During NaPoWriMo, I’m learning a lot about different types of poems I’d never heard of before and today is no exception. I was asked to write a triolet – an eight line poem with a very specific structure: Line 1 is repeated in lines 4 and 7; lines 3 and 5 rhyme with (but do not repeat) line1; line 2 is repeated in line 8; line 6 rhymes with line 2.

Yet again, I’ve chosen to write a poem about trying to write a poem (metapoetry) – it’s not great, but at least it obeys the rules; and now I’ve written my first triolet, I can try to write another, better one on a different occasion.

Triolet

I tried so hard to write a poem

But inspiration ran away,

Reminding of another time

I tried so hard to write a rhyme –

And is it really such a crime

To want to write a poem today?

I tried so hard to write a rhyme

But inspiration ran away.