Poetic Form 99: Madrigal

 What Love Means

When they see us they will know what love means.

Hand in hand in step with the fading light,

I understand why birds are called to flight.

I wake early to see the morning glean

on skin, promises mixing with sunlight.

When they see us they will know what love means.

Hand in hand in step with the fading light.

I admit to getting lost in-between

seductive kisses and your smile bright.

My heart soars with the doves in clouds of white.

When they see us they will know what love means.

Hand in hand in step with the fading light,

I understand why birds are called to flight.

Poetic Form #99: Madrigal

The madrigal is an Italian form. There are two main types, the Italian and English.

I will focus on the English. The English form was developed by Geoffrey Chaucer. 

It is written in iambic pentameter, with three stanzas: a tercet, quatrain, and sestet. 

All three of the lines in the opening tercet are refrains.

The form follows this rhyme pattern:

Line 1: A

Line 2: B1

Line 3: B2

Line 4: a

Line 5: b

Line 6: A

Line 7: B1

Line 8: a

Line 9: b

Line 10: b

Line 11: A

Line 12: B1

Line 13: B2

Poetic Form 94: Qasida

 Here be Dragons

The walking path leans into the woods, sunlight

becomes a mosaic pattern of delight.

My daughters scamper onto the darken ground

to find sticks, there are new dragons here to fight.

I follow their adventure on the path, I

yell, “A golden fire breather to the right!”

Smiling, I can almost feel the the wings flapping

as the dragon rises in my girls’ eyes bright.

With a blink of memory I feel the dark

corners of the woods take me to a past night.

As a young boy I would run the streets alone,

trying to dodge my own dragons, fear in flight.

Those dragons, not seen with imagination,

their wings and claws were never shown in daylight.

Always the new kid with a new address to

remember, a family just out of sight.

I learned to slay them with my words and paper,

a battle I won with a pen and rewrite.

I open my eyes, leave the path to join in 

a new story, three princesses and a knight.

We laugh as I spin the tale of new battles,

here be dragons that fatherly love makes right.

The Poetic Form #94: Qasida

The qasida is a form that dates back to pre-Islamic Arabia. The poem is a story 

written in a string of shers (complete couplets) that can be as long as 100 couplets. 

The meter is up to the poet but should be consistent. There is some debate 

about the rhyme scheme. One form has a mono-rhymed pattern: aa aa aa.  

Another variation is aa bb cc dd. The most common rhyme pattern is aa xa xa xa xa xa. 

The poem should also entail the following parts:    

• opening setting describes or recalls past times    
• tale of lost love or things left behind     
• the struggles of the journey      
• praise or some moral maxim