Phillip Larrea is an American poet and syndicated columnist. He invented a poetic form he calls TriCubes. Tricubes are poems composed of three stanzas, each containing three lines of three syllables. This was the form my poetry sisters and I took on as this month's challenge.
This year, we have no theme to hang our poems on, so we are free to write on any topic. I began by drafting poems related to the lunar new year. Then I turned to the snow, my dog, and baking. The biggest hurdle in writing these poems was making them sound and feel poetic. Three-syllable lines are a challenge. I liked what some of the drafts were trying to do, but they felt choppy and unfinished. I finally turned to writing a series of three-syllable lines on related topics and tried to rearrange them into coherent poems. That approach didn't really work. In the end, I found the first poems I wrote to be the best of the bunch.
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Tricube for the Year of the Horse
New year dawns
doors open
luck enters
kin gather
to honor
ancestors
lanterns rise
wishes fly
like horses
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Poems ©Tricia Stohr-Hunt, 2026. All rights reserved.
- Tanita Davis
- Mary Lee Hahn
- Sara Lewis Holmes
- Laura Purdie Salas
- Liz Garton Scanlon
I hope you'll take some time to check out all the wonderful poetic things being shared and collected today by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm. Happy poetry Friday!
Wishes fly like horses. The absurdity and hope in that phrase captures so well the process of hoping/wishing/flinging ourselves into the new year. And your carvings! They delight the eye. Truly. There is joy in every part of your art.
ReplyDeleteThank you for these New Year wishes (love "lanterns rise/wishes fly/ like horse") and these gorgeous block horse illustrations, Tricia!
ReplyDeleteThese are brilliant, the way you have managed to write this for with such rhythm. I particularly like the Block Printing Tricube. The ending "image blooms" feels earned, though I think you've accomplished that in all of them.
ReplyDeleteHow fun to see how you played with a form in so many ways! This post is a class in itself!
ReplyDeleteI am SUCH a fan of your block printing! I really love these horses - I've been trying my hand at painting realistic birds, but these horses are SO fun looking - all that expression and motion. You can practically hear the hooves thundering as the luck - and the horses - fly. Love these!
ReplyDeleteWoohoo! Blogger actually let you comment today! Thank you for your kind words. I'm really enjoying the whole process of printing and have had fun trying to create the perfect horse.
DeleteTricia. I've just been sitting here feeling so sad about so much, and these were exactly the poems I needed. The galloping. The horses, flying. The luck. Thank you, friend. xo
ReplyDeleteThank you for the New Year wishes, Tricia. I'm especially drawn to the last one that describes your block printing so rhythmically. Love your horses galloping along so joyously!
ReplyDeleteHappy sigh. All three of these lift my heart. I just wrote how perfect it was that Tanita wrote about singing, Liz wrote a love letter to the earth, Sara found good luck in fallen trees, and now you wrote about block printing! LOVE it! This stanza especially will buoy me:
ReplyDelete"hooves thunder
hearts gallop
luck runs wild"
Let's GO, fire horses!!
I love all of these, Tricia! These lines:
ReplyDelete"wishes fly/like horses"
"hearts gallop/luck runs wild"
"breathe and lift/image blooms"
give me hope. ❤️❤️
I enjoyed all three, but especially the last stanza of Tricube for the Lunar New Year. Let "hooves thunder/hearts gallop/luck runs wild."
ReplyDeleteTricia, I love these. The last line of the last one--"Image blooms"-- ends on such a positive, hopeful note. And the art is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteMay your luck run wild, Tricia. These tricubes all play so beautifully together, like horses in a field - I love how even two horses will always be standing close, even in a large field. And the carvings! Magnificent! xo for the week - and galloping year - ahead. a.
ReplyDeleteLove these tricubes! And yes to Arthur Sze. I am reading INTO THE HUSH right now.
ReplyDelete