Introducing rhopal.org

"Rhopal: This obscure but fascinating term refers to a line of poetry whose words increase by one syllable as they go along." -- Sean Francis, Literature: Become an overnight expert

So because I came across this obscure definition in a book I was reading, I was up into the wee hours trying my hand at composing these types of "poems"...

(Why?

Who can understand the calling of the muse?)

But I did, and now I find this term is so obscure as to not even be findable on the Web, nor defined in the Merriam-Webster's dictionary, such that I begin to suspect that Mr. Francis just made the whole thing up to pad out his slim little volume. Nevertheless, I wasted a good two hours in which I could have been sleeping compulsively counting syllables, and so, regardless of whether or not the "rhopal" was indeed a valid -- though extremely obscure -- form of poetry, by golly, it will be now! I hereby offer my rhopals ("Rhopal was the name in Greek for a club: tapered at one end, growing larger and more potentially harmful towards the other") and invite you to try your hand at crafting your own. Hell, I'll set up a web site! Go check out rhopal.nowis.com in the next day or two. Maybe I'll even buy rhopal.org! It'll be a rhopal renaissance! Tell your friends!

My first test rhopal, just to get a feel for it:

I quickly decided incontinence depreciated octogenarians.

When in doubt as to the content, write about what you're writing about:

The rhopal emerges -- increasingly multisyllabic -- undistinguishedly, unsophisticately, metaselfreferentially.

A potential downside to engaging in this form of poetry:

This poem's brevity undoubtedly epitomizes incontrovertible quasijurisprudential uncopyrightability.

And finally, my masterpiece: something that could pass as a real sentence in a real piece of writing, and what allowed me to finally go to sleep:

One observes unchallenged traditional globalization overemphasizing pseudosophisticated ultrarevolutionary disestablishmentarianism.