Call for collaborators

An interlinking triple triolet

Indira Reddy
Jul 10, 2017 · 4 min read

Yes, you heard that right. Three triolets in one. But — here’s the cool part — you don’t have to write all three triolets, just one. You may be wondering, that sounds suspiciously easy. And you’d be right, but you’re also wrong, because we’re making it even easier. The way we’ve set this project up, you will end up writing just three lines, not five. Isn’t that simple?* Here’s how it works.

The triolet rhyme scheme is A-B-a-A-a-b-A-B. In our interplay, all three triolets follow the same rhyme scheme, and the fourth and fifth lines of each stanza are replaced with the refrain pair from another stanza. The scheme will be -

Triolet 1 — A1 B1 a A1 A3 B3 A1 B1

Triolet 2 — A2 B2 a A2 A1 B1 A2 B2

Triolet 3 — A3 B3 a A3 A2 B2 A3 B3

You could also borrow the refrains in the opposite order: A2 and B2 embedded in the first stanza, A3 and B3 in the second, A1 and B1 in the third. This creates quite a different effect, foreshadowing rather than reminiscing.

The poets submit their refrains first, one by one. You can actually continue the flow of the sentence across paragraphs and around refrain lines where poets switch, and you can have slight changes to the refrain lines. Once the refrains are done, then each poet submits their “a” line. And the poem is complete. So, each poet ends up writing just their primary refrain and one “a” line. Easy-peasy!

Example Collaboration

Here’s an example triple triolet from Tamyka, Dewi and Indira using the primary scheme and a re-working (a reflection, as we’re calling it) using the second scheme.

We have constrained the line length to nine syllables, but this is not required for your triolets. We were feeling a tad masochistic, that’s all!

How does it work?

Simply fill in the form below. We will group you into teams of three with a defined order of play. The list of groups will be published by Chalkboard.

The first poet will be the lead poet. From this point on, you can choose to do it in one of two ways.

Working solely from Medium

The lead poet will create a draft in Medium and add their refrain (A1B1). They will then publish it as unlisted and tag the other members of their team. The next two poets will, in turn, add their refrains (A2B2, A3B3) as comments to the post. Once all three refrains are done, the poets will add their link “a” lines in the same order. Edit as you see fit.

The lead poet must add the refrains and lines as they come in, to flesh out the full structure of each triolet stanza. Once the triolets are complete, the lead poet will submit the complete poem to Chalkboard. Please remember to remove the “unlisted” tag before sending it to us.

We suggest creating a new draft for the completed poem and sending that to Chalkboard. Medium takes only the original publishing date, and this will cause the poem to appear lower in the list of posts and your followers may find it difficult to find it.

Working from Google Docs

You will need to share your email for this option and you should mention in the sign-up form that you wish to utilise Google Docs. We will pair you with other poets who have selected the same. Tamyka has very kindly created a template for the project which can be accessed here.

As above, the lead poet starts off with their refrain (A1B1), followed by the second poet with A2B2 and finally the third poet with A3B3. The poets, then add their link “a” lines in the same order. Edit as you see fit. This is where Google Docs really helps with it’s editing and commenting tools. That’s what we did!

Once all the poets are happy with the poem, the lead poet must create and submit the draft to Chalkboard.

About the Triolet

The triolet is an eight line poem with two refrains (A, B) and a few other lines that rhyme (a, b), assembled like this:

A-B-a-A-a-b-A-B

Here is an example of the triolet form

Birds At Winter by Thomas Hardy

(A) Around the house the flakes fly faster,
(B) And all the berries now are gone
(a) From holly and cotoneaster
(A) Around the house. The flakes fly! — faster
(a) Shutting indoors the crumb-outcaster
(b) We used to see upon the lawn
(A) Around the house. The Flakes fly faster
(B) And all the berries now are gone!

To read more triolets, check out Poetry in Form’s Time Triolets from earlier this year or explore all of Medium’s stories tagged Triolet.

For more information on triolets, see here and here.

Submission guidelines

  1. Submit the completed triolet to Chalkboard.
  2. Include all authors in the subtitle of your story by tagging them.
  3. Tag your submission with “Triolet Interplay” All other tags are yours to use.
  4. Please use an image in your piece, because it makes our homepage look great. Ensure they are properly attributed. If you are not the image creator, include a link that shows licensing information.

* Confession: it might actually be a bit tricky to find lines that fit together well.

Chalkboard

The home of asynchronous collaboration. Write with us!

Indira Reddy

Written by

Endlessly fascinated by how 26 simple symbols can say so much…

Chalkboard

The home of asynchronous collaboration. Write with us!

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