Sunday, December 18, 2011

 

Trying to Work It Out - Poetry in Villanelle Style

By Lesley A Daunt

About the Villanelle Style

Poets have used villanelles for a variety of subjects, but all good villanelles have two things in common. First, villanelles have strong opening tercets, with the first and third lines providing a two-barreled refrain.

Shadows around me are dancing about.
Sometimes it feels as if I am dying.
I am trying just to work it all out.

The sunlight is trying to peer through clouds.
With no avail it still keeps me crying.
Shadows around me are dancing about.

This life is painful when you live without
Love from the one for whom you are pining.
I am trying just to work it all out.

The shadows are filling my head with doubt;
Never again will I see the sun shining.
Shadows around me are dancing about.

"When will this be over?" I hear myself shout.
I can't seem to take all the lying.
I am trying just to work it all out.

Life becomes painful when you live without
Love from the one for whom you are pining.
Shadows around me are dancing about.
I am trying just to work it all out.

Being a songwriter my whole life, it never quite dawned on me that in essence I was a poet. My process of writing songs has always been an odd one. Most musicians/singers write their lyrics than put them to music. In my early days of being in a band, I was the one who wrote the music, while I would sing the poetry of my bandmate. When her poetry stopped coming, I was left to come up with the lyrics as well as the music.

For some reason, I never actually sat and wrote any type of words - I was convinced what I wrote would end up being stupid. So I would "wing" it - I would just sing words off the top of my head while I was playing. They became the songs. Sometimes I wouldn't even know what I was singing. Than something weird happened - people would start telling me how they related to my "lyrics" - lyrics that I had given not one ounce of thought, lyrics that I wasn't even sure made sense.

I no longer sing in a band due to health issues. Something I miss more than anything in the world. So, here I sit actually writing poetry. Here I sit realizing I have been a poet all along.

Lesley Daunt http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/1160437/lesley_daunt.html

Article Source: Trying to Work It Out - Poetry in Villanelle Style
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ORGINAL POETRY BY DONOVAN BALDWIN

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