The ruba’i is a poetic form of olden times,
Lines 1, 2 & 4 must rhyme,
Popular in Persia in the 11th Century,
Most famously by Omar Khayyam.
Choosing to twitter or to tweet,
Is a thoroughly modern conceit,
You tell your friends what you are doing,
In only 140 characters, complete.
The ruba’i was liberating –
Poets excused from conventions so grating.
Before, every single line had to rhyme,
Which proved very irritating.
Twittering is freedom of a sort,
Sharing knowledge of no import.
You follow what twitterers are up to,
Without giving it a second’s thought.
How about twitter and ruba’i combined?
Poetic trivia you might find.
Writing them with exactly 140 characters,
May prove to be quite a bind.
With ruba’i 140 characters long,
It is easy to get the numbers wrong.
A carriage return after every line,
Except, that is, for the last one.
The plural of ruba’i is rubaiyat.
You should also know that,
I wrote a series just for twitter,
They are as much use as the rest of the tat.
The 140 rubiyat I named my composition,
But twittering is not my decision.
Tweets will be made by my blogs,
Which does mean some repetition.
My twitter username is web2wit,
Though I doubt I will ever get into it.
Very much like my chosen label,
Twitter might be fun or just stupid.
No more 140 character ruba’i for a while;
A charming but difficult style.
Lyrical ditties with strict limits;
My goal is to provoke a smile.