Partly as a fun exercise in distraction and wordplay, and partly as a way to regulate which of my feet strike the ground on the downbeat, I started chanting triplet words in my head as I ran. For some reason, I was drawn to berries and desserts. When I recite these while running often I get into a groove, repeating the same ones over and over again. But occasionally, I compose little poems or invent new berries or try to find triplets that aren’t dactyls but anapests.
Triple Berry Chant, the Classic
Strawberry
Blueberry
Raspberry
Raspberry
Blueberry
Strawberry
Triple Berry Chant, Variation
Strawberry
Blueberry
Raspberry
Strawberry
Raspberry
Blackberry
Blackberry
Gooseberry
Mulberry
Triple Berry Dessert
Strawberry
Blueberry
Blackberry
Chocolate
Butterscotch
Caramel
Apple Pie
Ice Cream Cake
Creme Brûlée
Turning Everything Into Triples
4 way stop
Split rail fence
Railroad bridge
2 oak trees
Garbage can
River road
2 Poems About My Run
i.
what a day
it’s so hot
lots of bikes
stopped to walk
sun beats down
not much wind
green abounds
afternoon
legs are sore
ii.
I run down
river road
to the falls
then the lake
beautiful
gorge below
blue and green
magical
mystery
water’s high
path is low
creek is clear
echo bridge
walk the hill
ugly tree
thick black pods
locust tree?
startled mom
round about
little beach
missed my turn
double back
lift the knees
wipe the sweat
water please!
a slight breeze
leafing trees
a lone duck
Sea Salt smells
Dairy Queen
rushing cars
iced out lake
mucky shore
on your left
zooming bike
More 3 Beat Words
don’t delay
never die
brash & bold
trust yourself
change your life
lasting love
turnip greens
picket fence
sunday best
monday worst
bewilder
bumble bee
climate change
shopping trip
just say please
crunchy grit
tortured task
don’t say yes
vision loss
under where?
apricot
addled brain
growing old
warming earth
ugly feet
yelling kids
Using 3 beats as a Way to Enter a Poem
When I began working on my Mississippi River Gorge Haibuns, I used 3 beat phrases to try and find the story within my observations about the tunnel of trees, the oak tree at the top, and the fences and barriers near the bottom. I only kept some of these phrases, but the process of writing in 3 syllable lines helped me find a way into two haibuns, 4 Barriers, and Too Far Below a Sprawling Oak.
(first draft, 3 beat chants)
beside the
boulders a
big oak tree
waits welcomes—
its perfect
oaky leaves
waving in
the slight breeze
of the wind
or a bike
biking by
much too fast
just below
the oak is
a tunnel
of green—trees
wildflowers
bushes weeds—
and brown—
dirt dead leaves
trunks reaching
for light and
the exit
the footpath
reaches too
down towards
the river
but only
ever trails
above mid
way between
road and gorge
And the bugs
and the damp
humid air
the cotton
fuzz floating
lining the path
softening
rough edges
the voices
traveling
from below
cars whooshing
from above
all hover
hemmed in by
too much green
and too many
barriers
in one spot
near the end
or the start
depending on
perspective
there are 2
fences—wrought
iron split
rail and 2
walls—wood, stone
together
they give the
illusion
of control
containment
the wild, tamed
managed, made
orderly
weeds trees shrubs
on one side
bikes people
the other
mostly this
works until
it doesn’t
all around
the gorge there’s
resistance
wrought iron
once bolted
in concrete
pops its bolts
when roots buckle
the path
whole trunks grow
through chainlink
becoming
part of the fence
vines wind around
fenceposts poke
in between
rails push out
stones leak soil
from walls spill
out on paths