Rachel Bagby, J.D. (Stanford Law School) is the originator of the poetic form she calls Dekaaz™; a form consisting of ten syllables in three-lines. The first line is 2 syllables, the second is 3 syllables and the last line is 5 syllables. The name comes from the Greek root of the word ten (deka) + the letters "a" and "z" to signify the range of human experience that can be expressed in "just ten/syllables/...three lines 2/3/5." To complete the process of creating a Dekaaz, you must speak it out loud to another living being.
Bagby is also the author of Divine Daughters: Liberating the Power and Passion of Women's Voices (Harper San Francisco, 1999).[1] Her publications include articles about sustainability[2][3] in Natural Home, The Wall Street Journal[4][5][6], Time, Ms. Magazine[7], Women of Power, and others, as well as poetry in literary journals. Her anthologized contributions can be found in Nature and the Human Spirit: Toward an Expanded Land Management Ethic, (Venture Publishing, State College, PA, 1995); Circles of Strength: Community Alternatives to Alienation, (New Society Publishing, Philadelphia, PA 1993); Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism, (Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, CA 1990); and Healing the Wounds (New Society Publishing, Santa Cruz, CA: 1989).
