PARADELLE ANTHOLOGY

Editor’s Note

13 Editor’s Note Theresa M. Welford “In the first three stanzas,” said the poetry workshop teacher, “lines one and two are exactly the same, lines three and four are different from lines one and two but exactly the same as each other, and for the fifth and sixth lines you have to use all the words and only the words that you’ve already used. Then, in the fourth stanza, you must use all the words and only the words you’ve used in lines one and three in the preceding stanzas.” Huh? Although the teacher told us that he’d found the form in Picnic, Lightning, a collection of poems by Billy Collins, he refused our requests for a sample poem because he didn’t want to “influence us.” Immediately after class, I drove to a local bookstore and bought a copy of the book. There it was: “Paradelle for Susan.” And, on the page beneath it, an academic-looking note. I was amused by the poem, and challenged by the paradelle form, but I had some questions. Was I right to see it as sort of goofy? Or was I just not catching on? Wouldn’t a “demanding French fixed form” from way back in the eleventh century have involved an elaborate rhyme scheme? Wouldn’t those French troubadours have had some problems memorizing, let alone singing, a poem that gets as scrambled and nonsensical as this one? Wouldn’t they have made it a point to find homes for those forlorn little foundling words hanging around the ends of several lines? And why couldn’t I find an entry for “paradelle” in any of my poetry dictionaries? But the note looked so doggoned authoritative. Who was I to question it? NOTE: The paradelle is one of the more demanding French fixed forms, first appearing in the langue d’oc love poetry of the eleventh century. It is a poem of four six-line stanzas in which the first and second lines, as well as the third and fourth lines of the first three stanzas, must be identical. The fifth and sixth lines, which traditionally resolve these stanzas, must use all the words from the preceding lines and only those words. Similarly, the final stanza must use every word from all the preceding stanzas and only those words. Look at it. It’s got foreign words, for heaven’s sake. And italics. It must be legitimate. Anyway, I had recently written a poem based on urban legends, and I wanted to keep the idea, but I knew I had to ditch my first attempt at the poem. Instead of being scary and gruesome and stark raving crazy, as any respectable poem based on urban legends should be, it was flat and boring. I wrote a paradelle, believing that this new form might be the answer: 14 The Bloody Hook Once upon a time, the patty in Patty’s bloody burger slithered underground. Once upon a time, the patty in Patty’s bloody burger slithered underground. Patty’s tall lacquered beehive, rat-tail teased, swarmed with black widows. Patty’s tall lacquered beehive, rat-tail teased, swarmed with black widows. Underground, lacquered black widows slithered in time with Patty’s bloody patty. Once, teased upon the beehive, Patty’s rat-tail swarmed, a tall burger. Guts tumbling out, Patty’s boyfriend dangled from a sycamore. Guts tumbling out, Patty’s boyfriend dangled from a sycamore. A hook hung from the car door handle, clotted with gobbets of gore. A hook hung from the car door handle, clotted with gobbets of gore. Clotted with gobbets of boyfriend guts, Patty’s car door hung from a hook. Gore dangled from the sycamore, a handle tumbling out. Meanwhile, in poor Patty’s house, the phone was ringing off the hook. Meanwhile, in poor Patty’s house, the phone was ringing off the hook. And upstairs, Patty’s poor little babies were all cut to pieces. And upstairs, Patty’s poor little babies were all cut to pieces. In Patty’s house, upstairs, all were, meanwhile, to poor little pieces. Patty’s off the hook, and was the phone ringing, poor cut babies? In a house tumbling with gobbets of widows, a beehive swarmed the lacquered hook Patty’s phone handle hung from once upon a time. Patty’s rat-tail burger patty was underground, slithered with Patty’s boyfriend, teased out the gore, dangled clotted guts from Patty’s car door...