I’ve been participating in VerseLove over at Ethical ELA. Today, Fran Haley invited us to write a triolet. This is a form I find challenging because the repeated lines, while they should be easy, make it hard to create an original poem in which the flow doesn’t seemed forced.
I love nature and observing the intimacy of birds. Recently I witnessed a cardinal couple feeding. Such a sweet moment to see the male feeding the female. In case you are wondering, I intentionally changed the last line to play with metaphor.
Reflections on the Teche 
Margaret, the kissing of birds to share sunflower seeds is the sheer image of love and care. It’s what human married people could take a lesson from – the gentle other-before-self approach. And I love the question: asylum or adventure? What a thought – – it makes me pause and think.
Beautiful poem and photo, Margaret! I love to watch birds, too, especially cardinals.
Margaret, I love your poetic license in changing the last line. The sun passing between the two is lovely, a welcome change, and line 2 informs the metaphor at the end. I spent some time this morning wondering about my own birds and “where they travel from.”
This is so beautiful. Your words create a picture in my mind. I love that the birds are “kissing” and the alliteration in “asylum or adventure. Nice work!
Margaret, I thought of you when I chose this poem for VerseLove, knowing the cardinal connection…and oh, your birds are glorious, passing the sun from beak to beak. The line about Mama calling “Daddy’s home!” has completely undone me, knowing how you miss your father. Thank you for this jewel of a triolet and the light always shining out of your heart, which we all need. Speaking of which: Somewhere in the woods behind my house, cardinals have a nest. I see the pair at different times and the father is such a brilliant, fiery red that my heart always leaps at sight of him.
This poem is so lovely and light; it has such an ease to it. But there is also so much to continue thinking about here–“asylum or adventure” and the wonder of that final metaphor.