The poetry form, Etheree, consists of 10 lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 syllables. Etheree can also be reversed and written 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Get creative and write an Etheree with more than one verse, but follow suit with an inverted syllable count.

Reversed Etheree: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

Double Etheree: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 10, 9, 8, 7, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

...Triple Etheree, Quadruple Etheree, and so on!

Example #1:

Your Wild Awakening

Scent
of woods;
callouses
on hands I stroke
speak of hard-spent days.
I trace a stubbled chin
and hear my name unspoken
in a warm unwavering gaze.
Pressing kisses taste of surging need.
I revel in your wild awakening.

Copyright © 2003 Andrea Dietrich

Example #2:

Anonymous Solitude

She’s
inclined
to want more
to ease her mind
than do you or I.
She disappears to find
anonymous solitude.
We look for it, but we are blind.
Left behind, we become mere figments
of her illusions; . . . . we call her unkind.

Copyright © 2003 Andrea Dietrich

Example #3:

The Lair

Where haze invades iniquitous corners;
raucous music saturates the room,
the Ecstacy-induced twining
of hot, pulsating bodies,
a mimicry of mass
lewd copulation,
slows the thick air;
emptiness
stifles
me.

Copyright © 2003 Andrea Dietrich

Example #4:

Red Poppy

A morning breeze ran its gentle fingers 
through a farmer’s plentiful wheat field,
and beside the sweet, waving grain
grew a lonesome, red poppy.
Its bright radiance spoke
of springtime’s splendor
between each breath
and rustle
of the
wind.

Copyright © 2005 Marie Summers

Example #5:

Blurred Vision (Double Reversed Etheree)

Blurred is the Poet’s vision when grieving - 
Penning release, striking out against
the pain raging inside, casting
out the love that once stemmed from
passion’s ink in the night.
Driving poetry
like a prized slave
until limp, 
red eyed,
cold.
Sleep
and dream
of lifeless
limits in ink.
Poethood of guilt,
a sentence to be served,
‘til the blinded and enraged
can make peace with the opal eye
of passion’s night, and create poems
to heal the heart of the grieving Bard.


Copyright © 2005 Marie Summers

Example #6:

Ashen Despair (Double Reversed Etheree)

Memories and dreams crumpled in a pile,
cold and lifeless like ashes of night.
Decrepit fingers of the lost
sift through the blackened remains
until sunrays lifted
the thick of morning,
tunneling light
through the fog.
Renewed
hope
blew
in from
the northwest
in silken streams.
No dirt or shovel
could bury the goodness
of this dawning grace that shown
through every small crack and crevice
of the decayed misery that was
Erasing the knowledge of once dead dreams.

Copyright © 2005 Marie Summers