Shacklee at Autumn Sky Daily
 

Ed is swinging from the rhymes in the Autumn Sky today.

Cheers,
Greg

Excellent villanelle, with great plays on homonyms.

Susan

Simply wonderful, as usual. Great way to start the day. :)

Siham

Much enjoyed!

Thanks, guys. I love the form, but have never quite figured how it ticks. Still, who knows? I may be a proper villain someday.

Best,

Ed

A fun villanelle, Ed! I love “plain/plane/explain.” It calls to mind a D&A competition a few years ago, which was to write a bouts-rimés on Keats’ “After dark vapors have oppress’d our plains.”

After dark vapors have oppress’d our plains
***For a long dreary season, comes a day
***Born of the gentle South, and clears away
From the sick heavens all unseemly stains.
The anxious month, relieved of its pains,
***Takes as a long-lost right the feel of May;
***The eyelids with the passing coolness play
Like rose leaves with the drip of Summer rains.
The calmest thoughts came round us; as of leaves
***Budding—fruit ripening in stillness—Autumn suns
Smiling at eve upon the quiet sheaves—
Sweet Sappho’s cheek—a smiling infant’s breath—
***The gradual sand that through an hour-glass runs—
A woodland rivulet—a Poet’s death.

Mr. Shacklee does not write a bad poem after his morning coffee. I am among his biggest fans. Thanks for this, Greg.

Jennifer