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Throughout April (National Poetry Month), I'll be posting poetry-themed Wednesday Writing Workouts.

Today's form is a triolet, which contains eight lines. Two of the lines repeat (one of them twice), so a poem includes only five different lines. Some variation is allowed within the repeating lines.

Because of the repetition, it's a good form to use when you want to remind readers of  a certain point or make a strong impression. The form looks like this:

A
B
a
A
a
b
A
B

Self-Referential Encouragement

A tricky form, the triolet,

relies on two lines that repeat,

reinforcing what they say.

A tricky form, the triolet—

keep trying, and you’ll find a way

to manage this poetic feat.

A tricky form, the triolet

relies on two lines that repeat.

This week's Poetry Stretch at The Miss Rumphius Effect was to write a triolet. The pattern of repetition reminded me of riding a swing, swooping one direction, then retracing your path.
 

Swing Song

Over the rooftops I go swinging
‘til I know no up or down.
Silent as geese, moonward winging,
over the rooftops I go swinging—
body sailing, heartbeat singing.
Waving goodbye—or hello?—to my town,
over the rooftops I go swinging
‘til I know no up or down.
 

Julie Larios has this week's Poetry Friday round-up at The Drift Record!

There has been much in the UK news about Prozac and other anti-depressants over the last couple of days. This is because of a recently released study from the University of Hull, which suggests that some of these drugs might not be as effective as we have been previously led to believe. With over 31 million prescriptions being given out for these drugs in England alone, this is a grave statement indeed. In light of this study, this morning I’m bringing you an extract from our book Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile by Daniel Nettle, which sheds a little light on the history of Prozac and other “happy pills”.

(more…)

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I’ve written another poem, again all about ME. Here it is:

I used to sit upon my shelf
Quiet and alone
Preferring to keep to myself
I used to sit upon my shelf
It wasn’t so good for my health
To sit and moan and groan
I used to sit upon my shelf
Quiet and alone


This one is a triolet, which is a French poetry form. You might have spotted the pattern. In a triolet the first line is repeated on lines four and seven, and the second line is repeated in line eight. Lines three and four rhyme with line one, and line six rhymes with line two.

Have you written a poem lately? If not, why not write a triolet? There’s a wonderful article with a better explanation and some more examples here.

Are we providing our children with too much entertainment? It seems parents spend much of their weekdays and all of their weekends entertaining their kids. Most kids today are accustomed to their parents or friends’ parents providing them with constant entertainment. What has happened? Some of my fondest memories of summer are the sweet smells of my child coming in from the intense summer heat, after an afternoon of football with is friends. When he walked in you could smell that faint scent of copper boys have after playing, and see the combination of dirt, sweat, and mud in his hair. I can still hear the clang of our back door shut when he strolled in complaining of an empty hungry belly. Children need time alone to make believe, since its practice for becoming an adult. When we provide them with constant entertainment, we’re robbing them of the time needed to take advantage of that opportunity.

So have your child entertain themselves this summer, and you will allow them to dream and imagine living and dealing with different situations.

If we are constantly engaging them in ways outside of themselves to be entertained, it seems they will never look to themselves for their own answers and definitions of happiness as well as entertainment. We all are responsible for how we feel, even children, so it seems like we should be teaching our kids how to make themselves happy as opposed to providing them with instant gratification, and easy entertainment. By easy I mean passive types of entertainment, for instance videos games, television and other quick fixes that don’t provide children with much of a challenge. That’s not to say those things should be outlawed, however, they don’t require the child learn a skill like playing the guitar, reading, writing, and many different types of sports where you have to put in an effort to participate.

In addition if children are given enough chores to do, and other responsibilities to take care of they’re more likely to be grateful for the free time just to play. Its not clear when it happened but it seems our society is so much more child oriented today than it was when I was growing up, or when I reared my own son. I didn’t grow up in the dark ages, (lol) and my son is only 21 years old, so it seems much has changed in a fairly short period of time. For example, it never occurred to my brothers and I to complain of unhappiness or boredom, since my mother would have promptly found an antidote for our affliction. My mother instructed us at the beginning of every summer on her summer rules, and the first rule was we would go outside to play.

One time she went down the street to have coffee with a friend, and we had every neighborhood kid over to our house. Then she came home earlier than expected, before we could shuffle our many friends out our back door. Consequently, they hid behind various pieces furniture in our living room. When she walked in the door she came in and called out every child by their name from their hiding places. For example she said, “Steven, get out from the behind the chair,” and “ Michael you can remove yourself from behind the drapes.” My brothers and I were shocked, and wondered where she got this miraculous talent, the ability to know who was there and their hiding place! Of course there were many days when we just went to a neighbors house and watched T.V. , and didn’t benefit from her rule (sorry Mom) She used this summer rule to teach us how to value the outdoors and use our imaginations, in addition to providing her with the bonus of a quiet house, if only for awhile.

I don’t know what happened to the Norman Rockwell summers when families and their children stayed at home and entertained themselves all summer, however I do know that the best thing you can teach your child is how to live without you, and that begins with knowing how to make themselves happy.

Thus, don’t parents have enough to worry about without worrying about what their middle schoolers have planned for the week-end, or what the Jones kids did the week-end before?

Isn’t boredom good in many ways? When my son was growing up, we were on a tight budget and today I ‘m grateful for that experience.

Since I had to carefully plan our activities it made what we were able to accomplish more amazing, than if the opportunity had presented itself any differently. Most of this worlds’ great things were born out of adversity, hardship, and boredom, since these situations help us learn how to dream, imagine and believe.

So this summer make a list of rules, and buy your kids a book to read when it’s raining, then realize they are capable of entertaining themselves, no matter what age or background.

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‘Philosophers have an infuriating habit of analysing questions rather than answering them’, writes Terry Eagleton, who, in The Meaning of Life asks the most important question any of us ever ask, and attempts to answer it. Terry Eagleton is a Professor of English at the University of Manchester and a Fellow of the British Academy. Below is an excerpt from The Meaning of Life, in which Eagleton talks about happiness.

After reading this excerpt let us know in the comments if you feel that your personal happiness comes from virtue, or from selfish pursuits? How is happiness a driving force in your life? (more…)

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