Villanelle of His Poem’s Penury

Villanelle of His Poem’s Penury
Incessant Flux

audio: Villanelle of His Poem’s Penury
audio of John Slater's poem, Villanelle of His Poem’s Penury

Re-Size Text: A A A A Comment

RSS blog print

Villanelle of His Poem’s Penury

                                 after Ernest Dowson

I was bored, figured, What the hell,
The page is looking rather bare,
And so I made a Villanelle.

I looked around my empty cell
And spun once in my swivel-chair.
I was bored, figured, What the hell,

While it may not work very well
The whim to write in meter’s rare,
And so I made a Villanelle.

You never know, it just might sell,
I’ll do it as a kind of dare.
I was bored, figured, What the hell,

There’s still five minutes ’til the bell
Summons us to evening prayer,
And so I made a Villanelle.

It’s no great work, as you can tell.
If you don’t like it, I don’t care.
I was bored, figured, What the hell,
And so I made a Villanelle.