Tetractys
The tetractys (singular and plural) is a 5-line syllabic form created by Ray Stebbing following the numerical sequence of the same name: 1, 2, 3, 4. The lines have 1/2/3/4/10 syllables, for a total of 20; the first line should use a meaningful word, not just “a”, “an”, “the” etc. One of many attempts to create a natively English-language equivalent to the haiku.
It's been hard for me to find the creator's explanation of the form in full. He had a website, once, probably, but there's no links. All I can find are sparse quotes. However, I think tetractys are meant to have titles.
Notes
I see the tetractys as being kind of a counterpoint to the Crapsey cinquain: a slow, tense start, then a moment of release followed by a rush to the end. Before I wrote any I was kinda worried this form put arithmetic before poesy, but it works out fine.
So far I've tended to take a loose approach to stresses in the shorter four lines, then switch to iambic or trochaic for the last, long line.
I also tend to do cut-up titles, re-arranging words from the poem into something often irrelevant. I don't always do this, and I didn't start doing it for any particular reason.
Poems
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2026-03-19
Through a Gauze—Debacle of ThoughtsBlood And gauze-- Orphan thoughts Retreating through A cavernous debacle of a mind.
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2026-01-07
The Snowdrift Hunting for the StormMoss For paws And snowdrift For cloak and mask— The storm pads round the rooftops hunting mice.
I happened on the phrase “a paw of moss” and used it to write this and a haiku from the same day.
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2025-12-10
Mind Your GapOld City Day by day By death refines The gulf between reality and dreams, Erecting new memento mori signs Beneath the beams Of last light: “Mind Your Gap.”
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2025-11-28
Hold Our Earth, Judging All LifeClouds Hold long, Judging all Our impure Earth— Then lurid rainstars plunge with lust for life.
Rewrite of a bit of prose I wrote shortly after waking up.
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2025-11-20
Art Burrows and Burns AllWhite Windchill Burrows deep Entwined the heart And burns down all the weakened autumn's art.
It's cold.
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2025-10-29
Our Old and Dead Night-Night SongDead And gone, Our last song, And night by night Old streetlight constellations burn away.
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2025-10-29
Death Milked the GhoulsDead cities burn, but in the world to come, Now milked of death, Newborn ghouls Babble Truth.
This was a bit different in its original version (“Pink newborn ghouls / Laugh and clutch / Babbling / Truth”). At first I wrote it as a second half to another tetractys the same day, but in the end I decided the tones didn't mesh well enough. Also, I wanted to somehow mention that the ghouls were “born without sin”, as in, free from Christian Original Sin, but I couldn't find a way to fit it in.
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2025-10-23
Naked Minds Untie Death From LifeDive Naked, Miles below The sunlit sea, Your death perception screams, but casually Your body parts untie themselves from you And sunless minds Collect them To make Life.
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2025-10-22
Beneath the Ash, the IceEnd The world In fire And with the ash Reconsecrate what's left beneath the ice.
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2025-10-17
Feel Up the Tangled Wicker ManAll Tangled Up in flames That feel like fame, The wicker man makes tchotchkes of his pain.
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2025-10-02
They Didn't Have Skylines Before the SkiesSkies Cut loose From skylines Bleed the rainbow Between the legs they didn't have before.
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2025-09-22
Beg For Maybe RotFlayed Branches Droop and beg For salvation, Condemned though they may be by naked rot.
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2025-09-18
Black-Windowed Concrete BeastDry Berries, Left behind By bug and beast Who travel light through low black-windowed streets And on into the unremembered deeps Where sweetness dies And concrete Headstones Sleep.
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2025-08-17
Black Bones Feed WhiteBones Return To the earth— Black nourished fields— In distant colonies who slave to feed Our gleaming whitewashed supermarket aisles Among whose fruits Labourers' Spirits Loom.
Right after writing another poem the same day about returning to the earth I was still thinking about the idea of “returning”, dissipating into the ecosystem, flowing further around the circle of life and the nutrient cycle and so on—but what if you couldn't go on, couldn't dissipate? What if the suffering and injustice done to you kept you whole across miles, across oceans, in the belly of the machine? Where do you go—from earth to fruit to ship to supermarket.
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2025-07-12
Private Judges, Dead AstroturfDead Judges Hand down death From private courts Of tennis astroturf all lined with crowns.
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2025-06-22
Long Bright Butterflies ArriveBright Breezes Roam and sing And play their games Long days before the butterflies arrive.
Eh…
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2025-06-04
Safe Pain Through The Attic WindowsPain Echoes Through the safe Old neighbourhood— The attic windows give a mirthless wink.
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2025-05-30
Empire's Gun, Hero's FunEmpire's eager headless poppies, heroes In foreign lands Run and gun— Wartime Fun.
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2025-05-25
The People's Fossil Estimates BhopalLeech Money Estimates The People's needs: Bhopal Cola holy fossil futures.
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2025-05-23
Dayglo Demons Behind the MeekMeek Dayglo Pentagrams On warehouse walls— Behind the backstreets, demons do no harm.
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2025-05-12
The Hammer Gives BirthWind's Hammer Approaches Hot and sweaty, And where it strikes the earth, the clay gives birth.
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2025-05-12
Coked-Up Chicken ManPlay Chicken With the earth, Coked-up cock hard; A Man would never use a parachute.
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2025-05-10
No Gods, All Service to Those In NeedNo Service Even for The gods themselves— Lets open all our tills to those in need.
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2025-05-07
Useless Internet TheorySo Eager To tell me All strange beauty, But all I asked was one dull question:— “How to rehome common caterpillar” Not exotic, Nor vivid, Just here, Now.
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2025-05-07
Us Comprehend UsFew Of us Comprehend How commonplace Our freakish hidden habits really are.
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2025-04-30
You Rise Above Dirt In Power, You DieYou Have no Power here, Down in the dirt, And dirt will rise above you when you die.
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2025-04-30
Worldtree RootgraspWait And hope, Imprisoned In the rootgrasp, Worldtree baubles glimmering above you.
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2025-04-30
We You Us YouWe Feel you Don't get us, But we'll get you— Wrap you in waxpaper in our chiller.
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2025-04-30
The Internet's No Help At AllI Found you On my shirt, Caterpillar— I hope I put you back on the right leaf, And not abandoned you in ignorance, In a verdant, Uncanny, Hopeless Place.
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2025-04-30
Knit/CookMost Every One a' these Sons a' bitches Couldn't knit or cook to save their child's life.
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2025-04-30
Imitation SunFire At dawn Blinds the sun To our weakness; Our childish imitations give it glee.
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2025-04-30
Frantic MachineTake Apart A machine, Frantic machine, While telling it how much you love it so.
Inspired by a lyric game I wrote a while back.
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2025-04-30
After Opportunity, TimeAnt's Langton Sees only, Time after time, An opportunity to turn away.