Gentle Spring Breeze

Gentle spring breeze blows
Ushers away winter’s chill
Brings life-giving rain

Gentle spring breeze blows
Brand new leaves wave their hello
On bowing branches

Ushers away winter’s chill
Carries blossom’s scents
Across the meadow

Brings life-giving rain
That dances on water
Softens fallow ground

Scansion:
Troiku — haiku-like form invented in 2013 by Kristjaan Panneman of Carpe Diem Kaiku Kai (BlogSpot). It is a set of 4 haiku stanzas in which stanzas 2-4 are built off the first.

Line 1 of Stanza 1 becomes line 1 of stanza 2.
Line 2 of stanza 1 becomes line 1 of stanza 3.
Line 3 of stanza 1 becomes line 1 of stanza 4.

A troika is a Russian carriage drawn by three horses abreast. By analogy, the first stanza is the carriage, and the remaining three stanzas are the horses. It could also be laid out on the page with stanzas 2-4 to the right of stanza 1, and centered horizontally on the page.

NOTE: There is a poetic form called a Troika, but I have searched high and low on the Internet and cannot find a definition of the form. Reading samples is no help because there is so much variety that I cannot see a connection between them to tell what distinguishing feature(s) makes them a Troika. So until I learn more, I’ll just stick to writing Troiku.