a poem in my pocket

across this frozen prairie, winter blows
strong blizzard gale bullwhips up fallen snow
we shiver, polar-cold, wind’s frightful roar
and add thick logs to embers burning low

such fierceness could freeze creature to the core
if wait exposed;  come, safe inside closed door
we offer mugs to drink in warming flow
and reminisce of summer sun-swept shores

Rubaiyat: The ruba’i is a classical Persian quatrain or double couplet of 4 lines and having rhyme scheme either AABA or AAAA. A collection of more than one quatrain is called a rubaiyat.

Edward Fitzgerald popularized the form in English. He chose iambic pentameter, generally 10-syllable lines with alternating accents, for the meter and used the AABA rhyme scheme. Having the unrhymed third line allows the poet to use that sound from the first quatrain as the main rhyming sound in the next quatrain, connecting the stanzas.

My thanks to Frank at dVerse Poets for this information on the rubaiyat form!