Make that case for darkness.
—Cameron Scott
All day the sun is lavish with its gold—
it touches every surface that it finds,
but there is nothing darkness will not hold.
In morning, all the garden flowers unfold
and midday light encourages the vines—
all day the sun is lavish with its gold.
The jeweled snake emerges from the cold,
receives the sun to warm its cambered spine,
but there is nothing darkness will not hold.
Like sun, it holds the blooms, the vines, the bold,
it also holds the undersides, the hinds.
All day the sun is lavish with its gold,
still there’s so much it cannot touch. Its whole
domain is only surface deep. Confined.
But there is nothing darkness cannot hold—
all forms, all feelings, shadows, spaces, souls.
Dark knows no differences, it draws no lines.
All day the sun is lavish with its gold,
but there is nothing darkness will not hold.
*A NOTE ON TODAY’S FORM … AS EXPLAINED BY POETS.ORG
The highly structured villanelle is 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.
Oh wow this is beautiful. I loved the repetition of those two lines throughout the piece. The theme came through so strong – the sun singing sweet songs plating me in its gold, and when it leaves me for the days end, the darkness creeps in to hold me close!
Thanks for sharing this great creation,
-IV
Hey, thanks! It was fun to write, too … the title comes from a Rilke poem, “You Darkness,” a poem I love for the way it makes darkness into an entity that holds us close, as you say … thanks for your response!
I delighted in the two places where you crossed from one stanza to the next: 4th to 5th, then 5th to 6th. Correspondingly, darkness begins taking hold. (Thus, as suggested by Tuesday’s title, you make your case for darkness.) I feel an increase of power while reading this poem.
I see this in conversation with Frost’s, “Fire and Ice,” and Houseman’s, “Terrance, This Is Stupid Stuff.”
I feel an increase of power reading this poem hey, that is one of the best poetry comments I have ever had!
Hugs to you, eduardo r
From: “comment-reply@wordpress.com” Reply-To: Date: Thursday, March 12, 2015 at 4:32 PM To: Rosemerry Trommer Subject: [A Hundred Falling Veils] Comment: “I Have Faith in Nights”
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Wow, this is a complicated weaving to pull off so it speaks so fluently. Elizabeth Bishop would be proud of you. Hell, I’m proud of you too. You did choose some powerful lines for the repetition here, and like Ed says, the transitions are so seamless.
Thanks, David, it was the easiest villanelle I have done um, out of five or six in my life 🙂 but still this one had a little fuse of its own.
Hey, it feels nice that you are proud of me. Xo r
From: “comment-reply@wordpress.com” Reply-To: Date: Thursday, March 12, 2015 at 6:25 PM To: Rosemerry Trommer Subject: [A Hundred Falling Veils] Comment: “I Have Faith in Nights”
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I’ve been struggling with a villanelle for a week, a stumbling, slouching, slapstick kind of struggle. Yours just unfolds like a flower. It seems effortless or hides the effort it required. (sigh) Okay, back to my corner and come out fighting.
Aw, thank you Joyce! Hope you had success! Send it to me when you¹re done, I¹d love to read it! Xo r
From: “comment-reply@wordpress.com” Reply-To: Date: Friday, March 13, 2015 at 12:09 AM To: Rosemerry Trommer Subject: [A Hundred Falling Veils] Comment: “I Have Faith in Nights”
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