Introducing the Longette: a new poetic form (and an event)

The longette is a new, long-short form of poetry, developed by Catherin J Pascal Dunk, in collaboration with Elly Belfort-Mattos; with inspo from Karuna Mistry.

For a longette:

• The theme is social commentary (usually critical of the status quo and reaching towards a better/longer future)
• The title of a longette is long; 40 syllables
• The poem consists of 21 long lines—of 20 syllables each¹
• A longette has an ACAB rhyme scheme, with a final rhyming couplet:
  ACAB/acab/a’c’a’b’/A-C-A-B-/A’C’A’B’B’²
• The poem can be separated into 4 stanzas of 4 lines each, with a final stanza of 5 lines—or set without stanza breaks, at the poet’s discretion
• Use of emojis is encouraged. The same emoji may be repeated throughout the poem, but if you want to use more than one emoji or symbol, you must conform to a 1312 scheme, e.g. 👌👩‍🦽‍➡️👌🦋
• Emojis and other symbols are not counted as syllables
• Collaboration is encouraged.

To read a sample longette, please visit Wordflowerpoetry.com.

There will be an Annual Longette Cooperatition, with some worthy poems announced and promoted on 13 December each year:

• 1 overall winning poem, to be selected randomly from the pool of poems that meet the longette and cooperatition criteria, will receive a book prize and a compulsory standing ovation at the ceremony (audience members who are unable to stand will be lifted if they so choose)
• 3 commended works will be selected by a judging panel made up solely of political and/or environmental activists with an interest in poetry (or at least in karaoke); the award is a certificate and subdued/polite applause
• 1 poem will be chosen by the people to receive the Most Revolutionary Award, which is a piece of yarnbombing fibre art the poet can hang wherever they should like (Pride Square in Newtown Australia is highly recommended); loud approbation will be encouraged upon the announcement of this award
• 2 additional poems will be chalked on the pavement at Pride Square Newtown; the selection criteria for choosing these poems will not be disclosed; when these poets are announced, only AUSLAN clapping will be allowed (no audible applause, please)
• All poems which meet the criteria and are not offensive to the organisers will be published online on growing-the-future.org; the entries receiving special mention will, in addition, receive publication on wordflowerpoetry.com
• All entrants must subscribe for updates on growing-the-future.org and wordflowerpoetry.com; subscription to both of these blogs is free, and you will not be spammed.

Entries for the Inaugural Longette Cooperatition will open on 20 November 2026, Trans Day of Remembrance. Any poems submitted on the first day will have five times the chance of winning the grand prize. Collaborative works are encouraged. The submission window will close at midnight on 3 December 2026.

Should you like to submit a longette for publication in the meantime, please visit https://wordflowerpoetry.com/submit/

You are likely to be successful, and you might be the Second Ever Person in the World to write a longette.

1. Syllables can be counted on your fingers, or there’s a handy app: https://syllablecounter.net/. Thank you Nolcha Fox for finding this! ↩︎
2. Basically, the first [A] and third [A] lines of each 4-line [ACAB] stanza must rhyme with each other. In the final, 5-line stanza [ACABB], the last two lines [BB] will also rhyme with each other, but not with the other lines. There is no need to rhyme with the same sounds in each stanza. ↩︎