In January, I will explore the style of the Villanelle. This form of poetry has a lot of rules. I am normally a rule-breaker, so I take up the challenge of pirouetting across this restrictive dance floor with a degree of trepidation. Villanelle # 18 I will call It’s About Time.
My first love is poetry. I played with rhythms as a child as a favorite toy, writing line after line and verse upon verse down in a notebook my mama gave me. The words became undecipherable squiggly lines dancing across the page. I remember sitting on my Uncle Harvey’s porch, making up poems only I could read. I learned to write real letters after I started school. That’s when my adventure with poetry started. I found myself in a dance with a fickle dancer. As soon as I got the steps right, the beat changed, and the singer sang a different tune. COVID-19 and retirement have given me the gift of time to explore, study, and capture the essence of poetry, making all its different moved on the page.
The rules I followed writing Villanelle # 18
The rules for creating a Villanelle are simple and straight forward. This style of poetry must have 19 lines and five stanzas. The closing stanza has four lines. Also, line 1 gets repeated in lines 6, 12, and 18. Thus, line 3 gets repeated in lines 9, 15, and 19. There are so many rules and so little time.
It’s About Time
It’s about time God’s children hear some good news
Like sunshine streaming down on a cloudy day
And the chime of harmonious laughter in happiness ooze
I have the right to ponder happiness and pick and choose
The road I travel on I will make a golden pathway
It’s about time God’s children hear some good news
I could use a pair of fancy wing tipped walking shoes
To carry me past this threshold of dismay
And the chime of harmonious laughter in happiness ooze
I don’t want to hear rhetoric and dark points of view
I want to believe we’ll all make it out okay
It’s about time God’s children hear some good news
This world makes you feel weary and so abused
I want to come to a place beyond the grey
And the chime of harmonious laughter in happiness ooze
I’m just saying we’ve all paid our dues
Here on the Boneyard highway
It’s about time God’s children hear some good news
And the chime of harmonious laughter in happiness ooze
Who is Molly Shea?
Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh. To read more of her short stories and adventures, click here.
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