Poetic Form 79: Interlocking Rubaiyat

 Another Storm

Another storm, my hands become

numb. The wind cuts like a bass drum

along the street, angry with us.

Eyes closing I shy away from

Mother Nature’s judgment. Night plus

time reveals a clearing sky, thus

I can see Orion standing, 

shield ready as if he mistrusts

the oncoming day. Commanding

the horizon from expanding.

I wonder if he can save me,

from the storm I am withstanding.

My breath, white and dense, show the degree

the night has fallen. The grey trees

whisper over my head, “No, he

will not step from the stars for thee.”

Poetic Form #79: Interlocking Rubaiyat

The Interlocking Rubaiyat is composed of quatrains following 

an aaba rhyme pattern. The successive quatrain uses the 

unrhymed line as the rhyme for that stanza. A three-stanza 

rubaiyat rhyme scheme would be: aaba/bbcb/ccdc. Sometimes 

the final stanza rhymes all four lines. The lines are usually tetrameter 

and pentameter. Robert Frost’s "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” 

is a classic example.