A beautiful villanelle I found today by Michael Flynn Ragland.
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But she had told me even stranger things.
I shook my head and gazed off down the shore,
the cirrus twilight filled with seagulls’ wings.
A hallway of insistent mutterings
still echoed with the four-inch heels she wore.
(And she had told me even stranger things.)
A beauty, dressed in black among the strings,
she played such passages as soon would score
our cirrus twilights filled with seagulls’ wings.
A man who once had brought her jewels and rings
had left her sprawled, her head gashed, on the floor.
Yet she had told me even stranger things.
Had I loved her? Another autumn brings
her ghost. In dreams she murmurs from the door.
In cirrus twilights filled with seagulls’ wings
her hand takes mine: “A lonely mermaid sings.”
She kisses me. “Hear, through the breakers’ roar?”
But she had told me even stranger things,
those cirrus twilights filled with seagulls’ wings.
– Michael Flynn Ragland
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Bio: As a kid in the Ozarks, I lived in an old, stone house atop a cliff; as a teenager, by a stage road along which had been fought the last major battle won by the Confederacy. After an aimless decade in college and graduate school, I lived on a barrier island. I’ve taught English in high schools and universities, worked as a photographer for an advertising firm, and kept the books at a medical clinic. Writing that appeals to me is introspective and steeped in atmosphere.
Lovely poem.
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Thanks for stopping by, Alarie.
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I almost always do stop by, and it’s my pleasure.
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The villanelle works so well for this ‘story’. Lovely.
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I thought so too, Gallivanta. I love it used for atmospheric poems. The repetition weaves a spell.
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very moody and beautiful
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Yes, The mood is wonderful here, I think. Thanks, Beth.
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Beautiful story. You make me want to know more
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I agree. I think that’s what a good poet does best, Dodie — let’s you finish the story the way you want to.
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I so totally agree. She says as 4 yr old grandson sits glued to a YouTube video. I must admit there is good and bad to everything. He is an only child. And by having YouTube “friends” he is outgoing, confident and intelligent beyond is age. You do have to be creative with time off of youtube. and make sure to always monitor.
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