Notebook Week Part 2

Hullo there. Another poem, because they're what I do when my brain doesn't work. Next post should be written the day it's posted, which mean probably far less thought will be put into it. Sorry about that.

This is a villanelle, which is, according to the illustrious Poets.org, "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. Using capitals for the refrains and lowercase letters for the rhymes, the form could be expressed as: A1 b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 / a b A2 / a b A1 A2."

Honestly, when I wrote this, I had the pattern for lines and repetitions sitting next to me so I wouldn't screw it up. I rather like it.

The Problem with Curiosity

Strange things wait beyond every door

The world's grown strange as it's grown old

No one knows everything anymore

More and more, people grew bold

Knowing there's always more tale to be told

Strange things wait beyond every door

Secrets of the universe unfold

But still more multiply uncontrolled

No one knows everything anymore.

Though we write facts down, and grab ahold

Knowledge odder yet lurks out in the cold

Strange things wait beyond every door

Where once men could know all that was told

Fact's kith and kin have run and unrolled

No one knows everything anymore

Our calm piece of mind was long ago sold

For knowledge, or gold that begets ever gold

Strange things wait beyond every door

No one know everything anymore.

Notebook Week Part 1

Here's a pantoum from my notebook, because I promised content, and goshdarnit, I'll deliver!  It's not one of my favorite things I've done, but it's a decent example of how my inner poet has been affected by Gaiman and goths.

A pantoum, according to Poets.org, is "a poem of any length, composed of four-line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the next stanza. The last line of a pantoum is often the same as the first."

Time

Bricked up doors and empty arches

Empty nights and empty bottles

Onward, onward, time it marches

Lovers least of all it coddles

Empty nights and empty bottles

Mark the time as it passes

Lovers least of all it coddles

Left in tears and broken glasses

Mark the time as it passes

For mem'ry of moments now long gone

Left in tears and broken glasses

Inexorably, time moves on

For mem'ry of moments now long gone

Try to better those passing now

Inexorably, time moves on

But only as empty as we allow

Try to better those passing now

Moments precious, moments swift

Only as empty as we allow

Treat them well or have nothing left

Moments precious, moments swift

Onward, onward, time it marches

Treat it well or have nothing left

But bricked up doors and empty arches