The list or category poem is a poetic form that can be playful (as in those by Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky) or hauntingly powerful such as Patricia Smith’s “Siblings” (also listen to the recording!) and Chen Chen’s “When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Other People’s Possibilities.” Some list poems document comparable items (such as hurricanes or sicknesses) other lists make a point of drawing together contrasts. The American Academy of Poets lists Shakespeare and parts of Homer’s Iliad among earlier writers that made use of the form, which seems organic to the human mind. (Think of how often we itemize things in order to remember them, like grocery lists or to do lists). The Poetry Foundation in it’s essay “Taking Stock with Catalog Poem” offers further explanation:
Taking Stock with the Catalog Poem by Maggie Queeney
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