I sit beside
a bookcase
laden with my life
The Charm of Birds
is the only gift from
my grandfather
I early read my
father’s G.B.S. complete
plays and prefaces
The camel teapot
contains half
my sister’s ashes
The group of geese is
my memento mori
to my mother
Books of hobbies
work and music
fill my shelves and brain…
© Andrew Wilson, 2024
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, merrildsmith in Meeting the Bar: Critique and Craft challenges us to write to the Triversen form.
*Three-line stanzas (Tercets). Each tercet is a sentence.
The tercets are grammatical, and they are broken by breaths,
the accents and rhythms of normal speech—two to four beats per line.
*Unrhymed
The ideal length is 18 lines or 6 stanzas, but even Williams did not always follow that rule.
Ideally, each line is two to four beats, or stressed syllable (not total syllables). Williams disliked iambic pentameter, but others have written Triversen poems with more beats.
Here are some additional points that are often mentioned.
*Alliteration—it contributes to the stress syllables
*Imagist
As Ain commented on my last poem, I seem to be going through a phase of poetry memoir…
Thank you for sharing this piece of your life with its mementoes and memories, Andrew. I like how you describe them ones that have a special connection to loved ones. I like the memento mori geese and how they look on your shelf.
What are the instruments at the bottom of the photo?
Thank you Merril – the instruments are ukulele – 2 Baritone and a tenor but all tuned to normal tuning…
Your shelves are not only interesting looking, they also make a triversen look easy, Andrew! I like the alliterative phrase ‘laden with my life’, which emphasises the experience and knowledge gathered in your bookcase. The camel teapot is very intriguing – why only half your sister’s ashes?
Thank you Kim – my sister asked for half her ashes to be spread at a favourite spot in Ireland, where she lived, and for half to be buried with my parents in Dorset, but which I have not got round to doing yet – I have become used to her residing there with me for now…
Lovely how you have so many lives all close to hand, and among your books that contain so many more lives.
Thanks, Jane – Major Barbara, Man and Superman, Pygmalion, John Bunyan, Matisse and Turner to name but a few – oh! and there’s another equally packed bookshelf with all the novels at the other end of the room…
A view with a room. Bookshelves tell so much!
“a bookcase
laden with my life” And other lives rest there. This was a lovely poem.
Thank you D. Like in your own poem, you display a flexible view of spaces “a view with a room…”
Your opening stanza sets the scene perfectly, Andrew. A great write!
Thanks, Carol – perhaps writers especially, need to have books to hand…
Hello Andrew, this is such a touching poem. I love your bookshelf with all your personal things.
Thanks Robbie – I am in a reflective mood at present and everything is turning to memoir…
cool! 🙂 ✌🏼🫶🏼
Thanks, Rob – glad you liked it…
Ah, shelves, the real, the life, the mind, clever indeed.
Thanks, Paul, despite the overcrowded appearance, there is a foundation in order underlying…
Thank you for sharing your space and your poetry, Andrew!
Love your book shelves, and your references to people in your life.
Thank you Sara – they remind me of how my dad refused to allow my mother to tidy his office because although she saw chaos, he knew where everything was…
I wonder what my bookcase would look like…
Don’t wonder – show us…