I am currently reading what is subtitled, ‘an essential guide to the study of poetry.’ It is The Poetry Toolkit ( 2nd Edition) by Rhian Williams and it is stirring the pot. I have been writing poems for a very long time now and once upon a time I co-moderated of an online poetic community and was a participating member of a good few others. I wrote a ton of stuff.
I have dropped a few poems here but not many. I am now in a process of re-wiring the poet within. Editing old pieces and re-acquainting myself with the forms that worked best for me. Expect a few more poems to
“come dropping slow, dropping from the veils of the morning……”
Excerpt from W.B.Yeats stunning poem, The Lake Isle of Innisfree
Today I present to you The villanelle ( from the Italian villano, or peasant) which is a nineteen-line poem with two repeating rhymes and two refrains. The form is made up of five tercets followed by a quatrain. The first and third lines of the opening tercet are repeated alternately in the last lines of the succeeding stanzas; then in the final stanza, the refrain serves as the poem’s two concluding lines.
Why not begin with a real challenge huh?
Perhaps it may help us to meditate here
when all is too much anguish and sorrowing
Are we learning to be with this rawness now?
Unconsciously we can all just disappear
despite what we feel as so much harrowing
Perhaps it may help us to meditate here
a war and a terror our congregate fear
when the stripping of soul is a marrowing
Are we learning to be with this rawness now?
overwhelming the normal, blocking our ears
are we finding this hard to be swallowing?
Perhaps it may help us to meditate here
We gather today while our destiny sneers
as we ponder the road we are following
Are we learning to be with this rawness now?
questioning all things and what we hold so dear
the biting winged torsalo inc-u-bat-ing
Perhaps it may help us to meditate here
Are we learning to be with this rawness now?
Enjoy the Villanelle. How about the Sestina?
So moving and beautifully done! Bravo!
Wow! Such a difficult form of verse to compose in, and you have knocked it out of the park! I am incredibly impressed. I also love the double-exposure at the top: there is a mood to it that goes well with the poem below. Thank you so much for sharing.