I have followed this variation which was to rhyme the bridge with the last two lines of stanza 1, which would follow a rhyme scheme of aabbcc c d,d,e,e,f,f.

The Puente, a poem for created by James Rasmusson, and is somewhat similar to the Diamante. Like the Diamante, you start with one aspect of a topic or issue and then, line by line, work toward another aspect. In the center is a line that bridges the two aspects together.

The Puente is also tenuously similar to the Zeugma (affectionously called a Ziggy) which, on the Shadow Poetry web site is defined as: A figure of speech in which a single word is used in the same grammatical and semantic relationship with two or more other words, usually a verb or adjective.

I considered the name 'bridge', and then with help from my bilingual step-daughter Mira Conklin, decided to use the Spanish word for bridge which is a puente. Introducing a poetic form that uses the Spanish word for 'bridge' is also timely since we're trying to come up with a 'bridge' to and from Mexico that is both compassionate and rational.

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