I’ve been wanting to try my hand at writing a tautogram poem for a couple of months. I first learned about this style of poem thanks to the Nobel laureate of WordPress, Brad Osborne.
Brad is a talented writer and poet, somehow managing to come up with an original poem every day and share his works of art at his web site, commonsensiblyspeaking.
One of the features of Brad’s web site that I look forward to is Whittled Words every Friday. In this weekly series, Brad introduces a different style of poem, explaining the structure and rhyming scheme of each one. He then shares a few examples of that style of poem in action, before closing with his own creation, which is always better than the examples.
So it was that a few weeks ago Brad introduced tautogram poems. A tautogram poem is best explained by its Greek root words of “tauto” meaning “the same” and “gramma” meaning “letter”. Basically, all words in the poem begin with the same letter.
Compared to other forms of poetry, this one seemed a bit easier.
As it turned out, it wasn’t so easy, but I managed to come up with something.
I now have even more respect for what Brade is able to do, every day…
Without further ado, here is my tautogram…
Justice
Jim* jaywalks
Jurors judging Jim
Jim jokes, jabbers
Jury jails Jim
Jackass Jim
*no relation to the author. Jackass Jim jabbers. Jim the author blathers…
Great poem! Its the first I’ve heard of tautogram poetry. I tried it in my head and couldn’t get past three words. 😊
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thanks for the link. I’ll go check out that site.
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Brad is an amazing poet and even nicer person…
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Jumping jalapenos, justly jubilant, Jim!
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First, my friend, thank you for the recognition and kind words. Your support is a great boon to my art and efforts. I will never be able to thank you enough! Second, what a wonderful poem! I am jealous of your judicial jocularity. This is perfect to form, irreverent, and funny. All my favorite things. I swear there is a poet in you, hiding somewhere behind the juggler and the educator. I applaud your brave steps outside your comfort zone and thank you for sharing your beautiful creation of poetry! This has put a smile on my face that is built to last!
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thanks you for the motivation, Brad! It was fun to write, but Judicial jocularity – I could have never come up with such a phrase! Have a great day…
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Jawsome, Jim. Fun stuff. You nailed it.
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thanks, Michael!
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Jail time for jaywalking? Wow, they have pretty strict laws in the town Jim lives in. He’d better stop joking around and learn to use a crosswalk, or he’ll be in a jumpsuit for a long time.
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Jim was hoping jail would be a better place to be during the lockdown. Plus the jumpsuit is nicer than anything he owns…
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brad is a poetic genius and I’m glad he got you to step out of your literacy comfort zone. good thing jovial jim is just a jaywalker and not a jerk!
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🙂 I wish I had tried to get jovial and jerk in there!
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maybe for your next one )
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I don’t know how many j-words are left 🙂
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Jim, thanks for sharing your histogram poem. I tried a couple many months ago (unknown to me they are referred to as tautogram), and they were a definite challenge. Your poem was very creative, and it was fun to read.
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thanks, Richard. It was a fun challenge to write it.
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Ooh that was really good!!
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Thanks, Pooja!
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You’re welcome!
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Jazzy jovialities, Jim! Joining Jim-Joker, juiced, joyous.
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well-played!
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OK, I couldn’t leave it at that, Jim! I am impressed by your wit once again. Trying to write that way was like having my tongue trimmed!
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thanks, Kathy, it was a fun challenge..
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Jim, I love this form, thanks for sharing it. I will share the link with Colleen for her weekly challenges in various forms of poetry. I don’t recall anyone using this form in particular. 🙂
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Thanks, Debby. It was a fun challenge. It was nice that things did not have to rhyme 🙂
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I learned a new poetry form! Nice!
👍😊👍
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I’m not sure if you follow Brad’s web site, but he introduces a different form of poetry every Friday…
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Good to know! Txx
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Do you mind if I mention you to link back to this post? I wanted to try a Tautogram and saw it here first! 😀
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That would be fine; thanks!
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