"Form follows function follows form . . . , etc." <br /> <br /> --Dr. J. Anthony Wadlington <br /> <br />Here I am writing my first villanelle <br />At seventy-two, and feeling old and tired-- <br />"Hey, Pops, why dontcha give us the old death knell?"-- <br /> <br />And writing it what's more on the rim of hell <br />In blazing Arizona when all I desired <br />Was north and solitude and not a villanelle, <br /> <br />Working from memory and not remembering well <br />How many stanzas and in what order, wired <br />On Mexican coffee, seeing the death knell <br /> <br />Of sun's salvos upon these hills that yell <br />Bloody murder silently to the much admired <br />Dead-blue sky. One wonders if a villanelle <br /> <br />Can do the job. Granted, old men now must tell <br />Our young world how these bigots and these retired <br />Bankers of Arizona are ringing the death knell <br /> <br />For everyone, how ideologies compel <br />Children to violence. Artifice acquired <br />For its own sake is war. Frail villanelle, <br /> <br />Have you this power? And must Igo and sell <br />Myself? "Wow," they say, and "cool"--this hired <br />Old poetry guy with his spaced-out death knell. <br /> <br />Ah, far from home and God knows not much fired <br />By thoughts of when he thought he was inspired, <br />He writes by writing what he must. Death knell <br />Is what he's found in his first villanelle.<br /><br />Hayden Carruth<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/saturday-at-the-border/
