Conditionelle

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A conditionelle is a humorous, short poetic form employing the subjunctive mood (if/were) and two sets of rhyming couplets. Hence, in the poem, one thing existing or occurring is conditioned on another. (The pun is on the formal poem, the villanelle.) The form was invented by poet David B. Axelrod as a tool to teach children in New York state's Poets in the Schools programs. It was popularized further by its adoption by Lewis Turco, author of The Book of Forms.

[edit] Examples

If the school
were a pool
I’d swim
to gym.

—Newlane Elementary School student, Selden, NY

If the wastebasket
were a casket
I’d inter
every error.

—David B. Axelrod

If the masses
were asses
then Nietzsche
would be peachie.

—Anonymous