Tricube
Quick answer: The tricube is a poem of three stanzas, three lines each, three syllables per line. Learn the rules of this cube-shaped form and how to write a sharp one.
Three, cubed. The tricube is a small poem built entirely on that arithmetic: three stanzas, each of three lines, each line exactly three syllables. Twenty-seven syllables in all, which is three to the third power, hence the name. There is no rhyme requirement, no meter, no rule about subject. The whole discipline is the grid, and the grid is unforgiving: nine tiny lines with nowhere to hide a weak word.
The form is modern and credited to the American poet Phillip Larrea, whose collection Our Patch popularised it in the early 2010s. It belongs to the same family of counted miniatures as the nonet and the etheree, forms that flourish in online journals and workshop groups rather than academic anthologies. Poets use it as a compression drill, a palate cleanser between long projects, and, at its best, a real poem with the density of an epigram.
The rules
Everything is threes. Nine lines arranged as three tercets, every line carrying exactly three syllables, with a stanza break after lines three and six. Rhyme is neither required nor forbidden; most tricubes skip it because three-syllable lines make rhyme feel like a nursery jingle. Titles are allowed. Punctuation is the poet's choice, though many tricubes run clean and unpunctuated, letting the stanza breaks do the work of full stops.
The three-stanza architecture invites a three-part logic, and the strongest tricubes use it: setup, development, turn. Think of the stanzas as three panels of a tiny triptych.
Writing inside the cube
Three syllables is roughly one strong image-word plus a small helper, so build your vocabulary list first: jot fifteen three-syllable phrases about your subject, such as 'cold coffee', 'door half shut', 'you don't call'. Drafting from a stock of legal phrases beats mutilating longer sentences. Give each stanza one job. A workable pattern is thing, memory, verdict; another is morning, noon, night. The final line of the poem behaves like the last line of a joke or a haiku, so reserve a phrase with snap. Read the draft aloud: with lines this short, stress placement is loud, and 'umbrella' with its middle stress sounds different in the mouth than 'wet pavement'.
Best uses, and how it goes wrong
The tricube suits domestic snapshots, wry observations, breakup arithmetic, weather, and any subject that benefits from understatement, because the form physically prevents rambling. It is also an excellent revision tool: summarising a bloated longer poem as a tricube shows you what it was actually about. Beginners ruin it two ways. First, syllable-stuffing, cramming awkward truncations like 'crimson sky burns bright' logic into three counts until the poem reads like a telegram from a robot. Second, ignoring the stanza breaks, writing one nine-line sentence with two random gaps. Let each tercet close a thought. Small as it is, a polished tricube shows judges deliberate structure, one of the five criteria scored in Writory's monthly contest.
What poets can take from this
- Collect fifteen three-syllable phrases about your subject before drafting.
- Give each stanza its own completed thought or image.
- Treat the ninth line as the punchline and write it first if stuck.
- Avoid rhyme unless you want a deliberate nursery effect.
- Read aloud to check stresses; three-syllable lines expose clunky rhythm.
- If a word will not fit, replace the image rather than abbreviating the word.
Try it yourself
Write a tricube about an object you have owned for more than ten years. Stanza one: the object now. Stanza two: the day it arrived. Stanza three: what it knows about you that no person does.
Questions
What is a tricube poem?
A tricube is a syllabic poem of three stanzas, each containing three lines of exactly three syllables, for 27 syllables overall. The form is credited to American poet Phillip Larrea and requires no rhyme or meter.
Does a tricube need a title or rhyme?
Titles are allowed and often useful, since the poem itself has so little room for context. Rhyme is optional and usually avoided, because rhyming three-syllable lines tends to sound like a jingle.
What subjects work best in a tricube?
Small, concrete subjects: an object, a gesture, a weather change, a moment between two people. The 27-syllable budget suits observation and understatement far better than argument or narrative.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working poets. Updated July 2026.
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