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I tried a triolet

Was reminded of this when trying to say whatever it was I was trying to say last time I tried to say something. I know, I know ... it's cheating to re-punctuate but it's the best I could manage so far. Who'd have thought a form with only five distinct lines could prove so problematical!



I TRIED (a triolet)

The whole world set to fighting;
I tried to be the one who didn't.
Envy, rivalry, back-biting –
The whole world! Set to fighting
It – contenting, quieting
Myself – I found I was no different.
The whole world set to. Fighting,
I tried to be 'the one'. Who didn't? 
Carolyn Whitnall, August 2014



"What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." (James 4:1-3)

“And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you discussing on the way?’ But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, ‘If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.’” (Mark 9:33-35)

"Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:3-8)


[Thumbnail image cc from hellosputnik on Flickr]

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