The classroom assignment: Write a villanelle. So I did, and the professor liked it so much, she asked if she could use it in her instructional materials. I was honored. Here it is.
But language trips and falls and stumbles blind.
My words emerge and blink and lose their way.
To take this pen and slash the fog away,
To put on paper what is in my mind --
Inside my head I know what I must say.
A phrase can dance and spin, a child at play,
Or crash about, malformed and misaligned.
My words emerge and blink and lose their way.
My thoughts can soar like hawks at dawn's first ray,
They seek the sun and leave dull earth behind.
Inside my head I know what I must say.
I want to write these thoughts without delay,
But, God! The perfect words are hard to find.
My words emerge and blink and lose their way.
Some words can shine and shimmer bright as day,
Illuminate the dark for humankind.
Inside my head I know what I must say;
My words emerge and blink and lose their way.
copyright Susan Cameron, 1998
Well, these words didn't lose their way! They shine and shimmer. And they perfectly express the way I feel when I start to write something. In my mind the story is whole, waiting to emerge. But when I put pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard, the fog appears and the words I put down never seem quite right. Why is that? Answer me that, oh wise poet.
ReplyDeleteVillanelles are very challenging to write and this one is simply lovely, one of the best I've ever read. I think it is definitely publishable and you should send it out. Wonderful, wonderful work.
ReplyDeleteGod, I SOOOOO get this!!! I've felt it, experienced it, lived it more times than I can say.
ReplyDeleteDitto both Liz and Susan's comments. Really, really, really lovely writing. Your words dance and play in such a lovely way :)