2023.3 Anything Goes

Taking my own prompt from Allographic, this turned up this morning:

I’ve defied the promise of my youth;
I feel the loss, but cannot spur myself.
And is it wisdom now to tell the truth?
I’ve redefined the promise of my youth.
To act ungrateful now might seem uncouth,
but I don’t mind the dust on this warm shelf.
They deified the promise of my youth;
I feel the loss, but cannot spurn myself.

Image source: Today's Parent article Why being gifted isn’t always a gift

[Image description: Picture of a young, black child with long, reddish-brown, curly hair, standing against a yellow backdrop, holding up a book with Einstein’s face on the front so that his profile merges onto theirs. End image description.]

2022.17 Piping

This one I lay squarely at the feet of @PoetryOD, with her prompt of the picture below of @Sk8Liborius:

The nave is now a hymn of curves,
the altar tagged with loving lines.
This space has claimed what it deserves,
the nave is now a hymn of curves.
The belfry rings with rolling swerves,
and through the air Survival chimes.
The nave is now a hymn of curves,
the altar tagged with loving lines.

Sk8Liborious is a passion project preserving the oldest Neo Gothic Cathedral west of the Mississippi and transforming it in a community arts hub

There was going to be a whole thing where pigeons were mentioned, but that may need to wait for another poem. 😄 (I was also going to call it Labour of Love or Libor of Love, and then I remembered that, for some reason, I’m sticking with single word titles this year, so...) This form is one of my yearly traditions: a triolet, which is – you guessed it – available in the Concrete and Repeating Poems Spreadsheet.

2021.7 Torpor

I plan to go out for a ride
My weather app has sage advice
High winds may cause resolve to slide
I planned to go out for a ride
It turns out that it’s warm inside
“Backsliding” isn’t very nice!
I’d planned to go out for a ride
My weather app had sage advice

Nice and simple, this is from the Day 7 prompt – to write a triolet about today’s weather – for which I used the Repeating Forms tool, and then fiddled with tenses.

2020.11 Along for the Ride

Written at the @allographica virtual write-in this afternoon, using the @napowrimo prompt for today and the random line generator from the Language is a Virus site (words: suspect concede encode chomp store ride approve belong, of which I didn't manage all of them – in my defence, it’s a pretty short form!).

Our fate appears to be encoded
I suspect we will have to concede
Our store of tactics all out-moded
Our fate appears to be encoded
Approval rating all eroded
It won’t be long until we plead:
Our fate appears to be encoded
I, suspect, will have to concede

Image from Martin Lubeck’s website

2019.5 Flim-flam

We meet at lunch, and no-one’s pleased,
You call my question “good”.
If flattery, I’m not appeased.
We meet at lunch, and no-one’s pleased,
My work persona’s feeling squeezed,
Forgetting shouting’s not a “should”.
We meet at lunch, and no-one’s pleased,
You call my questions “good”.


One of my traditions for NaPoWriMo is to write a triolet. Here’s this month’s.

2018.17 Cycle of Development

I ask you what you want from me,
I try hard not to sigh
I lay out: Time/ Cost/ Quality?
I ask you what you want from me,
You say that it’s all up to me.
(I wonder if you’re high…)
I ask you what you want from me,
I try hard not to sigh.

2017.7 - The Black Spot

He said: “I’ve come to spoil your day”
I smiled: “No matter how you try”
But he spoke on, without delay
He said: “I’ve come to spoil your day”
But we strove on, his news to slay
Together damned the torrent dry.
He said: “I came to spoil your day”
Then smiled: “No matter how, you’ll try”


Today was annoying, and full of things I didn’t want to do (waiting by the phone, nagging people I like, persuading other people I like to do annoying things, explaining someone else’s fuck-up to powerful people), and short on the things I’d planned for the day (data analysis, meeting a friend for lunch to talk about creative websites, taking the next step on a really interesting new project at work). Nevertheless, I persisted.

So a true story triolet from me. Not quite the emergency haiku I assumed I’d need to do, but a short form and a tradition of mine during NaPoWriMo.

2016.16 Vale of Tears

So, my partner asked me to write her a poem about her (extreme) love of Benedict Cumberbatch and all his works. My other attempt headed off somewhere very dark and archetypal, so I haven't handed that over to her.  Here, instead, is a triolet (because I figured that the repetitive structure suited obsession well...).

I cup the face that sprang from dreaming,
Those cheekbones cold beneath my palm
Soft-bitten lip to stifle screaming
I cup the face that sprang from dreaming,
Those gelid eyes of green unseaming!
The best advice is to stay calm...
I cup the face that sprang from dreaming,
Those cheekbones cold beneath my palm.

2015.8 - Inconsolable

Along the path I stump and shuffle

Today I'm wearing new boots in
My whimper-breaths I strive to muffle
Along the path I: stump and shuffle
My pinking heels begin to ruffle
Tomorrow may be blistering
Along the path I stump! And! shuffle…
Today I'm wearing! New! Boots! In…!

#4 Smoke Without Fire

Pulses quicken, sirens whine and blare
The sky is close, a touch is all it takes
Breath seems precious, nothing I can share
Pulses quicken, sirens whine and blare
Gasp for the memory of freer air
Unfreighted by humanity’s mistakes
Pulses quicken, sirens whine and blare
The sky is close, a touch is all it takes



I'm back to work after a couple of days off sick. The polluted air is thick here, waiting for wind and rain...

Cross-posted to the Cambridgeshire NaPoWriMo blog.

#23 The Poet Cautiously Removes Her Jumper

Another challenge form - my first triolet, though something looks a little wrong - if there's a glitch, please let me know! :)

Summer's here at last
And the air sweats insects
Nothing moves too fast
Summer's here at last
All too soon it's past
But now it's nearly perfect.
Summer's here at last
And the air sweats insects