Being that it’s National Poetry Month / National Poetry Writing Month it makes sense that today in 2011 I posted “Why?” a brutal little ditty I wrote.

Why did he have to raise his hand?
His mind just must have upped and gone
I’m not the type he could command
Forget about put his hands on!

Forgot who he was married to?
Why did he have to raise his hand?
It was a stupid thing to do,
Picked the wrong girl to make a stand

And had the nerve to say demand!
To me! A cleaver yielding cook!
Why did he have to raise his hand?
For just one swipe was all it took

For there it was, hand on the floor
And finally, he understands
The only thing you knock are doors
Why did he have to raise his hand?

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National Poetry Month for 2021 Day 16 shows what happens when things cascade in the form of a Quatern.

The Quatern is a French form. It consists of four stanzas of four lines, or sixteen total lines. The Quatern is a syllabic form, meaning that there are a required number of syllables per line. In this case, there are eight (8) syllables per line (or tetrameter, to those who want to get all technical), but it does NOT have to be iambic!!

The other trait of the Quatern is that there is a repeating refrain, similar to a kyrielle. In this case, the refrain is repeated one line lower in the poem in each stanza until in the fourth stanza it’s the fourth line, like below…

Line 1 (refrain)
Line 2
Line 3
Line 4

Line 5
Line 1 again (Line 6)
Line 7
Line 8

Line 9
Line 10
Line 1 again (Line 11)
Line 12

Line 13
Line 14
Line 15
Line 1 again (Line 16)