Poem:

I'm glad you appreciate it! Thanks in advance for the link, too.

*bow, flourish* Happy to be of service.

One of the things I really love about the Nautilus form is that the meter changes as the poem progresses. You can see how that plays out, if you mark the stresses. Some of the later couplets are rougher -- it's not easy to keep a perfectly smooth flow on some syllable counts -- but the piece as a whole really does spiral around itself like a shell. I'm pleased with how that works. I also like the challenge inherent to writing evolving verses. *chuckle* It's like the poet's equivalent of the hammered-dulcimer game of playing each verse faster and faster.

Any form that gives you a prompt should help, then -- and forms that work well with simple, everyday words will also suit you. Many Japanese forms, such as haiku and tanka, rely on describing moments of insight or beautiful images in nature. A sestina uses six words as line ends and changes the order in each stanza. An acrostic poem spells a word or phrase down its left margin, with each letter cuing the first word in that line.

By all means, try a Nautilus verse if you want to.