This month's challenge was to write a metaphor poem using metaphor dice.
This year we are meeting once a month on Zoom to write together. It's a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon. This time around, Laura rolled metaphor dice for each of us. For me she rolled "the mind is a silent sideshow."
Before we met I decided I wanted to write a triolet. I like the form and find the repetition challenging. Once I had my metaphor, I generated rhyming words for show and then wrote the last two lines of the triolet. (I always begin at the end because I feel it makes the poem more cohesive.) Once I had the A line, I generated rhyming words for head. I usually begin with words off the top of my head, then I do a quick search at RhymeZone. When we were discussing process at the end of the session, Kelly shared the site Rhymer, which was new to me. It generated a really nice list of words, so I'll be trying it our for sure.
A triolet is an 8-line poem that uses only two rhymes used throughout. Additionally, the first line is repeated in the fourth and seventh lines, while the second line is repeated in the final line. Because of this, only five different poetic lines are written. The rhyme scheme for a triolet is ABaAabAB (where capital letters stand for repeated lines). Here's my triolet.
Hearing Voices
Voices inside your head
are a personal, silent sideshow
fill you with wonder and dread
the voices inside your head
demand to be coddled and fed
poke holes in the truth that you know
Damn voices inside your head
the mind is a silent sideshow
After I wrote this I tried a free verse poem, but it didn't really go anywhere. I couldn't get away from the idea of the unquiet mind and was reminded of a meme a friend shared on Twitter from the webcomic Are You Going to Sleep?
Sideshow Mind
dark grows
brain knows
no lows
sideshow overthrows
sleep
internal chatter
thoughts scatter
subject matter?
stomach flatter
paint splatter
cake batter
mad hatter
wake up!
Poems ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2021. All rights reserved.
