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Monday, March 23, 2009

Monday Poetry Stretch - Triolet

I want to try a strict verse form this week. I have never written a triolet, largely because the form scares the heck out of me, but I think it's about time I try. A triolet is an eight line poem with a tightly rhymed structure and repeated lines. Here is the form.
line 1 - A
line 2 - B
line 3 - A
line 4 - line 1 repeated
line 5 - A
line 6 - B
line 7 - line 1 repeated
line 8 - line 2 repeated
You can read an example and learn more about this form at Poets.org.

Here is a triolet I particularly like. It comes from the book Fly With Poetry: An ABC of Poetry, written and illustrated by Avis Harley.
Phosphorescence
by Avis Harley

Have you ever swum in a sea
alive with silver light
sprinkled from a galaxy?
Have you ever swum in a sea
littered with glitter graffiti
scribbled on liquid night?
Have you ever swum in a sea
alive with silver light?
Another terrific triolet can be found in Paul Janeczko's A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms. Written by Alice Schertle, the poem is entitled The Cow's Complaint.

So, there you have it. Your challenge is to write a triolet. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.

16 comments:

  1. Been working on this all morning and finally letting it go. AS Ciradi used to say, "A poem is never finished, it's abandoned."


    This is the morning after his death
    Though three years in the past.
    I watched him take his final breath,
    But this is the morning after his death.
    There is no height, nor underneath,
    There is no slow, there is no fast,
    Only this morning after his death,
    Though three years in the past.

    copyright 2009, Jane Yolen

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  2. Been a while since I've been by here, so I'm bringing a double helping! This one's serious Savanna Dust

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  3. Jane Yolen never ceases to amaze me. In just a few short lines, she's captured something we all feel when we lose a loved one.

    I've used her books in my classroom for grades K-8. Her writing for adults is just as emotionally packed. In in awe of her writing.

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  4. Little Triolet with Toilet

    Marcel Duchamp he had his fun
    Fur-rimmed cups for drinking tea
    The Fountain critics chose to shun
    Marcel Duchamp, he had his fun
    In time his eye/intellect had won
    But his Selavy art still startles me
    Marcel Duchamp he had his fun
    Fur-rimmed cups for drinking tea!

    (composed in comments in the spirit of spontaneous writing but with the demands of form--ah, excuses, excuses!)

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  5. Here's my attempt:

    ROCK CONCERT PREMIERE

    The guitar chords blast,
    the bass pounds in my chest.
    My glad heart beats fast.
    The guitar chords blast.
    I forget my past.
    I rock with the best.
    The guitar chords blast,
    the bass pounds in my chest.

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  6. I love triolets, though I hesitate to put wordplay up after Jane's poem of grief. Still, poetry takes us all directions, so I'll go with where it took me. And this isn't completely silly - there's something meaningful at the center of it, I hope. It's called "A Duo of Triolets" - (gosh, I'm not sure the formatting will hold on this - the lines look to me like they wrap where they shouldn't, in which case all the rhyme & repetition will be off. Well, I'll give it a try):

    A Duo of Triolets


    How does a poet look?
    The answer’s with his eyes
    or like a thief stealing souls. Just look
    at how the poet looks
    at life, as if he were a two-bit crook,
    casing the joint, cold as ice.
    How does a poet look?
    The answer’s always in the eyes.

    How does a poet smell?
    The answer’s either like a rose
    or well (which is adverbial,
    as in How does a poet smell?
    He smells well with his nose.) Smells well
    when, on the surface, nothing shows.
    As in A poet sometimes smells
    a question, when the answer is a rose.

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  7. My first try :

    Marriages are made in heavens above,
    ours could have been perfect too
    If you just knew to value my love.
    Marriages are made in heaven above,
    you held my heart like hands in glove
    each time my soul wanted to touch you.
    Marriages are made in heaven above,
    ours could have been perfect too..


    posted @ http://ofsomethingsomething.blogspot.com/2009/03/our-marriage-triolet.html

    I will be back with another one soon !! Hope its a better one ;)

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  8. Thanks Tricia, once again for the task. I find the specific guidelines very helpful. You can find my poetry stretch over at Neverending story. Chao Jacqueline.

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  9. Sorry I forgot to leave my link http://theweekthatwas.wordpress.com/2009/03/26/monday-poetry-stretch-triolet/

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  10. I'm late and I ran out of time, but here's what I came up with so far:

    How marvelous that birds sing,
    sprouts unfurl, grasses green.
    Buzzing bees announce Spring.
    How marvelous that birds sing.

    Bright blue morning, dappled wing.
    glint of sun, budding scene.
    How marvelous that birds sing.
    Sprouts unfurl, grasses green.

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  11. My First Try. A Small One. Hope you like it:

    Here am I
    Back to you
    Ready to fly
    Here am I
    Will give it a try
    To get to you
    Here am I
    Back to you!

    Thus Wrote Tan!

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  12. I use to be serious about poetry but lost the love for it a long time ago. I use to write these triolet poems but as my love for poetry went out the window so did those poems. However, I am getting that love back and have been working on these poems again. On another note I love these blog you should allow people to subscribe to it and also to follow you.

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  13. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  14. Just discovered your site! Here's my attempt at a triolet:

    The words we use and think are true
    Are often simply what we’ve got,
    But they become the glue.
    The words we use and think are true,
    If listened to, reveal clues,
    Cling to the roots we’ve sought.
    The words we use and think are true
    Are often simply what we’ve got.

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  15. I discovered the triolet long before I read your blog, and I had written a couple to try and write in this form. My first time writing one, the content didn't seem to fit in this form and my second one came off with a forced rhyme D; I like the example triolet you used and it gave me a new perspective on the form... I feel like writing another triolet now. <3

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