Hummus, or: Posthumous

My 1^st Zéjel

There's raw, deep sage honey for bread;
Freshly churned sweet butter to spread;
'Course, some prefer beet jam instead...

Some love their tart tidbits with tea;
Take doughy plot holes with coffee;
Relish fruit bars, nutty toffee...
     ~ It's stale, corny flavors I dread.

For clichés some pour out their purse;
Favor lines bland and much rehearsed;
On neat platters, spiritless verse;
     ~ Sate the stomach; not so the head.

Wond'ring, I combine odd flavors;
Might sour lim'ricks gain some favor?
Rich elegies, wrapped in laver?
     ~ S'okay... They'll be hot when I'm dead.

---

d’Verse prompt

Poetry Form: Zéjel

At d’Verse, we were prompted to write a Zéjel, which is a Spanish form with Arabic influence related to the Qasida and adopted by the Spanish troubadours of 15th century.   It may have appeared even earlier,  around the tenth century in Moorish Spain as part of a movement looking for freedom from the classical forms of the day. The zéjel tended to be a lighter form, like the English limerick.

The Zéjel is distinguished by linking rhyme established in the opening mudanza (strophe in which the theme is established in a mono-rhymed triplet). There have been many variations of the form, in Arabic a variation of the form is called the Zahal.

The elements of the simplest and most common form of the Zéjel are:

1. syllabic, most often written in 8 syllable lines.
2. stanzaic, opening with a mono-rhymed triplet followed by any number of quatrains.  
3. rhymed, the rhyme of the opening mudanza establishes a linking rhyme with the end line of the succeeding quatrains. Rhyme scheme, aaa bbba ccca etc.