W3 Prompt #196: Wea’ve Written Weekly

Posted on January 28, 2026 by ben Alexander

To join in the poetry fun, click on the date just above this line and follow the instructions. 🙂

My Double Tetractys: for W3 #196

Nobody Knows

Wink.
Current
flows through me.
My heart races.
I lick my lips; sign for our rendezvous.
We make sport of it, so nobody knows.
But you’re with me;
our bodies
humming.
Hi.

Kaci Rigney, Copyright 2026

W3 Prompt #196: Wea’ve Written Weekly

Intro

Dear friends,

Welcome to our W³ Poetry Prompt, which goes live on Wednesdays at The Skeptic’s Kaddish.

You may click here for a fuller explanation of W³; but here’s the ‘tldr’ version:

Part I

The main ingredient of W³ is a weekly poem written by a Poet of the Week (PoW), which participants read before participating in the prompt.

Part II

The second ingredient is a writing guideline (or two) provided by the PoW. Guidelines may include, but are not limited to: word counts, poetic forms, inclusion of specific words, and use of particular poetic devices.

Part III

After five days, when the prompt closes, the PoW shall select one participant’s poem as the W³ prompt for the following week, and its author becomes the next PoW.

Simple enough, right?

Okie dokie ~ Let’s do this thing!

I. The prompt poem:

‘iMBEDDED’, a memento poem by Svenja

AT TiMES, A MEMORY'LL SURFACE
SPARKED TO LiFE WiTHOUT HASTE
AWAiTS
MY HEARTRATE SPiKES, STARTS A RACE
TRiGGERS MY LOViNG TASTE
CREATES

EVEN LOST iN THE COURSE OF TiME
iMBEDDED iN MY SOUL
A CLUE
MY ANCHOR, GiVES ME TRUTH AND RHYME
YOUR LOViNG MADE ME WHOLE
ANEW

II. Svenja’s prompt: Double Tetractys

This week, write a Double Tetractys — a 10-line poem with a fixed syllable pattern.

Theme: something spicy or a little naughty. Keep it suggestive rather than explicit. Let tension, humor, and implication do the work.

What is a Double Tetractys?

A Double Tetractys is made of two Tetractys poems joined together:

• The first five lines build up
• The next five lines mirror them in reverse

Syllable pattern (per line):

1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 10 / 10 / 4 / 3 / 2 / 1

That’s it. Ten lines. Exact syllable counts.

Where does it come from?

The Tetractys was invented by Ray Stebbing. It’s based on the ancient idea (attributed to Euclid) that the sequence 1, 2, 3, 4 is symbolically powerful because it adds up to 10.