AMBIGRAM VII
Recto:
This thorny hedgehog world is rolled into
oblivious winter sleep, where fierce dreams
have clawed a hold and block the probing beams
that keep on seeking for a passage through—
a sleep so heavy and so deep it seems
the sleep of someone who had dared to go
to all extremes, had nothing left to know
or do. As winter ices up the streams
and blizzards howl and hurtle snow on snow,
the narrow valley teems with soldiers who
must face the foe upon the frontier to
that cold new country where we all shall go.
Verso:
This thorny hedgehog world is rolled
into oblivious winter sleep,
where fierce dreams have clawed a hold
and block the probing beams that keep
on seeking for a passage through—
a sleep so heavy and so deep
it seems the sleep of someone who
had dared to go to all extremes,
had nothing left to know or do.
As winter ices up the streams
and blizzards howl and hurtle snow
on snow, the narrow valley teems
with soldiers who must face the foe
upon the frontier to that cold
new country where we all shall go.
THIS IS THE ULTIMATE IN FORMAL CHALLENGES! the poem has two forms, recto and verso, which are identical in content but must conform to the following:
Recto: 60 feet in 12 five-foot lines, rhymed ABBA BCCB CAAC
Verso: 60 feet in 15 four-foot lines, rhymed VWV WXW XYX YZY ZVZ (terza rima)
it will become clear very soon that
A=X, B=Y, C=Z
which makes the verso become in fact the following:
VWV WAW ABA BCB CVC
most important though: the result must be a real poem which has sense, music, cohesion and something to say....
go on - i dare you...