This form is called a Mirror Poem by Joan Bransfield Graham, from whom I learned it in the early ’90s, or a Reverso Poem by Marilyn Singer, who has published several absolutely mind-blowing books of “reversible poems.” Singer’s poems take this form one incredible step further, speaking in one voice if you read it down, in another if you read it up. Â So in her book, Mirror, Mirror, the poem “In the Hood” is Red Riding Hood’s voice as you read the words down; while the wolf speaks if you read it going up. Â Astounding!
SYMMETRY
by April Halprin Wayland
Like little rivers
spilling to the center,
the lines of this leaf
mirror each other.
Two halves
make a whole.
Two halves
mirror each other.
The lines of this leaf,
spilling to the center,
like little rivers.
published in Cricket Magazine June, 1999
from MorgueFile.com