How to write a “Navarrette Quatrain”

Here is a  clear explanation how to create “Navarrette Quatrains” a poetic form I developed. This takes you step by step showing you the precise construct of this poetic form:

First you create a line like on this naverrette:

“Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master”

__________

then you copy paste 4 times:

Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master
Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master
Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master
Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master

___________

the next step you change the final part of the first 3 verses:

Now you’re mine, so do not hurry
Now you’re mine, come to live in my dreams
Now you’re mine, give me the gift of thy light
Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master

notice that each line now is different and the Original line becomes the first verse of the last stanza

_____________

then the first 3 stanzas are free to write without rules:

Now you’re mine, so do not hurry
take your time on my bosom
while the skyline is dawning
and the birds spin out their destiny

Now you’re mine, come to live in my dreams
life brought you to me with certainty
mounted on its invisible fugitive wings
at this Alhambra that I built for you

Now you’re mine, give me the gift of thy light
your hands are not blind to my body
and your lips are not foreign to my taste
I am fire you wear and take you to my heart

Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master

_____________

Now notice that the last stanza has a singularity. I used the original words I replaced after the repetition to construct the 4th stanza:

first verse, first stanza I used:
Now you’re mine, so do not “hurry”

first verse, second stanza I used:
Now you’re mine, come to live in my “dreams”

first verse, third stanza I used:
Now you’re mine, give me the gift of thy “light”

forth stanza:
Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master
forever your destiny safe and without “hurry”
“dream” of your dream in the eternity of time
filling up with our “light”the shadows of the Universe…

Notice the words used to change the lines created to make different starts for each stanza are remarked. you must use those words in the following order to make sense and create the last stanza:

The first verse, first stanza word matches with a word in the second verse, fourth stanza

the first verse, second stanza word matches with a word in the third verse, fourth stanza

the first verse, Third stanza word matches with a word in the fourth verse, fourth stanza.

__________

now the poem read like this:

Now you’re mine, so do not hurry
take your time on my bosom
while the skyline is dawning
and the birds spin out their destiny

Now you’re mine, come to live in my dreams
life brought you to me with certainty
mounted on its invisible fugitive wings
at this Alhambra that I built for you

Now you’re mine, give me the gift of thy light
your hands are not blind to my body
and your lips are not foreign to my taste
I am fire you wear and take you to my heart

Now you’re mine, and am no longer but your master
forever your destiny safe and without hurry
dream of your dream in the eternity of time
filling up with our light the shadows of the Universe…

___________

the 4th stanza is the major problem to resolve but once you crack it, should finally read like this other poem:

When we are…

When we are eternal, we are airborne
taking flight on my trembling feathers
a faint act of faith that leaped forward
to reach a desired height and then stop

When we are eternal, we are stillness
whispering divine Argos of ice and fire
the innerspring of ardent voices to the wind
beyond the veils of tranquil warm nights

When we are eternal, we are vacuum
absorbed by lucid inequities and mute faces
lost in the emptiness of space untamed
in the absence of Sunlight, airless drowning

When we are eternal, we are timeless
airborne souls, we are not extinguished
within the stillness of immortal darkness
nailed deep into the vacuum of the sky….

Gavriel Navarro© 2012

___________________

The purpose of the form is displayed at the last stanza and I believe this formula opens a channel to the subconscious… Have fun if you decide to try!

14 thoughts on “How to write a “Navarrette Quatrain”

  1. Excellent summation of a complex (and deceptively simple0 form.

  2. I happen to love this form Gav, and in my case, it really did take me to a deeper level of writing, and trust me, that was monumental for me…if you like I can share one or two that I wrote if that is appropriate. In The School of Poetry, several poets/poetesses have found the same kind of experience. Thank you for sharing so generously, not just the form, but the valuable pearls of wisdom that you also transfer with the reverberating messages in your work…kindest regards with all the best to you and yours…all the love and grace and continued success to you always. I just love your new book…mesmerizing! Again, thank you! ❤ 0;-)

  3. libramoon says:

    Love it! And what you do with it.

    I often am musing along, some idea/line hits my mind and I run with it kind of like this. Yes, meditative and mind exploring.

  4. libramoon says:

    I hope you don’t mind that I shared this with

    Delectable Mnts Salon Chat poetry board:
    http://bdelectablemnts.runboard.com/

    — “DM styles itself on the salon notion. It looks to be a gathering of free thinkers, dilettantes, amateurs (which means ‘lover of the thing’), aficionados (which means ‘to have an affection for the thing,’), and conversationalists for whom conversation is as essential as bread and water. Ideally the board is a place where doctors of philosophy, mathematicians, poets, outlaws, technicians, experts, liberal artists, housewives, garbage collectors, and desperados can bounce ideas and experience off each other.”

  5. […] and, if you’re lucky, a heightened state, you can find the directions for the Navarrete here at Gavriel’s Muse. Share this:TwitterFacebookMorePrintLike this:LikeBe the first to like […]

  6. […] I was dragged to this form by the pattern of repetition used in it as I had created myself the form “Navarrette Quatrains” and is also based on a repetition pattern. The form itself is a delight to write and interesting […]

  7. i like it a lot, and i will try it on my own!
    thank you for contributing to literature in such a beautiful way 🙂
    best,

    patricia schaefer röder

  8. […] poetry form, Navarrette Quatrain […]

  9. […] (Navarrette Quatrains) Today you have covered the face into a plume of gray pride to conceal without bitterness the transfiguration of your soul […]

  10. Lovely form … will be playing with it today! And your works are wonderful!

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