Today I tried to write another Tretina. It was a poetic form I was introduced to by Tom Daley. It's like a sestina, except shortened to ten lines instead of the daunting 39 lines. Three three-line stanzas using three ABC ending words in the order of:
ABC
CAB
BCA
With the last line using ABC at once.
I wrote my first tretina in Tom's workshop. It was called "Homecoming" and was later published in French Connections. One of the best things I've written, to be honest. Never shared it online, don't want to now, though I still read it now and again.
Nearly every year since, for NaPoWriMo, I've gotten the urge to write another tretina. You can see a link to most of them here. I'm not happy with most of them. Except for the one I wrote tonight.
In a Miles Davis documentary, he told a musician he worked with, "You know why I don't do ballads anymore? Because I love them." Meaning he loved them so much he didn't want to just repeat over and and over and ruin his enjoyment of them. I feel that way with the Tretina form.
You might not get the impression with the selection I linked to, but I like how the flow of repetition in a tretina has the potential to create a kind of prayer or mantra effect with each poem.
I've only been able to create that really effectively once, with my first attempt.
If I try to recreate it, I often try too hard, and it falters.
Still, I try every year, out of sentimentality.
What's something you keep trying to recreate.
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