LesleyScoble.com

The Poet of the Week for the W3 Poetry Prompt #221 is Selma Martin. Her prompt was to write a triolet, so I wrote two: Dreaming of the Sea and A Summer Melody. Click below to read the full prompt guidelines.

Selma’s prompt: Let’s write a summer triolet

Summer is hot, sticky, noisy, melty—and perfect for a poem that keeps coming back around.

This week, let’s write a triolet: a playful eight-line poem built from repetition and rhyme.

[Read more about the form here]

The rhyme scheme is ABaAabAB.

The first line repeats as lines four and seven, and the second line returns as the final line. Only two end-rhymes are used throughout, so the poem loops back on itself like a summer thought you cannot quite shake.

Choose one of these summer moments:

• An ice cream cone melting faster than you can eat it
  My ice cream cone begins to melt
• The shock of jumping into a freezing swimming pool
  I leapt into the icy pool
• A mosquito staging a one-insect concert beside your ear
  A tiny buzz beside my ear
• The joy of biting into a cold slice of watermelon
  The sweetest slice of summer fruit

Or choose any summer theme you like: sunburn, sand in your shoes, a stubborn fan, a sudden storm, a lazy afternoon, or the glorious discovery of air-conditioning.

Stay in the shade, keep something cold nearby, and happy writing!

I thoroughly enjoyed writing to this prompt. Although my first instinct was to write a diatribe about the excessive summer heat we’re currently enduring, the poems had other ideas. They quietly turned themselves into two little summer songs, which I hope you’ll enjoy.

Dreaming of the Sea

The summer day’s too long and hot
I yearn to be beside the sea
I sweat, and seek a shady spot…
The summer day’s too long and hot

I gasp with thirst and drink a lot
And lounge beneath an old oak tree
The summer day’s too long and hot
I yearn to be beside the sea


—Lesley Scoble, July 2026

---

Summer Melody

Audio —Summer Melody 🎶

A guitar strums a melody—
Get a little sand between your toes
Play on the beach—swim in the sea
A guitar strums a melody

The tune stirs an old memory
Of childhood days and seaside shows
A guitar strums a melody
Get a little sand between your toes


—Lesley Scoble, July 2026

---

NOTES

I wrote Dreaming of the Sea first because I’m always dreaming of the sea, especially when it’s as unbearably hot as it is at present.

A Summer Melody is inspired by a favourite old song, “Get a Little Sand Between Your Toes,” written by Tony Macaulay for the 1977 series of Seaside Special. My brother was a dancer with The New Edition on the programme and sang on the record. I’ve always loved that joyful, carefree, summery song, and writing this triolet brought those happy memories back.

You can listen to the old recording on YouTube.

Acknowledgements

Thank you, Selma, for an inspiring prompt — I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge.
Thank you, as always, David, W3 weekly poetry prompt, and for your steady poetic enthusiasm and encouragement.
Credit to Tony Macaulay for the line ‘Get a Little Sand Between your Toes’.
And finally, thank you, dear reader, for being here. 🙏

W3 Prompt #221: Wea’ve Written Weekly