Friday, May 14, 2010

First try at a villanelle

This is my first attempt at a villanelle. I'm not sure what I think of it.

VILLANELLE
by Hank Kalet

Her mind untroubled by a lack of clarity,
memory decayed, sputtering in a buzz like
radio static that damns a song to obscurity.

She'd leave the house, wander alone in the city
on streets unknown to her brittle, fragmented psyche,
her mind untroubled by a lack of clarity,

echoed noise, nothing approaching lucidity,
a fog of vague images and sound and such, like
radio static that damns the song to obscurity.

muffled tones, a dress she recalls as so pretty
she refused to take it off, thoughts jumbled in time,
her mind untroubled by a lack of clarity,

dense calls to long-dead lovers; I have to pity
the emptiness and cold white noise in her eyes, like
radio static that damns a song to obscurity.

Film reel sputters, flickers, snaps, gets spliced, turns gritty,
frame by frame, leaning into the stuttering light,
her mind troubled by a lack of clarity,
radio static that damns her song to obscurity.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Do not go gentle into that lack of clarity....

With Charlie, we get to see the noise and distortions acted out routinely. It's a good poem.