Why?

Are you form curious but closure skeptical?

Do you find the Duplex or a Pantoum exciting but the return to wholeness ever so slightly disappointing?

Recursive Tercets are the form for you.

Form Rules:

3 Tercets, 9-11 Syllables per line
First line of each tercet must include words from the last line of previous tercet, but meaning must degrade/contradict/transform
Final line needs to recycle words from the opening line & oppose the opening line

Example Recursive Tercet

Lover, get the fuck off Zoom. Let the clock run.

Get lit. Mushrooms in the park and lick

each other’s skin. I’ll read you Albee plays

and I’ll be your skin. I can read each

and every star. They are telling me: get

time wasted. Get jazz riffed. It’s about

the time you wasted, a bout of riffed jazz

won’t heal you but it feels real damn nice.

Lover, run. Zoom off. Fuck, we got clocked.

First published and formalized on www.jamesekenstedtpoetry.com (2025).