Tricubes: Poetic Forms
Two poetic forms in the same month! It’s been a while since we've done that. Though with today's form, it's a shame we aren't doing three.
Unlike interlocking rubaiyat, the tricube is a newer form and relatively unknown. Plus, it's fun and easy to learn. This mathematical poem was introduced by Phillip Larrea.
Here are the rules of tricubes:
- Each line contains three syllables.
- Each stanza contains three lines.
- Each poem contains three stanzas.
So we're talking cubes in mathematical terms (to the third power). No rules for rhymes, meter, etc. Just three, three, and three.
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Re-create Your Poetry!
Revision doesn’t have to be a chore–something that should be done after the excitement of composing the first draft. Rather, it’s an extension of the creation process!
In the 48-minute tutorial video Re-creating Poetry: How to Revise Poems, poets will be inspired with several ways to re-create their poems with the help of seven revision filters that they can turn to again and again.
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Here’s my attempt at a tricube:
resist
i avoid
dead end streets
like the plague
because i
don't enjoy
backtracking
but the plague
is a street
with no end
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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer’s Digest Writing Community and author of Solving the World’s Problems (Press 53). Follow him on Twitter @RobertLeeBrewer.
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