Monday, October 22, 2007

Cleaning Machines and Holes in Space with Powerful Gravitational Fields

From the book The Making of a Poem: A Norton Anthology of Poetic Forms because it's easier than writing the definition out myself:
A villanelle is a poem of nineteen lines. It has five stanzas, each of three lines, with a final one of four lines. The first line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the second and fourth stanzas. The third line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the third and fifth stanzas. These two refrain lines follow each other to become the second-to-last and last lines of the poem. The rhyme scheme is aba. The rhymes are repeated according to the refrains.
It has a lot of rules.
My goal for this was to follow the rules and end up with something somewhat comprehensible. I followed the rules, at least.
When I typed this out, I spelled 'vacuum' wrong every single time.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

I used to think a vacuum was like a black hole
that dumped the sucked up trash into eternity.
And then I thought that really, that vacuum had more than one role.

The machine does take a toll
that tired housekeeper, who, though tired, still whistles a cheerful ditty.
I used to think a vacuum was like a black hole.

And, come to think, vacuum lines might bring to mind a crop-lined knoll
And that knoll, tied to a wide open plain, makes the housekeeper a little less itty bitty.
And then I thought that really, that vacuum had more than one role.

But actually, black holes might be like vacuums, with one goal
that is, to suck up the stars while whistling with pity.
I used to think a vacuum was like a black hole.

Compare, an ingested and clattering pencil, that thin yellow pole
to a bright consumed star. How witty.
And then I thought that really, that vacuum had more than one role.

So please, place the vacuum and the black hole equally on that tall totem pole,
neither being a higher entity.
I used to think a vacuum was like a black hole.
And then I thought that really, that vacuum had more than one role.



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This is Sebastian. He likes to look at things upside down sometimes.

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