Triolet Poetry Form

The Triolet is a medieval French form, thought to have originated in thirteenth-century France. Pronounced TREE-o-LAY, the Triolet is a single stanza of eight lines. It has a repetitive rhyme scheme of ABaAabAB – the capital letters represent lines that are repeated word-for-word. Thus, the first, fourth, and seventh lines are the same, and the second and last line are the same.

In the 17th century it was used as a vehicle for propaganda and character assassination during French civil uprisings. In the late 17th century and early 18th century they began to appear in English. In the 18th and 19th centuries, it began appearing in Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, and many other European languages. Still in all, the Triolet was never a commonplace poem, although it does seem to be growing in popularity in the 21st century.

Schematic:

A – first line
B – second line
a – rhymes with 1st line
A – same as 1st line
a – rhymes with 1st line
b – rhymes with 2nd line
A – same as 1st line
B – same as 2nd line


At first glance it seems like a really easy form. After all, technically you only have to write five out of eight lines, but it’s a little tricky getting those lines to make sense.


TRUTH
I look into your eyes
and you show me the truth
but can this be wise?
I look into your eyes
and search for the lies
though you’ve given me proof.
I look into your eyes
and you show me the truth.


LOVE
A love must be pure to live for forever
such as the one between you and I,
a love incorrupt that nothing can sever
a love must be pure to live for forever,
a goal to be sought, life’s greatest endeavor
a challenge to pass, the gods to defy.
A love must be pure to live for forever
such as the one between you and I.

HO OH NO!

Is it just me, or was it really weird having the holiday coincide with the weekend. It’s like, okay, yesterday was Christmas so today it’s just back to normal.

I don’t know about you, but I had a pretty eventful one thanks to the weather. Friday I was up early, as usual, to do my grocery shopping, and it was raining. Late morning the wind started picking up and the temperature began to drop. And the rain started to turn to snow.

The schools had been closed in anticipation of the storm. I have to admit, I thought the school board was jumping the gun considering we were supposed to get a big storm last week and it came to nothing. But the schools were closed, so we had the granddaughter for a while in the afternoon. By the time I took her home, a couple of hours later, we were having white out conditions. The wind was absolutely fierce.

I had one more gift to buy so I thought I’d get it on my way home, but the stores in the strip mall I went to were all dark. At the time I figured everyone closed up early because of the severity of the storm, but I later learned it was because they had no power.

The storm only got worse. We didn’t get all that much snow, but the wind was gusting at over 100 KPH, blowing it around causing white-outs. Most of the town (and surrounding area) was without power. We fortunate that we were in a very narrow, two-block wide corridor that still retained their power.

My elderly father-in-law was unfortunately in one of the sections without power. We weren’t able to get in touch with him Friday night, so Saturday morning I drove over to his house and informed him he was coming home with me. It was 50 F in his house.

The roads weren’t bad on the drive over, but the visibility was. And I was shocked at the number of trees that had been toppled over by the wind. Fir trees. Apparently, the ground was still soft from all the rain we had, and combined with their naturally shallow root system, it didn’t take much to blow them down.

For a while we were worried about our own power because just up the street from us a fir tree had blown over and was resting on some power lines. But to my surprise it wasn’t long before a Hydro truck showed up to cut it free. I gotta say, kudos to Hydro One – those guys went above and beyond. They were real Christmas Angels.

Late evening on Christmas Eve, the hubby took his father back home to pick up some necessities for spending the night, and they discovered the power had been restored. We would have been happy to have him stay the night with us anyway, but he preferred to sleep in his own bed.

The wind continued throughout the night, nicely scouring our driveway clear of snow. We had our traditional Christmas brunch at the daughter’s house, and this time it included a fun game that came with our Christmas crackers. We took turns picking a card, and you had two different choices of what to draw. One of my choices was “goose” and after it was correctly identified, the granddaughter decided to embellish my picture.

Knowing her mother has an aversion to Canadian geese, she added teeth and a Canadian flag to the goose, and the figure of her mother, screaming in fear. LOL

The temperature rose a little, although it was still pretty cold, and the wind began to die down a bit. Christmas dinner was at our house, and I made both a turkey and a ham. Everything went well until . . . I got a phone call after the hubby took his father home. He used my car (as it was bigger) and it died in the father-in-law’s driveway.

This does not bode well for Second Christmas in Hamilton on Thursday.

A Visit From the Computer Tech

I’d almost forgotten about this parody, which I wrote twelve years ago. Despite technology changing and growing over the years, I think it’s still apropos today. Merry Christmas, everyone!


A Visit From the Computer Tech

’Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, just the optical mouse;
The cords were all strung to the PC with care
In hopes the technician soon would be there.
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of interwebs danced in their heads;
The wife couldn’t take any more of this crap
So she went to bed while I took a nap.
When there on the screen there arose such a clatter
I sprang from the chair to see what was the matter.
Away to the keyboard I flew like a flash,
Grabbed up the mouse and gave it a bash.
The monitor gleamed with a brilliant blue glow
Seeming to mock me as I loudly moaned, “No!”
And what to my wondering eyes should appear
But a security warning that made my eyes tear.
With an attack on my drivers, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment my computer was sick.
More rapid than eagles the popups they came,
And I whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
“Now Trojan, now Wormy, now BankerFox vixen!
A technician’s coming, my computer he’s fixin’
By installing protection, a router, a wall!
And then he’ll delete you, delete one and all!”
And then, in a twinkling, as I thought to despair,
A van entered my driveway and parked with a flair.
I opened the door with a feeling profound,
And into the house came the tech with a bound.
He was dressed all in blue from his head to his toe
And his jacket was covered with a sprinkling of snow.
A box full of tools was grasped in his hand
And he looked like an angel, come down to land.
His eyes, they were bloodshot, his face was unshaven
From his pocket he pulled a business card graven.
He was balding and old, and he started to sneeze,
Then, spotting the cat said, “I’ve got allergies.”
The stump of a cigar he held tight in his teeth
And he caught his hat on the door, in the wreath.
A squint of his eye and a shake of his head
Soon gave me to know the bill I would dread.
He spoke not a word, but went straight to work,
And in a few moments pulled the plug with a jerk.
“The mother board’s fried,” he said, shaking his head.
“And the rest of your hard drive looks like it’s dead.”
Then he packed up the tower and picked up his tools
“Gotta watch these old ‘puters, they’re stubborn as mules.”
He walked to his van, my computer in hand
I had to admit, this did not go as planned.
And I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, no more surfing to-night.”

One Week To Go!

One week to go before Christmas is here. Are you ready? I’m sure not. I haven’t done any baking yet, and only two people on my list received hand crafted ornaments. On the plus side, my shopping is almost done, but I still have five presents to get.

So I don’t know about you, but I need some serious Christmas videos to get me in the Christmas spirit.











Have Merry Christmas everyone!

Jay's Way Poetry Form

You know, I really wish I could uncover more about Chazz Combs. So far I’ve found a Chazz Combs on Instagram who’s retired from the USAF and enjoys family, cars, guns, knives, and watches, a link to the Poets Collective (where I first stumbled across his forms), and a link back to my own blog for last week’s poetry post, presumably because I used his name in the title of my post.

Jay’s Way is the final form I’ve found that was invented by the elusive Mr. Combs. This is a twelve line verse, once again with a really funky syllable count and a more or less normal rhyme scheme.

The syllable count is: 3-7-11-9-5-3-3-5-9-11-7-3
The rhyme scheme is: a-b-b-c-c-d-d-e-e-f-f-a
And here’s the schematic:
xxa
xxxxxxb
xxxxxxxxxxb
xxxxxxxxc
xxxxc
xxd
xxd
xxxxe
xxxxxxxxe
xxxxxxxxxxf
xxxxxxf
xxa

Other than the syllable count and rhyme scheme, there wasn’t any other information available about this form. I’m assuming that it’s supposed to be centered, like the others, so that’s what I’m going to do in my example.


Circle

an old soul
realizing it was time
to let go of its tether to earthly clime
began the separation of mass
carefully, like glass,
like a web,
life at ebb,
each gossamer strand
removed as though by a sleight of hand
into the eternity beckoning,
an afterlife reckoning
circle whole

Two Week Warning

Can you believe Christmas is going to be here in just two weeks? How the heck did that happen? I have so much to do it’s not even funny.

Anyway, it dawned on me that I’ve dropped the ball (or Christmas ornament). Normally this is when I start flooding you with Christmas videos and I haven’t even posted one! So, guess what you’ll be getting here for the next two weeks. LOL

But first, I thought I’d share how big the kittens are getting.

This is them when we first got them:

And this is them now:

And I might point out that’s a laundry basket they’re stretched out in now. These guys are getting huge! And man can they eat. I think I’m spending almost as much on kitten food as I am on people food. And I really have to start stock piling. A week ago the pet food store was out of their brand of wet kitten food, so I tried a different brand and Dinsdale was NOT a happy camper. This one was all chicken and the other was pork and chicken. Khaos, however, did not care. She happily ate his share as well as her own. :-)

On to the Christmas videos. To start, I thought I’d share funny ones to give the Christmas spirit a lift.

Chazz Effect Poetry Form

This week’s form is another one invented by Chazz Combs. You might remember him from a form I did at the beginning of November, The Bev-A-Lyn Rhyme.

At first glance I thought, “Oh, this looks like a fun form.” But then I noticed that it has a rhyme scheme as well. *sigh*

There are only nine lines to this poem, but to write it you might want to work backwards because the last line, consisting of a one syllable word, has to be included somewhere in each of the other lines. The syllable count is: 14,10,9,7,5,3,2,2,1 and the rhyme scheme is: a,a,b,b,c,c,d,d,e

Here’s the schematic with the syllable count and rhyme scheme:

xxxxxxxxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxxxa
xxxxxxxxb
xxxxxxb
xxxxc
xxc
xd
xd
e

And, like the Bev-A-Lyn Ryme, this poem should be centered on the page. My best advice if you want to try this form? Chose your end word wisely – believe me, this poem is harder than it looks. :-D


The Wise Men

One star high in the sky, led the wisemen on their long quest
no one to tell them that this was their test
of their belief in the one true god
one by one they went abroad
to find one manger
one stranger
one queue
one to
one