Try a Trimeric! Happy Poetry Friday!

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Howdy, Campers!  

We've just completed our VCFA series, which began with Jodi Paloni's entry, "The Point of Point of View."  After Jodi's post,  Cynthia Newberry Martin shared a technique for letting the characters tell you what happens next in your story in her piece, "Decide vs. Discover."  Sion Dayson gave us another method for moving forward called, “What Happens Next? Inch Forward in the Dark.”  Then, Lynn Miller-Lachmann showed us the VCFA way to critique a fellow writer’s manuscript in "Critiquing Others: The Constructive Critique." And we ended the series with guest blogger Pam Watts's post, "Finding the Heart in Your Story"

Thanks to the VCFA writers who shared their writer's journey with us!

Now, journey along with us as we celebrate Poetry Friday ~

Thank you, Carol, of Carol's Corner, for hosting Poetry Friday this week!

Okay, I have a confession to make: I.  Am having.  A love affair.  I'm so excited about this new love in my life, in fact, that I want to share a poem I wrote about it:

I'M HAVING A LOVE AFFAIR

by April Halprin Wayland

You're the only one I'm telling:

I'm having a love affair.  

My husband knows.

I don't sneak around whispering that name.

I've having a love affair!

My new love makes everything so simple,

helps me see the world in a new light.

My husband knows.

He phoned and heard my hypnotized voice.

He came home unexpectedly and saw triplets dribbling drown my chin.

I don't sneak around whispering that name—

I sing it, I shout it:

Trimeric! Trimeric! Trimeric!

2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

Yes, I'm in love with a form of poetry that appears to have been invented relatively recently called the trimeric. The inventor, Dr. Charles Stone, says it rhymes with limerick.  (I prefer to call it a try-mer-ic, which sounds lovelier.)  Here is the definition on his trimeric page: 

"Trimeric \tri-(meh)-rik\ n: a four stanza poem in which the first stanza has four lines and the last three stanzas have three lines each, with the first line of each repeating the respective line of the first stanza.  The sequence of lines, then, is abcd, b – -, c – -, d – -."

In searching for more information (there isn't much), I found one poet who rhymes the last two lines of each stanza, but this isn't part of the official definition.

Here are more trimerics I played around with this week:

TIRED

by April Halprin Wayland

She said, “No, I'm too tired.”

“Let's explore the word

tired,” he said

then the tortoise lumbered in the door and they laughed.

“Let's explore the word

for creature who looks

like a dinosaur but lives in our house.  He's obviously not

tired,” he said,

though if you look closely, 

the tortoise did have dark rings under his eyes.

Then the tortoise lumbered in the door 

and she reached for his hand.

“I like your wrinkles better than his,” she said, and they laughed.

2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

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AT THE DOG PARK

by April Halprin Wayland

Walk the perimeter, the trainer says.  

You're the leader, the one to watch.

Eli will look up every now and then

to find you.

You're the leader, the one to watch,

he's the guy in the field, taking notes,

doing the research, collecting the data.

Eli will look up every now and then,

give you the secret wink

and you'll know the coast is clear, the deal will go down.

To find you,

he'll launch his implanted dog paw device

and you will reach nonchalantly for your cell phone.

2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

Eli, getting ready to go incognito to the dog park

************************************

FIRST A MOUND OF SOIL

by April Halprin Wayland

First, a mound of soil burst open—then, 

a stem poked through.

The next day,

it blossomed in the sun.

A stem poked through—

but it wasn't a stem.

What then? A finger.

The next day,

more fingers, an arm, 

a body bathed in dirt.

It blossomed in the sun:

green eyes, asparagus-fern hair,

a boy of greens and ground.

2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

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SIT-STAY-DOWN

by April Halprin Wayland

She used to be nicer to me.

Something's happened.

Now her voice is stern; 

she frowns at me for little things.

Something's happened.

It used to be all about scratching my rump,

or giving me that big bone stuffed with peanut butter.

Now her voice is stern

and she'll only give me that big bone

when I've done all that sit-stay-down-roll over stuff.

She frowns at me for little things.

I wonder if pulling all the stuffing out of the couch 

had anything to do with it?

2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

My favorite part of Thanksgiving is the stuffing...why should Eli be any different?

WRITING WORKOUT: TRY A TRIMERIC!

I love the surprise package of a trimeric--at least the way I write them. It appears as if the poem is about one thing, but if I can turn it the right way, then--surprise!--it's about something else.

So write one or two or twelve.  It's simple...and it's not.  But it's certainly addictive.  And please share yours with us--I'm really interested in seeing what you come up with!

And remember to write with a sense of play.  I mean, why else are we doing this? 

P.S: I wanted to do a few drawings to break up this post.  But each drawing takes a long time, so I took photos instead.  Saving my energies to work on my book.  Just thought I'd share that.  We all need to prioritize, right?

poems and photos (c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved