—On What Remains—
"When did he leave?" my brother asked, as we whitewashed the fence.
I stopped, watched fresh paint disappear into the grain, torn
between what I believed was true and what I thought
might be. I wasn't sure. "Well?" *"I think we brought
him farther than we knew."* "Go on."
He turned the radio off. Silence. All autumn long,
the house had answered every sound with one withdrawn
echo, while all my thoughts had wrestled down the fraught
when-did-he-leave
question. Crushing "then!" Whispering "not." That it was wrong
to search for someone only where the body's gone.
One day your own hands will interrupt you with someone else's certainty.
My brother began to carve the bread. *"You'll sort
it out. Let's eat."* "But the fence..." *"...can wait. Look, I've brought
your favourite pie."* And the evening wind moved through the pickets,
painting both sides at once.
"When did he leave?"
Let the thunder roll, listen loud and clear
Booming reminders of where things went wrong
Seeds of wisdom over ride all fear
Turn the raindrops of pain into a song
Sing it out loud for the soul to release
Booming reminders of where things went wrong
In the melody, healing will increase
A song of your own, to hold on tightly
Sing it out loud for the soul to release
Whether no-one knows you, you shine brightly
It is about knowing your worth today
A song of your own, to hold on tightly
You know yourself best, you know the right way
The road has been long, you are not astray
It is about knowing your worth today
All will be planted in fields where you play
Let the thunder roll, listen loud and clear
The road has been long, you are not astray
Seeds of wisdom over ride all fear
Heidi Sands
2/15/26
(C)opyright
*10 syllables
Written: January 22, 2026, for contest Sponsored by: Joseph May
****************
The muffin batter sits, poised for the heat
A tender blend of flour, milk, and the air
I stir it softly, focused on the treat
I handle the dough with velvety care
Its smoothness is a hint of flavors' shape
A tender blend of flour, milk, and air
The muffin dough begins its languid crepe
It rises, soaked in the nuggets of knead
Its smoothness is a hint of flavors' shape
A low-fat pumpkin bran muffin dish leads
Butter and sugar, whisked till soft and pale
It rises, soaked in the nuggets of knead
I swirl, I turn, I listen to the rain,
The muffin batter sits, poised for the heat.
A bittersweet cadence I can't restrain;
I stir it softly, focused on the treat.
A buoy calling me to the green sea
I can't move her wild channel, like my ebbs
from within, my God, may this bracing cease
of cold months past thaw, spill breathing again
the seagull in the ice air blew away
I can't move her wild channel, like my ebbs
a seaweed frozen to wind in the spray
other footprints passing where there were mine
the seagull in the ice air blew away
an ocean that cannot melt my goodbye
on water my skin like fog beating through
other footprints passing where there were mine
where the rip current gets all things too soon
the memory of these fingers thrashing
on water; my skin like fog beating through
the dark thud against me still, still splashing
a buoy calling me to the green sea
with a thousand others never watching
from within, my God, may this bracing cease
We hike the trails where emerald silence grows,
The forest hums beneath the morning light,
The mountain breathes in rhythms nature knows.
The beach wind plays with gulls in seaward flight,
We splash through waves, our footprints wash away,
The forest hums beneath the morning light.
By lakes so still they mirror skies all day,
Canoes drift slow like dreams in midday sun,
We splash through waves, our footprints wash away.
Through wooded paths, the deer and foxes run,
We pitch our tent where starlight softly lands,
Canoes drift slow like dreams in midday sun.
A fire is born from our own weathered hands,
We share our tales until the embers die,
We pitch our tent where starlight softly lands.
We hike the trails where emerald silence grows,
The mountain breathes in rhythms nature knows,
The beach wind plays with gulls in seaward flight,
We share our tales until the embers die.
The chance to change always exists
A prompt of willingness will lead
Giving way to the clearing mist
Patience, boundaries, are a need
Just like a tree takes time to grow
A prompt of willingness will lead
All that you love, is what you know
Space brings reflection, wisdom and peace
Just like a tree takes time to grow
Negativity to release
Let the wind be your friend today
Space brings reflection, wisdom and peace
A life given, no dues to pay
With righteous free will on your side
Let the wind be your friend today
You're ok, you don't have to hide
The chance to change always exists
Sun can shine with the moving tide
Giving way to the clearing mist
Heidi Sands
5/7/25
(C)opyright
8 syllables
Across the valley, green pasture and the hills
I imagine dancing to freedom I feel
Lifting my toes in the daisies, full of thrills
Along the river, my spirit flows surreal
It's a taste of heaven on land around me
I imagine dancing to freedom I feel
In the sky, large birds soar so effortlessly
Peace comes naturally, not something I chase
It's a taste of heaven on land around me
I stand strong in the heights, bad things I erase
Enjoying a new life with things I create
Peace comes naturally, not something I chase
I'm part of life's production, lessons and fate
I'm becoming everything I want to be
Enjoying a new life with things I create
My mind absorbs the landscape, all that I see
Across the valley, green pasture and the hills
I'm becoming everything I want to be
Lifting my toes in the daisies, full of thrills
Heidi Sands
4/29/25
(C)opyright
O’er gentle sunrise, tender peace abides
Light risks striking shadows of darkest night
Moon and stars flow, cling to the sky as guides
Glowing on wings, beyond the clouds of white
Birds and angels sing as the silence cries
Light risks striking shadows of darkest night
His still voice from heaven stirs hearts so wise
For those who know His beauty lives in love
Birds and angels sing as the silence cries
My heart is grateful for hope from above
In melodies of grace, His song concludes
For those who know His beauty lives in love
He confirms that His love never excludes
Holy light blesses all souls who believe
In melodies of grace, His song concludes
We rejoice in His birth each Christmas Eve
O’er gentle sunrise, tender peace abides
Holy light blesses all souls who believe
Moon and stars flow, cling to the sky as guides
I hold three magic rocks, in my hand
Rolling them over and over and over
Leaving this reality behind, far behind
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Crafty moon sends her light, gently nuzzling
Rustling in the winds, songs of peace and praise
Endless dreams swaying, dancing, in full swing
Fairytale wishes fade as starlight prays
Where love sought her kiss, beneath angel’s wings
Rustling in the winds, songs of peace and praise
Hopeful bursts of grace still the swords of kings
Washing away shadows with light that glows
Where love sought her kiss, beneath angel’s wings
Songs of passionate nights stir life that knows
Beautiful tears, kindness, restoring hope
Washing away shadows with light that glows
Melodies in rich rose teach minds to cope
Winter fades into spring’s breathless debut
Beautiful tears, kindness, restoring hope
Nirvana of grace stirs life, all brand-new
Crafty moon sends her light, gently nuzzling
Winter fades into spring’s breathless debut
Endless dreams swaying, dancing, in full swing
His light fell over the shadows
lifting the solemn spirit’s gloom
stirring precious people, He chose
revealing who rose from the tomb
making a way for believers
lifting the solemn spirit’s gloom
love for even low achievers
grace so alive it halts the skies
making a way for believers
the song that no voice can disguise
melodies rich with peace and love
grace so alive it halts the skies
this is wonder from God above
come down to offer us His Son
melodies rich with peace and love
I hope to hear Him say, well-done
His light fell over the shadows
come down to offer us His Son
stirring precious people, He chose
Winter’s chill is in the air, a frosty gasp
washing twilight in gentle, glistening songs
breathless dreams hesitate, rising from God’s grasp
hopeful hearts reach out, knowing their love belongs
wintery tongues tell their lies in glowing rhymes
washing twilight in gentle, glistening songs
each life is filled with blessings in pleasant times
I sincerely believe in His blazing fire
wintery tongues tell their lies in glowing rhymes
His love is taking me higher and higher
without Him, I’d be baffled by the wild storms
I sincerely believe in His blazing fire
because of this awesome love, who always warms
I keep praising the One who died on that cross
without Him, I’d be baffled by the wild storms
this love and grace I attempt to get across
Winter’s chill is in the air, a frosty gasp
I keep praising the One who died on that cross
breathless dreams hesitate, rising from God’s grasp
Bullies
Unrestrained, belligerent bullies abound
In schools, institutions, and in businesses,
Who create ruckuses that serve no purpose
But to show passionless feelings of meanness,
Filled with vindictiveness, jealousy, and spite,
In schools, institutions, and in businesses.
Indifferent to others, they harass and fight,
Irresponsible for the scars they impart
Through their vindictiveness, jealousy, and spite,
Employing words and actions to poison hearts
And disrupt the flow of cordial interactions,
Irresponsible for the hurt they impart.
Temper-tantrum clods using intimidation
Who are conceited, narcissistic, and deranged,
Disrupting the flow of cordial interactions.
From the cradle to the grave, they seldom change;
Unrestrained, belligerent bullies abound,
Conceited, narcissistic, vain, and deranged,
And create ruckuses that serve no purpose.
When rainy skies are gray and sun shines through
Remember to look up for the rainbow
Colors bring clarity to what is true
When things are foggy and it's hard to know
A direction for your purpose to grow
Remember to look up for the rainbow
Give yourself comfort so that you can go
To places where your soul will be at peace
A direction for your purpose to grow
Catch the wind for your tension to release
Carried by the airstream currents of love
To places where your soul will be at peace
Every mountain stands witness above
Positivity fuels strength from within
Carried by the airstream currents of love
Watch the landscape change through every mile
When rainy skies are gray and sun shines through
Positivity fuels strength and a smile
Colors bring clarity to what is true
Heidi Sands
6/16/24
10 Syllables
(C)opyright
Dementia and Reflection
Years hence, beyond the glow of self-confidence,
When age `clipses youth and the body weakens
And pills prescribed are swallowed to prevent
Further worsening of the brain’s cognizance
As the soul pleads relief from the crippling disease,
When age `clipses youth and the body weakens
And palsy skin-mottled hands feel ill at ease
As forgetfulness succumbs to hysteria,
And the soul pleads relief from the crippling disease.
Pertinacity strives sans euphoria,
And dementia replaces the genius
With forgetfulness and hysteria,
Interrupting daily living continuous
As the soul meanders without permanence,
And insidious dementia robs the genius
Of faculties, dignity, and consciousness;
Years hence, beyond the glow of self-confidence,
When the transient soul searches for permanence,
And pills are swallowed to retain cognizance.
The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain. - Dolly Parton
Weeping, like a willows graceful waft, pleasing
Even the heart will melt in the doubtful breeze,
Moving calmly through the night, gently teasing
Weeping, like the leaves who fall upon their knees,
Echoed by souls poised in resilient prayers,
Even the heart will melt in the doubtful breeze,
Weeping, with tears who tempting nature compares,
Silent, each raindrop aspires to remember
Echoed by souls poised in resilient prayers,
Weeping, steady hearts are blessed by November,
Lightest drizzle reveals what psalms are singing,
Silent, each raindrop aspires to remember
Weeping, famous hush rainfall shall be bringing
Past the sprinkle of wisdom thru the ages
Lightest drizzle reveals what psalms are singing
Rainfall grieves as it drenches our heart’s pages
Weeping, like a willows graceful waft, pleasing
Past the sprinkle of wisdom thru the ages
Moving calmly through the night, gently teasing
Introduction
A line returns, but it does not return to the same emotional place. That is one of the central pleasures of reading a terzanelle: familiar language keeps acquiring new pressure as rhyme, context, and stanza movement reshape it. Read side by side, these poems reveal how differently a refrain can behave-as warning, memory, accusation, reassurance, comic interruption, or thought the speaker cannot escape.
As you browse the community poems, expect variety in tone and movement. One poet may make the linked sounds feel fluid and conversational; another may emphasize their ceremonial or incantatory force. Some poems may unfold as narratives, while others circle a single image or emotional conflict. The recurring lines can remain apparently stable or undergo a striking change in meaning because of the language placed around them. Even punctuation and sentence boundaries can determine whether a repeated line sounds settled, doubtful, breathless, or newly ironic.
Reading beyond the first example is especially valuable because no isolated poem can demonstrate the full expressive range of this demanding design. Compare how different writers prepare for each return, manage the tension between forward motion and recurrence, and approach the final gathering of sounds and refrains. You may also notice differences in how closely poets follow, adapt, or test the expected pattern. Taken together, the collection becomes a workshop in artistic choice: the shared framework remains recognizable, yet each poet must discover a personal reason for making language come back.
Reading Guide
Reading a terzanelle well requires attention to both memory and movement. Part of the mind recognizes returning language, while another part follows the poem into new images, arguments, or events. The most revealing comparisons concern not merely whether a line reappears, but what has happened to the reader by the time it does. As you read the community poems, track how each poet balances recurrence with progression and how the chain of sound carries thought toward the ending.
- Changes in a refrain's meaning: Notice the words immediately before and after each return. Context can transform the same statement from certainty into doubt or from comfort into threat. Ask: What does this line mean now that it did not mean earlier?
- The work done by linking lines: Pay attention to passages that connect one recurring moment to the next. These lines must develop the subject rather than merely fill space between formal landmarks. Ask: Does each passage add an image, complication, discovery, or shift in perspective?
- Rhyme as an audible current: Listen for whether the interlocking sounds feel inevitable, understated, playful, or strained. Because one sound helps propel the poem toward another, awkward diction can be especially conspicuous. Ask: Do the rhymes deepen the poem's vocabulary and associations, or dictate them?
- Sentence movement across lines: Observe whether syntax pauses at line endings or runs through them. A refrain can sound monumental when self-contained and more unsettled when absorbed into a larger sentence. Ask: How does the grammar alter the pace and authority of the repeated words?
- Image development: Look for images that change, accumulate detail, or acquire symbolic weight. Recurrence becomes richer when the surrounding sensory world also evolves. Ask: Does the poem revisit one image mechanically, or reveal another aspect of it each time?
- The pressure of the ending: The close brings familiar materials into unusually close contact, making weak preparation or powerful transformation easier to hear. Ask: Does the ending merely complete the design, or does it make the earlier repetitions newly intelligible?
Compare several poets' approaches before deciding what the form can do. The strongest reading comes from hearing both the shared architecture and the individual choices of voice, pace, imagery, syntax, and emotional direction within it.
Writing Tips
Approach a terzanelle as a problem in dramatic recurrence, not as a pattern to be filled. Before planning rhymes, identify something that genuinely needs to return: a memory that changes under scrutiny, a claim the speaker keeps testing, an image that gathers symbolic force, or a conflict that cannot be resolved in a single statement. The formal design should intensify that material rather than sit visibly on top of it.
- Choose a subject with recursive energy. Material suited to this form usually benefits from revisiting. Grief, longing, doubt, ritual, obsession, environmental change, and unresolved conversation can all sustain return because repetition resembles their mental or emotional motion. Avoid a subject that requires only straightforward explanation.
- Write refrains with room to change. An overly specific line may exhaust its meaning on first appearance. A useful recurring line is clear enough to remember but open enough to accept new grammatical, emotional, or imagistic surroundings. Test whether it can sound sincere, troubled, or ironic without changing its words.
- Plan movement before polishing the pattern. Sketch what the speaker knows, feels, or sees at successive stages. This prevents the draft from circling without development. Each return should occur after something consequential has shifted, even if that shift is quiet or internal.
- Build a flexible sound bank. List possible rhyme words together with images, verbs, idioms, and unexpected associations they might invite. Reject words that require inverted syntax or vague filler. Productive rhyme should lead the imagination sideways into discovery, not drag the sentence toward a predetermined ending.
- Make the nonrepeated lines indispensable. Beginners sometimes lavish attention on refrains while treating the connecting material as scaffolding. Those intervening lines carry narrative, evidence, sensory detail, and tonal change. If removing one makes little difference, it probably needs more dramatic or imagistic work.
- Vary pacing through syntax. Repeated language can make the cadence feel ceremonially steady, so use sentence length, enjambment, punctuation, and pauses to create contrast. A quick run of syntax can generate urgency before a refrain; a full stop can make its return feel like recognition or judgment.
- Let imagery undergo pressure. Do not merely repeat a moon, door, photograph, or storm without altering its function. Change distance, light, scale, or the speaker's relation to it. The image should participate in the poem's development just as actively as the recurring language.
- Compose toward convergence. The ending should be more than successful formal bookkeeping. Prepare the recurring lines so their proximity produces resonance, friction, revelation, or deliberate irresolution. If the close feels predictable, reconsider what new fact, image, or tonal turn appears shortly before it.
During revision, read the poem aloud at least twice: once while emphasizing the recurring lines and once while trying to speak the whole poem naturally. The first reading exposes sonic strain and unwanted monotony; the second reveals whether formal compliance has overwhelmed the voice. Mark every forced rhyme, abstract explanation, repeated idea, and accidental pause. Then ask a trusted reader where anticipation builds and where attention slackens. Revise until the returns feel both expected and newly consequential.
Interesting Facts
- Repetition can create instability rather than sameness. A returning line may look fixed on the page, yet altered context can make it less trustworthy each time. This allows a terzanelle to dramatize a speaker revising, resisting, or misunderstanding the speaker's own words.
- Rhyme influences thought as well as music. The linked sounds continually place certain words in relation. A resourceful poet uses those sonic relationships to discover images or arguments; a less developed draft may reveal that the rhyme word was chosen before the thought.
- Grammar can quietly transform a refrain. Without substantially changing its language, a poet can alter how a recurring line functions by adjusting the sentence around it. It may first stand as a declaration, then become part of a question, qualification, or consequence.
- The form can support opposite emotional effects. Recurrence may soothe through familiarity, intensify obsession, mimic ritual, sharpen comedy, or produce dread. The effect depends on voice, pacing, and what changes between returns, not on repetition alone.
- The ending tests the whole poem retrospectively. When familiar sounds and statements gather near the close, readers can hear whether earlier passages prepared meaningful relationships among them. A satisfying conclusion often sends the reader mentally back through the poem rather than simply stopping it.
- Variation among examples is part of the education. Some poets may privilege conversational ease, while others foreground pattern, song, or experiment. Browsing the poems in this collection helps readers distinguish the form's recognizable identity from any one poet's interpretation of it.
Popular Themes
Subject matter and form become inseparable when language must return. A terzanelle works especially well when recurrence has a psychological, narrative, or symbolic reason. The possibilities below are literary affinities rather than measured rankings of what appears most often in the collection.
- Memory and revision: Repeated lines can resemble memories recalled under changing circumstances. New details may confirm, complicate, or undermine the speaker's original version of an event, giving remembrance an active dramatic shape.
- Grief and absence: Loss often involves thoughts that return despite attempts to move forward. A refrain can embody what remains emotionally present, while the developing passages show time, daily life, or understanding continuing around that absence.
- Desire, obsession, and doubt: The form can enact a mind repeatedly approaching the same person, question, or possibility. Interlocking sound strengthens the sense that one thought triggers another, while altered context reveals whether desire is deepening or becoming self-aware.
- Weather and seasonal change: Recurring natural images can remain visibly similar while atmosphere, light, and human interpretation shift. This creates productive tension between cycles in the outer world and changes occurring within the observer.
- Conflict and unresolved conversation: A repeated statement may function as an accusation, defense, plea, or remembered reply. As the poem develops, the same words can change sides emotionally, allowing a single voice to suggest a dialogue that cannot be completed directly.
- Ritual, faith, and questioning: Recurrence can echo prayer, vow, ceremony, or meditative practice. It can affirm belief, test it, or expose the distance between repeated language and inward certainty, making tonal control particularly important.
- Comic fixation and verbal play: A deliberately persistent complaint, absurd premise, or self-important declaration can grow funnier through return. The challenge is escalation: each intervening passage must add a fresh complication rather than rely on the refrain alone for humor.
As you read the community poems, compare writers who address similar subjects. Notice how one poet makes recurrence consoling while another makes it claustrophobic, skeptical, playful, or revelatory. Shared themes become distinct through image, voice, pacing, and the changing emotional role assigned to each return.
Editorial Insights
The central artistic tension of a terzanelle lies between inevitability and discovery. Readers quickly become aware that language and sound will return, yet they still need to feel that the poem is going somewhere it could not have reached by simple repetition. A technically recognizable draft may place every expected element correctly while remaining emotionally stationary. A memorable poem makes recurrence itself part of the thinking: the speaker encounters familiar words after experience has changed their meaning, or the reader hears implications that were concealed at first.
Structure feels necessary when the subject contains a genuine pattern of return. The poem might enact recollection, denial, ritual, argument, seasonal change, or an obsessive train of thought, but the form should do more than illustrate a theme. Strong work creates mutual pressure between design and material. The linked rhymes generate associations that advance the poem, while recurring lines become hinges on which tone or understanding turns. Editors and attentive readers notice when a refrain is not merely repeated but recontextualized-when syntax, neighboring images, or a shift in voice makes the familiar suddenly unstable.
Common weaknesses arise when visible compliance replaces development. Predictable rhyme can narrow the vocabulary; forced inversion can make the speaker sound unlike any believable person; repeated abstractions can create volume without depth. Mechanical patterning is also exposed by passages that exist only to reach the next refrain. Over-explanation causes another problem: if the poet tells readers exactly how every return has changed, the form loses its capacity to let juxtaposition create meaning. Conversely, excessive ambiguity can leave the repeated lines with no evolving situation to press against. The goal is not constant surprise but cumulative consequence.
Individuality remains visible through diction, sentence rhythm, image selection, dramatic stance, humor, restraint, and the degree of friction between spoken voice and formal music. One poet may make repetition sound intimate and hesitant; another may use it as public declaration or incantation. Comparing multiple community poems sharpens judgment because it separates preference from craft. Read beyond the first example and ask which poems make you anticipate a return, which make you hear it differently, and which endings continue to reverberate backward. Those comparisons reveal that quality does not reside in pattern alone, but in the necessity, transformation, and human pressure the poet brings to it.
Read, Write & Share
Read several community poems before settling on an impression of what a terzanelle should sound like. Compare how different poets handle recurring language, linked sound, emotional development, and the final convergence. When a poem holds your attention, leave a thoughtful comment about a specific turn, image, rhyme, or changed meaning you noticed.
Then try the form yourself. Choose language worth hearing again, let each return encounter a changed context, and revise until the pattern serves the poem's inner movement. Publishing your own work on PoetrySoup adds another interpretation for future readers to consider, discuss, and learn from.
Collection Statistics
This collection contains 286 poems, offering many opportunities to compare how writers approach recurrence, linked sound, tonal change, and closure. Some poets may follow the established conventions closely, while others may adapt or challenge them in pursuit of a particular voice or effect. Reading across the collection can therefore reveal both the form's continuing identity and the range of artistic decisions possible within it.
Terzanelle Categories
Definition | What is Terzanelle in Poetry?
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.