Would you like to challenge yourself? Now that you've heard Bobbi Katz's pantoum, why not try to write one yourself? Below are the "rules" to writing a pantoum. Like Bobbi said, the pantoum has a strict form and is a bit like a dance of words. The first line is the same as the last line, forming sort of a circle.

In a pantoum lines are repeated to make a pattern in the poem. Each stanza is four lines and each line is a single thought that can be easily moved.

You can write as many stanzas as you want and the lines can be as long as you like but for your first pantoum try using Bobbi's pattern in her four-stanza poem IMAGINE.

Title: IMAGINE! (stanza 1)
Tomorrow a new century begins.	Line 1
Tonight the sky throbs with so many stars.	Line 2
So many stars, so many possibilities.	Line 3
We might cast a line and reach... infinity.	Line 4
(stanza 2)
Tonight the sky throbs with so many stars.	Line 2 is repeated
A hundred years ago, no one could know.	Line 5
We might cast a line and reach... infinity.	Line 4 is repeated
Imagine! The Web is just a click away.	Line 6
(stanza 3)
A hundred years ago, no one could know.	Line 5 is repeated
Kids like you and me electronic spiderlings.	Line 7
Imagine! The Web is just a click away.	Line 4 is repeated
Everyone on earth can be connected.	Line 8
In the last stanza (below), the pattern changes. You have to go back and pick up the unrepeated lines from the first stanza, which becomes the second and fourth lines of the last stanza so that the poem begins and ends with the same line. (stanza 4)
Kids like you and me electronic spiderlings.	Line 7 repeated
So many stars, so many possibilities.	Line 3 repeated
Everyone on earth can be connected.	Line 8 repeated
Tomorrow a new century begins.	Line 1 repeated

Remember!

Because the poem begins and ends with the same line, make sure that your first line is really strong and sums up the meaning of your poem.