Up this month — triolets! Little French poems of eight lines — one of them repeating thrice so the reader feels awash in it — plus a rhyme scheme and an awareness of syllabics.
We’re also going with the theme HEAT because, well, summer.
Here goes:
I Put My Daughter on a Plane
She slipped through folds in time and space
(it is tomorrow there already!)
and dropped her maps, her plans misplaced –
who needs them in this state of grace
where who-you-were’s left not a trace?
Like summer sun, white-hot and steady,
she slipped through folds in time and space
and it’s tomorrow there already!
And here are my pal’s poems. You’ll love them!
Sara’s triolet
Tricia’s triolet
Laura’s triolet
Tanita’s triolet
Andi’s triolet
Kelly’s triolet
Rebecca’s triolet
And Tricia is the host of Poetry Friday, too, so you’ll find an embarrassment of riches over at her place.
Wow! The difference between these poems in one form is really cool. I hope you all come out with your anthology soon — You are doing that, right? You Poetry Sisters really should. You captured that feeling of watching something you love disappear right in front of your eyes. “and it’s tomorrow there already” is such a great last line.
Thank you, Linda! And… we HAVE talked about somehow collecting some of our efforts but I guess we’ve been daunted by the task since nothing’s underway. Maybe someday!
Wow! I too am impressed with how each of these poems is brilliantly different. Your poem brought back memories of the times my sons left home. I mostly remember being terrified and angst ridden as we said goodbye.
It’s always hard, even when it’s also thrilling, isn’t it?
Here’s to all of leaving behind the we-who-were and going off for some adventures.
Just look at that grin!
Yep! Here’s to that indeed!
A truly Liz poem for sure…filled with emotion and insight and making me want to slip through time and space myself. Lovely.
aww thanks, pal…
This one works perfectly with the form of the triolet–the folding and layering of lines and words, the way you can never get the map to fold back into its original form (just drop it and go), the way the who-you-were will never be the same after its loop around tomorrow.
I just read THE GREAT GOOD SUMMER, Liz–I can hardly think of characters who are more true-to-life, and I’m in awe of the way you handled God and space and inner voice and getting by as great and good as we can in life.
Heidi — I love that map reference you’re making! But also, wow… you’ve blown me away with your very kind reading of Great Good Summer. I am still very new to novel writing so it means a lot to me that you read it and that what I was trying to do worked for you. Really, I’m VERY grateful…
Liz, I read this and burst into tears. I think I’m already anticipating the goodbyes when Maddie returns to Cyprus at the end of August–even though she doesn’t even arrive here until Sunday evening. This poem pierced me at my core.
Oh, I hear you, mama… It’s never easy because we love them so…
Your mother’s-love and her gotta-go-find-ME both shine white-hot in your lines!
🙂 Thanks, Mary Lee….
Truly a lovely and poignant look at goodbye and I won’t forget the words “She slipped through folds in time and space.”
Lovely – I like the circularity in your poem that carries through in the lines that aren’t repeated too, and the magical moment you captured in,
“who needs them in this state of grace
where who-you-were’s left not a trace?”
Thanks!