So, I’ve written villanelles before. Am I growing dumb or just rusty? I don’t know, but I worked on this right up until the last minute and it’s still not “done” (whatever that is).
Anyway, our assignment: A villanelle (which, if you aren’t familiar, is a 19-line poem consisting of 5 tercets and a quatrain with two repeating lines and a set rhyme scheme so that the whole thing starts to feel, well, at best, dreamy.) I don’t think I achieved that this time around but it’s an exercise, right?
OH — and our theme was winter — we had to use a few agreed-upon words and the ones I fit in were “rime” and “gust.” Here goes:
No Sense
By Liz Garton Scanlon
No sense waiting for the snow to fall
(and if it does it sure won’t stick).
We’re too temperate for squalls
where windows ring and cold fronts stall,
where rime’s like lichen, white and thick.
No sense waiting for the snow to fall –
this is no Pole, no Montreal.
Our winter’s but a gusty trick,
we’re too temperate for squalls,
for inclement weather protocols.
Set down your firewood and pick –
no sense waiting for the snow to fall.
We’re no less sky-bound or in thrall,
but it’s sunshine here that makes us tick.
We’re too temperate for squalls,
dropping everything when nature calls,
shutters open, heartbeats quick.
Never waiting for the snow to fall –
we’re too temperate for squalls.
My friends have their villanelles here:
and Poetry Friday is at The Opposite of Indifference, here. Enjoy!
Enjoyed your “shutters open” villanelle, Liz! “Gusty trick” is a great description.
It’s getting chilly here and we’re hoping to have something like a squall… Soon, hopefully. Meantime, it feels to early to even hope for such things, but maybe just talking about it will help.
Well, we broke records this week with snow & cold, a 1st for October in Denver. I’m glad your ‘squall’ didn’t arrive from us! You would have needed the wood! I loved your weather commentary, especially “this is no Pole, no Montreal.” Exactly!
It seems no matter where we are, the weather holds us in thrall.
It’s strange to be reading about snow. We are not as temperate as you, but here in Vancouver Canada, although we occasionally see snow, it’s the never ending rain that marks the onset of Winter here.
I’m impressed by your villanelle. I went to read more about them and was even more impressed after that!
This will be my family’s first winter in the United Arab Emirates – I heard it can get pretty cool. While there is no snow like what you shared here, I shall read this poem for greater feels. 🙂
Wish I could say Chicago is “too temperate for squalls” alas we had a snowy day on Thursday from morning till night. I will take your, “dropping everything when nature calls,” gotta take it while it’s there. Nice play with your weather, thanks!
This is a spirited and wry take on a “not Montreal” winter….I love the humor and the sense of flinging wide your heart in this poem…. It’s dreamy in a lively kind of way…
I love your poem, Liz–but I’m so happy I live somewhere with snow. Even though it’s frightfully chilly here in MN today (5 degrees). I extra love:
where windows ring and cold fronts stall,
where rime’s like lichen, white and thick.
Rime ice is just my favorite!