Bad Villanelle – Oh Well!
— Sadie Bailey —
What I’m writing now is not
the Great Poem, no Masterpiece –
it’s really not so hot.
Doesn’t matter that I’m on the spot,
or if I want to win the Nobel Prize;
what I’m writing now, will not.
Poetry and prose and all that rot
about the golden fields and fluffy clouds –
it’s really not so hot.
It’s no big deal if my poem is “rot” –
or if poems are antidotes for fleas;
What I’m writing now, is not.
Noble thoughts, or even a good plot
would help this writing get a whole new lease –
it’s really not so hot.
Although my poem could suggest a lot –
Though it could have profound and lofty thought-
What I’m writing now does not.
It’s really not so hot.
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Very clever, Sadie! The form is so hard but you’ve make it look easy as well as funny. Golly. Reminds me of Billy Collins’ sonnet:
https://www.poetryarchive.org/poem/sonnet
Cool, Sadie!
I am a fan of Francois Villon, the guy who invented the poetic form you’ve used. He lived and wrote in the early 1400s.
Many years ago, sitting at a New York coffee-house table, I listened while an acquaintance, a real live professional poet, composed a very funny triolet, which is another of those antique poetic forms.
I’ll recite it to you, some day.
thanks, Jackie! Steve, I look forward to hearing you recite that triolet!