About the poem: In the late ’70s, I invented a hybrid poetic form, a sonnet made of haiku stanzas in strict 5-7-5 syllabics, rhymed in terza rima. In order for the number of lines to be 14, the form closes with a couplet of 7-syllable lines. The last two stanzas then shape a tanka.

I had composed several love poems—all terza rima haiku sonnets—for my partner Kathy some time ago and wanted to write a more explicit one in the same form. And so came “Summer Nights,” slant rhymed (for example, "frenzy" / "clenching" / "inch we" or "side" / "slipped" / "sweet"), with precise fidelity to the 5-7-5 format. I hope you enjoy its unbridled celebration of eros and love.

The artist's space.

Vince Gotera

Murder Three, Summer 2016

Summer Nights

for KL
a terza rima haiku sonnet

You tossed your hair back
moonbow of brunette frenzy
bright orgasmic arc

tight finger-clenching
come that lightning-stormed sweat-slicked
each luscious inch we

slid in sync you touched
me then till ocean surging
filled me and we fucked

again and again
at last spent sprawled side by side
our eyes closed between

your splayed thighs then soft I slipped
to taste us lush silky sweet

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