We rise now in this fateful hour
Once in thorns, now is nimbus crowned
For He is risen, the blood has power

Knelt in prayers and tears dour
Those of us who are still earthbound
We rise now in this fateful hour

Some stare in awe, others cower
None can deny, the sight astounds
For He is risen, the blood has power

From our knees we grow and flower
New grains to sprout up from the ground
We rise now in this fateful hour

On this third day to now shower
A faith anew with life is found
For He is risen, the blood has power

We cling to the Almighty bower
Spread The Word with joyous sound
We rise now in this fateful hour
For He is risen, the blood has power

---

National Poetry Month for 2021 Day 4

And today Easter Sunday I offer a Lenten poem in the form of a Villanelle.

The Villanelle is a poetic form composed of nineteen lines. These are arranged as five tercets (three-line stanzas) followed by a quatrain (four-line stanza).

There is no established meter to the villanelle – modern villanelles tend to pentameter, while early villanelles used trimeter or tetrameter.

The most striking thing about a villanelle is that it has two refrains (“A1” and “A2”) and two repeating rhymes (“a” and “b”). The first and third line of the opening tercet are repeated alternately as the refrains, until the last stanza, which includes both refrains.

With this, the pattern of the villanelle can be illustrated as as

A1bA2
abA1
abA2
abA1
abA2
abA1A2

where “a” and “b” are the two rhymes, and the upper case letters (“A1” and “A2”) indicate the refrains.