Today, I challenge you to write a poem in terza rima. This form was invented by Dante, and used in The Divine Comedy. It consists of three-line stanzas, with a “chained” rhyme scheme. The first stanza is ABA, the second is BCB, the third is CDC, and so on. No particular meter is necessary, but English poets have tended to default to iambic pentameter (iambic pentameter is like the Microsoft Windows of English poetry). One common way of ending a terza rima poem is with a single line standing on its own, rhyming with the middle line of the preceding three-line stanza.*
So, I didn't strictly follow this form. But it was a good (enjoyable) process. See my terza rima below.
*
Hello, Moon
a terza rima
by Dot Hearn
The moon is round and full,
is visible behind a veil
of wispy clouds and gulls.
We watch, quiet and still
as she becomes a shadow;
await her light on the hill.
Her colors change from sallow,
to orange to rust to umber.
Her body morphs, is hallow.
We wait in silent slumber
for her to re-emerge.
Blood moon, we do remember.
*
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