week 79 ~ though not for lack of trying

though not for lack of trying
I have yet to find a chance
to unlock my door for spring
and winter’s still denying
it’s become a backward glance

though not for lack of trying
I still don’t know what to bring
or what’s needed for this dance
to unlock my door for spring
when will what I’m offering
be sufficient to advance

though not for lack of trying
each day finds me still waiting
patiently by the entrance
to unlock my door for spring
so tell me what is missing
my heart hangs in the balance
though not for lack of trying
to unlock my door for spring

Written by mairmusic

April 21, 2010 at 7:30 pm

Posted in April, villanelle

Tagged with door, poetry, spring, unlock

18 Responses

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tight verse…spring has sprung here and my door is wide open…i hope you find the key that will unlock that door for you. smiles.

brian

April 21, 2010 at 7:46 pm

Reply
- Thanks! all is good!
  
  mairmusic
  
  April 21, 2010 at 7:50 pm
  
  Reply
[…] https://mairmusic.wordpress.com/2010/04/21/week-79-though-not-for-lack-of-trying/ […]

Thursday Poets Rally Week 15 (April 22-28, 2010) « Jingle

April 21, 2010 at 8:14 pm

Reply
awesome,

spring sings near your door,
open it,
you will have it sooner than you think!
;)

Ji

April 21, 2010 at 8:26 pm

Reply
- thanks, Jingle!
  
  mairmusic
  
  April 21, 2010 at 8:45 pm
  
  Reply
Nice poem. Some nice variation on a Villanelle.

Arambler

April 21, 2010 at 8:33 pm

Reply
i like it! :) open your door and embrace spring :) for he awaits your presence :D

oinky

April 22, 2010 at 12:52 am

Reply
Time brings spring, Time solves it all so just take a deep breathe and let time take you there. I like the heading. “though not for lack of trying.”

Emmanuel Ibok

April 22, 2010 at 2:18 am

Reply
I can feel your hope for Spring.
Lovely verses.
Happy Thursday!
Mine is here
hugs
shakira

shakira

April 22, 2010 at 3:50 am

Reply
simply fantastic.
it will come when the right time comes.

trisha

April 22, 2010 at 2:04 pm

Reply
Lovely
Thanks for the visit and the invite over.
I love your willingness to discover and find a world in the blog sphere
I’m enjoying it as well

moondustwriter

April 22, 2010 at 2:37 pm

Reply
- Yes, a vital and interesting community!
  
  mairmusic
  
  April 22, 2010 at 2:50 pm
  
  Reply
Like how you construct this Villanelle.

though not for lack of trying
to unlock my door for spring

repetition creating a series of closed doors—the questioning element seems a great complement to balancing the image. Thanks. Enjoyed it.

dustus

April 22, 2010 at 3:57 pm

Reply
- Nice comment– it makes me see it through a new window (or door)!
  
  mairmusic
  
  April 22, 2010 at 4:16 pm
  
  Reply
very nicely done! Thanks for this!

BFG

April 22, 2010 at 5:08 pm

Reply
- Thanks for reading!
  
  mairmusic
  
  April 22, 2010 at 9:26 pm
  
  Reply
Love this. Beautiful choice for the form.

Jaymie

April 22, 2010 at 9:13 pm

Reply
- Thanks so much– I am still feeling my way around the villanelle.
  
  mairmusic
  
  April 22, 2010 at 9:22 pm
  
  Reply

Who am I?

A mandolinist, a bandolimist, a writer, a photographer, a wannabe Brasileira. Check my webpage for information on my music and my sometimes life in Rio.

What is this?

I made a plan, beginning on my birthday- October 16, 2008 - to keep creativity in focus in my daily life, spontaneously, reflectively, and with intention, by setting in motion several series of small events. Every day I take a photo and record a thought. Every week I write a poem and post a photograph of myself in the context of my life. i don't post every day, but I maintain the schedule of each series and post as often as I can. Before I began I wrote, "I think this will be fun, may be interesting, and will result in a considered year of small moments stolen from a busy life and strung together to make... who knows? At this point it's just a plan. Wish me luck~ here goes!"

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“Years 2 – 6” — so what’s changed?

I decided to continue on after a year, because this document had become a treasured reflective spot in my life. There are some changes in "Year 2," expanding options for my weekly poem beyond sonnet to add some other forms-- rondeau or triolet, villanelle. I added the decima in late January 2010, and the pantoum in August. Definitions of each form appear below. I continue to post a photo daily, but may post several pictures taken on one day over the course of a week if I have an interesting series. I may even post an old photo if I'm writing about something I'm thinking back to. I'll continue to have fun with this project; I hope you will too. For Year 3 I tried including other people in the self-portraits that accompany my poems, adding "Musical Sundays" to post mp3s of my music, but these petered out in a few months. This is simply a place for my daily thoughts & photos, and weekly poems in the forms I love. Onward...!

The material on these pages belongs to me

Everything published here was created especially for this project and is owned and copyright by me. When the project is complete I may do something concrete with some of it. So enjoy, but please, if you want to share more than a quote or two send people here, don't displace my work from its context or authorship.

What’s a sonnet?

A sonnet is a 14-line iambic pentameter poem with a unique and characteristic rhyme scheme. They have been written in Europe and England for centuries, and usually combine viewpoint and reflection in a personal yet universal way. I call mine blank-verse sonnets and try for a simple casual scan that observes yet obscures the form. Inspirations are the American sonnets of e. e. cummings and Edna "Vince" Millay.

What’s a villanelle?

A villanelle is an early French form with 19 lines using only 2 rhymes, traditionally broken into 6 verses. It's kind of obsessive, with lines 1 & 3 repeating alternately, the 4th time as lines 18 & 19. The lines can be any length, but don't seem to vary within a poem, and subjects include love, loss and challenge. Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Bishop and Sylvia Plath all wrote them, and from the minute I typed villanelle in "Year 2 begins" I was itching to try it out because I've never written one. My first appear in Weeks 53 & 56. I've run some verses together, as many modern writers have done, for continuity and a cleaner line.

What’s a rondeau?

A rondeau is a form of medieval poetry that pre-dates the villanelle and also uses only 2 rhymes. The earliest come from an 8-line song form with 2 lines of music that repeat-- line 1 as 4 & 7, and line 2 as 8, rhyming the rest in a characteristic pattern. The result is a sturdy little poem that makes its point thoughtfully, and less obsessively than the villanelle, perhaps because the generating couplet is unrhymed, and the lines don't need to be the same length, just able to be sung or spoken in the same amount of time. The first ones appear in weeks 55 & 57. Sometimes the poetic form, sans music, is called a triolet.

What’s a decima?

A decima is an early 10-line Spanish poetic form, with a distinct break after the first 4. It uses an 8-syllable line and has an unusual but characteristic rhyme scheme. It's also a 19th-century form of improvised Cuban song so I thought it would work well in this blog format. My first appear in weeks 66 & 69.

What’s a pantoum?

A Malaysian form from the 15th century-- how exotic! It's a series of quatrains, w/ lines 2 & 4 repeating as lines 1 & 3 in the next. The last quatrain also uses lines 1 & 3 from the first quatrain, with the first line ending the poem. So every line is used twice. My first one is week 95.

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