Tritina Time

Hello Poetry Lovers

I think it’s time to tackle the Tritina poem.

Not being able to stomach its big sister, the Sestina (six stanzas!), I find the Tritina friendlier. Only half the workload in three stanzas, it’s much more fun.

And it goes like this ;

1, 2, 3 – first stanza (of three lines)

3, 1, 2 – second stanza

2, 3, 1 – third stanza

Then the final line has words 1, 2 and 3.

Look, here’s one I prepared earlier.

My Mother’s Hairdresser 1966

My mother’s hairdresser’s face was flushed

Hair lacquer, ammonia and the full up ashtray

Had turned her very young features so pink

The huge brutal rollers in greying hair were pink

The sheer tightness making women’s faces flushed

Their lipsticked fag ends burnt in the ashtray

Tight-lipped women always sat near to the ashtray

And their disillusioned features would turn pink

Under the hairdryers, rollered housewives flushed

The flushed hairdresser would stand over the ashtray with her pink hands.

HM 2026

I only have lovely memories of going to the hairdressers with my Mum (I got a Bunty comic!) and not the grim picture I have painted here. However, it seemed fitting for this Tritina.