23 August 2021 – Three-Thirds and a Cube

And Now for Something Completely Different – Three-Thirds and a Cube!

Time for another challenge and an invitation to dip your quill into poetic ink. 

Today’s post features a relatively new poetry form – the Tricube Poem. This form can have a profound or serious meaning, but its main purpose is fun, fun, fun – and a bit of mental gymnastics to strengthen those.

The form is easy to describe, but not so simple to write. Instructions for writing a Tricube poem are near the bottom of this entry.

INVITATION – FIND YOUR CUBE – after you’ve read this post, please consider writing your own Tricube Poem. You have two options for sending it to us. The first is to post the poem as a comment below today’s post for all the Wannaska World to see. If you would rather keep it less public, we would still enjoy seeing the results of your effort; so, if you’re willing send it, fire away to catherineastenzel@gmail.com. 

Here are two examples of the Tricube. Both are mine. The first one I wrote at a poets’ retreat (see below). The second one I created last week. I hope you enjoy them, and that they will inspire you to write your own.

On Art

Sestina

and sonnet

with cherries

and whipped cream

as bonnets

not for me

Verses free

best for me

~ most the time

On Life

How is it

peculiar

to be born?

familiar

black humor

in a pit

yet can’t quit,

surrender

to the worm

Background

One of my favorite, real-live, met-her three times poet is Meredith Cook. She introduced us to the “Cube Poem” last July at the 35th annual “LOMP* Woodtick Poets’ Retreat” on Horseshoe Lake near Brainerd. This year twenty-one of us gathered in a lake home and “had at it” (poetry, that is). Meredith has published many poems and won awards for some. Her latest book of poems is Word Flight, a collection containing both traditional and experimental work.

Meredith had us write a Tricube in less than 15 minutes. See if you can match that!

How to Write a Tricube Poem

The prefix “tri” means three, of course. That’s the ridiculously simple basis for this type of poem. It’s rules are equally straightforward:

1. Each line contains three syllables. 

2. Each stanza contains three lines.

3. Each poem contains three stanzas.

Naturally, there our three levels of difficulty for the Tricube. 

Level 1: write 9 lines with three syllables each – no other “rules”– just three, three, three.

Level 2: level 1 + be sure the 9 lines of three syllables each have some sort of meaning 

                                   alone and together.

Level 3: level 1 + level 2 + add a rhyme scheme: ABC / BBA /ABC

Here’s another approach:

1. Think up a topic and brainstorm words, feelings, or experiences to describe it.

2. Write one to five sentences that describe the feeling or experience. Count the syllables in your sentences to see how close you are to having 27 syllables

3. Break what you’ve written into three parts. Delete or swap out words – a Thesaurus can help here.

Hope to see some Cubes from you!

*League of Minnesota Poets