Can I Write Poems Using Only Palindromes?

On both online and in-person workshops, I have been taking part in various poetry challenges. I’ve now been inspired to challenge myself in writing new poetry using forms that I don’t always use very often. I’ve been inspired by many YouTube play through of the old Red, Blue and Yellow Pokemon games where they try to beat the game in the most intense rules possible.

I recently found out what a palindrome was, and decided this should be my first poetry challenge for myself, to write some poems using only palindromes. Palindromes are basically words or phrases that read the same back to front. Some examples include: 1991; mom; level and pop.

Rules for my “impossible” poetry challenge

• You can chose any form of poetry that you like.
• AI must not be used. Sorry Mr Chat GPT!
• 15 minutes on each poem.
• Keeping faithful to the poetry forms.
• I only use palindromes in my poems.

Haiku

“Naomi,” I moan.

“He lived as a devil, eh?”

1991

Free Verse

Hannah tips level spit Hannah

Dennis sinned o’ Dennis sinned!

Taco cat?

Was it a cat I saw?

Dog! No poop on God!

Devil never even lived

Doom mood:

No melon, no lemon

Eh, ça va, la vache?

Acrostic

Dog as a God:

Otto made Ned a motto:

God as a dog!

How I found it

I wanted to write a sonnet and villanelle with palindromes, but really struggled with creating the sonnet and even when reading other palindrome sonnets, I lost inspiration. I found this really hard, because I was trying to come up with more original palindromes. So these aren’t my best poems, but I think the free verse one turned out to be really funny. What I learned with these strict conditions is that 15 minutes is often not enough to write a masterful poem, but it can help build the foundations of a good one.