Top of the month to you! Well, a bit of a slide towards the middle actually, but nonetheless March! This month I'm going to put your memory to work in learning how to write a structured poem.
I'm proud to say, that I am working with a few budding poets in terms of putting their glorious thoughts, and words into form. One form that seems to be very intriguing with many, is a French style called a Triolet. It happens to be one of my favorites, and it reminds me of a chorus of a song, since it has repeating verses. It's also quite simple to put together. Are you ready?! Lets do it.
The French Triolet form is made up of 8 verses, each having 8 syllables per line. Lines 1, is repeated in lines 4 and 7. Line 2 is repeated in line 8. So in essence you only write 5 verses. The topic can be whatever you wish.
I wrote a Triolet this morning that we can use as an example, entitled "He Gives"
1. Our memories, and happenstance.
2.
3.
4. Our memories, and happenstance.
5.
6.
7. Our memories, and happenstance.
8.
So here you can see I only wrote one verse, but was able to use it in 3 of the lines in the poem. Let's move on to the second verse.
1.
2. He looks at me, and takes a chance.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8. He looks at me, and takes a chance.
So there we used our second verse in 2 places. This verse normally rhymes with the first one, but doesn't necessarily have to.
Then comes our stand alone verse.
1.
2.
3. His heart to mine, my soul to his.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Now we will move to our coupled verses that ordinarily rhyme, but again, this is not a hard and fast rule.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5. When skies are gray, he paints them pink.
6. So better days, are here I think.
7.
8.
When writing a Triolet this is exactly the process I go through. Now let's put it all together.
"He Gives"
1. Our memories, and happenstance.
2. He looks at me, and takes a chance.
3. His heart to mine, my soul to his.
4. Our memories, and happenstance.
5. When skies are gray, he paints them pink.
6. So better days, are here I think.
7. Our memories, and happenstance.
8. He looks at me, and takes a chance.
I would LOVE if you would give this a try and send me your poems!
The best to you, and as always thank you for all of your eagerness, and support.
