Sherlock Holmes: 60 for 60

Welcome once again to my poetry page!

I hope each week you will read Dr. Watson’s delightful narrative and then go on to write a poem related to it in some way. All forms of poetry are permitted, and further down the page there is a selection you might like to consider using over the coming weeks.

And here, courtesy of my housemaid Rachel, is this week’s suggested poem to read—a suggestion inspired by the themes and subjects in this week's story. Hopefully you will enjoy the poem, and perhaps it may give you some ideas for a poem of your own or allow you to look at Dr. Watson's story in a new way.



The Kiss

By Kurt Brown


Note from Rachel: It was a declaration of love, perhaps, with only one thing left unconfessed.




Thank you so much to Rachel. And here is also a new poetry form to try: the trine.


( Definition and Example )


But you do not have to use this form. Any form of poetry is welcome this week—and every week! Here are a few suggestions for you:

221B verselet, abecedarian poetry, acrostic poetry, alexandrine, ballad, barzelletta, beeswing, blackout poetry, blitz poem, blues stanza, bref double, Burns stanza, call and response, chastushka, cinquain, circular poetry, clerihew, colour poems, compound word verse, concrete poetry, Cornish verse, curtal sonnet, débat, décima, diamante, doggerel, double dactyl, echo verse, ekphrasis, elegiac couplet, elegiac stanza, elfje, englyn, epigram, epistle, epitaph, epulaeryu, Etheree, fable, Fib, florette, found poetry, free verse, ghazal, haiku, hay(na)ku, In Memoriam stanza, Italian sonnet, jueju, kennings poem, lanturne, lies, limerick, line messaging, list poem, lyric poetry, mathnawī, micropoetry, mini-monoverse, musette, nonsense verse, palindrome poetry, pantoum, Parallelismus Membrorum, poem cycle, quatern, quintilla, renga, rhyming alliterisen, riddle, rime couée, rispetto, Schüttelreim, sedoka, septet, sestina, shadorma, sonnet, stream of consciousness, tanka, tercet, terza rima, tongue twister poetry, triangular triplet, trine, triolet, Tyburn, villanelle


Please leave all your poems inspired by The Three Garridebs in the comments on this post. I look forward to seeing them!


Warm regards,

Mrs. Hudson

This Sunday, 4th June, we'll be posting our 60 word ficlets for The Three Garridebs.

An Englishman and an American are on a quest to find another man who shares their unusual surname, in order to gain a huge inheritance. And so the Englishman asks for Holmes' assistance, though the American Garrideb doesn't seem too pleased about that...

If you haven't tried 60 for 60 before, full information - including our schedule - can be found on our profile. But in essence: you read ACD's story and then you write a 60 word story inspired by it! You don't have to post a story every week - just join in whenever you feel like it.

Each Sunday we will also have our weekly discussion post, where we discuss a topic inspired by the canon story. And there’s Mrs. Hudson's Poetry Page too - any poems written about this week’s story can be left as a comment on her post. As usual, her housemaid Rachel will be suggesting a poem for us to read to give us added inspiration, and there will also be a new poetry form to try: the trine.

You can choose one activity, or have a go at everything. Or just come along and read the 60s! (And have a chat in the comments.) All options are absolutely fine.

Hope to see you on Sunday. But don’t worry if you can’t join us then - we stay open for posting and commenting all week!

Canon Story: The Three Garridebs
Title: Would Any Garrideb Please Contact..?
Author: scfrankles
Rating: PG
Author's Notes: He had a cadaverous face, with… dull dead skin… “My doctor lectures me about never going out…” Behind his central table was a large cupboard of fossil bones. Above was a line of plaster skulls... “I had a brother, but he is dead, and female relatives are disqualified.” “I’ll call to-morrow, Mr. Nathan, and see you off to Birmingham.” He was last heard of at a nursing-home in Brixton. A zombie AU.


A ‘bite’ from a zombie’s skull led to (the late) Ezekiel Garrideb having to reinvent himself as Nathan, a long lost brother. But the decomposition progressed and while in Birmingham, Ezekiel’s frontal lobes disintegrated.

“I’ll advertise for his relatives,” his doctor sadly told the nursing home.

It was just unfortunate the transplant would have to come from a female brain.

This week we’re having a look at The Three Garridebs. I’ve typed up a few thoughts and questions to get the discussion going—please leave your own ideas in the comments!

( Discussion continues... )