Poem #23 for Poetry Month-Tibetan Gzha

Today, a Tibetan gzha, which is a poem meant to become a dance song. I would love to hear and see one, or many, someday. 

The form is a quatrain: five lines of six syllables and the fifth and last line beginning with a spondee (a word I’ve been keen to use somewhere and this is my first chance, rhymes with goatee) which are two strongly stressed syllables. The first four lines are spoken or sung in a trochaic metre of light and stressed syllables or (~/ ~/ ~/). No rhyming is necessary but as with any dance beat, parallelism in its content and a strong sense of internal assonance (vowels multiplying) and consonance (consonants repeating) is expected.

I imagined young girls in spring colours dancing in a circle, imitating the effects of April's brutal weather on their (flower) heads; covering, bowing, bending, bobbing and then the triumphant alert finale when they become irises, resilient to whatever the weather does to them, dancing in the rain and the wind.

Viva Iris! Brava!

Spring blossoms are battered

Ice pellets slice through leaves

Cold rain slams the lily

Drags the daffodil down

Hope holds iris heads high!