From Marilyn Singer: A reverso is a poem with two halves. In a reverso, the second half reverses the lines from the first half, with changes only in punctuation and capitalization — and it has to say something completely different from the first half.
And they claim the right to say they invented the form. Okay, I’m a smidgen skeptical as you’re telling me in the thousands of years of poetry she is the first to think of this? But, you know what? Who cares who invented it! Reverso poems are neat!!! I like them and I like what Singer does with them. And yes, they are not easy to read or write. Especially writing (I’ve tried), so I have nothing but respect for someone who has written as much as they have. Not only does she have the two below, there is also Follow Follow (fairytales) the second book of poetry.
Now, why would they be hard to read? Well, that’s because you expect the poem to be new, fresh, not continuing the theme of the first. Instead, it is a type of response without necessarily directly replying to the first poem.
Echo Echo: Reverso Poems About Greek Myths and Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reverso Poems are both written by Marilyn Singer and illustrated by Josée Masse. I read them years ago, but had forgotten much about them, other than the reverso format. Echo Echo (third book) is obviously about Greek myths. It does help to have a bit of background on them, but it is still a good read. And Mirror Mirror (first book) is less obvious; it is about fairy and folktales. Everything from Midas to Goldilocks can be found in the pages of both books. Things can be happy, sad, or take on new meaning with all the familiar elements we know.
Both books have footnotes which are a nice bonus to help with that. Great images and fun concepts for poetry, reading and in general.
