Hampshire Poet blog - July 2025
- Damian Kelly-Basher
- Jul 1
- 3 min read
During his two year tenure, your new Hampshire Poet - Damian Kelly-Basher - will be writing a series of blog posts for us sharing what he has been up to, telling us his poetic plans for the future, and inviting you to get involved in poetry in Hampshire. Read on to find out what's happening in Damian's world!
With a nod to this year's Heritage Open Days theme of "architecture", Damian invites writers to look at poetry forms and structures.
From ancient times until now poems have been written with a structure or following particular rules. This can be either in terms of stresses, syllables or rhyme.
Poetry forms are ways to write poems using a specific structure or rules. They come from across all cultures and time periods.
We’ve explored some already in these blogs – haiku, cento, acrostic. 20th Century poets started to abandon them to express themselves more freely (e.g ‘free verse’), But Poetry forms are still massively popular today.
Poetry forms have always been modified by new poets taking into account their changing times and culture. In the 1600s, William Shakespeare modified the then traditional Sonnet form. In the 1970s Terrance Hayes invented the Golden Shovel form.
If you’re a new poet, structured forms can help you:
Learn how rhyme and stress can work across a whole poem.
Get off the blank page… You know a haiku only has 17 syllables and a triolet, only 8 lines (so, no excuses!)
Edit your work and refine your images.
For me, they are an endlessly fun, creative challenge, like solving a puzzle.
For example, here’s a poem about a session I did with a class of 8-9 years olds, using a sonnet form.
Poetry with Year 4
Sixty minutes streaming through their lives
and they didn’t leave the flow, not for a second.
Sixty party balloons about to pop.
Sixty shaken drink cans, ringpulls off.
their words spilling over the chalk-white pages.
“ How d’y spell ‘underestimated’?
“ How d’y spell ‘diamond’ ‘brightly’ ‘magical’?”
with a forest of hands when Teacher says, “Who wants to...?”
Past the clattering mallards on the millpond,
then driving home in a shoal of cars
tired from shifts, schedules, plans and projects,
it felt as if the kids had set us homework.
“Say YES! Shake the can. Open and fizz.
Live now. Who knows how much time we have”.
Resources
Check out the fabulous Poetry Foundation website. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/
It has hundreds of examples of Poetry Forms and learning resources.
Stephen Fry’s book ‘The Ode Less Travelled’ also clearly and simply explains dozens of poetry forms from all over the world (with examples).
Have fun. Writing should always be fun.
And don't miss Damian's special FREE ENTRY event with us for Winchester Heritage Open Days. How We Shape The World: poetry activities with the Hampshire Poet takes place at Rotunda, Winchester School of Art on Sat 13th Sept at 2pm.
Damian Kelly-Basher is Hampshire Poet Laureate 2024-26. The appointment of the Hampshire Poet takes place every two years and is jointly led by Winchester Poetry Festival and Hampshire Cultural Trust. The position of Hampshire Poet provides the opportunity for a Hampshire-based poet to undertake commissions, lead workshops and give readings and talks throughout the county, as well as acting as an advocate for poetry and poets.
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