucked from a jar.
Let’s carry on the tradition with this week’s prompt. A Tendi is poem made up of four-lines where the first three lines rhyme and the fourth line is a refrain. If you have more than one stanza, the fourth line is repeated each time.
Since it’s Valentine’s Day, try to use a refrain that might be on a Valentine. Something like:
I love you very much.
My heart belongs to you.
You are so very sweet.
Or use a saying from a candy heart:
Can you write a Valentine Tendi with three stanzas? Then, if you dare, send it to your Valentine!
Set your timer for 7 minutes
Don’t think about it too much; just do it!
Start writing!
Kelly Bennett and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge over 1300 days ago. We now take turns creating our own prompts to share with you. If you join us in the 7-Minute Poetry Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.