This week’s poetic form is the constanza. It’s a fun form comprised of at least five tercets (or three-line stanzas) that was invented by Connie Marcum Wong.

Here are the guidelines:

• Five (or more) tercets
• Eight syllables per line
• First line of each tercet can be read as its own poem
• First lines of each tercet all share the same A rhyme
• Second and third line of each tercet share a rhyme and add a deeper meaning to the entire poem

If your constanza is comprised of five tercets, this would be the rhyme pattern: abb/acc/add/aee/aff 

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Play with poetic forms!

Poetic forms are fun poetic games, and this digital guide collects more than 100 poetic forms, including more established poetic forms (like sestinas and sonnets) and newer invented forms (like golden shovels and fibs).

Click to continue.

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Here’s my attempt at a Constanza Poem:

“snow drift,” by Robert Lee Brewer

we wander aimless through the snow
as our boots crunch and faces freeze
on this day we feel we must seize

unsure of where we ought to go
because our ambition is new
and our experience is too

when others claim that we should know
we respond that we wish we did
and fail to keep our passion hid

as some go to and others fro
pretending that they know the way
we want so much to seize each day

we wander aimless in the snow
our passion rolls right off our tongues
because our hearts are ever young