Day 29 and madness has set in. I have just spent three hours writing a sestina, a form which I abhor above all other forms. Surely tomorrow, I must use the remaining words, including lunacy, from Wordle #15. Carolee’s prompt at Read Write Poem was to spend five minutes writing a list starting with the words ‘I don’t think I can…’ My list included ‘I don’t think I can move house’. This is the resulting poem:
How not to move house
It snowed the day we moved here, in nineteen eighty-four,
At the start of the year of Orwell’s dystopian vision.
From garage loft and shed the junk of twenty five years,
Extends ropes, chains and padlocks to tether me to the past.
When all I want is to move where I can have a future,
I’m snared by the cast offs from my family’s other lives.
My eldest is a musician, he has a new life
Teaching in a school in Geneva, where he has no use for
Old music, a trumpet and a music stand. His future
Now lies with wife and son, there is no place in his vision
For the flotsam and jetsam of his past
But he left rubbish from his car when he visited this year.
My daughter is also a teacher. For the past year
She’s taught at Kanda University. Her new life
In Japan leaves behind less clutter from her past,
Stuff that she’s been hoarding since nineteen eighty-four –
Just books and clothes and a digital television
which she may need if she returns some time in the future.
My youngest is an artist. He now has a future
up north in Salford where his son turned one this year.
Now artists of all people are apt to have a vision
That floats unmoored to their day to day lives
Leaving a trail of items they just might find a use for.
He of the three has left behind most debris from the past
Ten years ago my mother moved south, brought another past
In addition to my children’s and mine. I put my future
On hold, just as I’ve been doing since nineteen eighty-four.
My mother’s bewilderment led to a hard choice last year:
She will now have other carers for the rest of her life.
Amongst the litter left behind – another television.
I’m still struggling to hold on to a vision
In which I’m no longer coupled to detritus of the past
And I’m the one moving forward to lead a new life
Without other pasts haunting my future
Maybe this year will be the year
I’ve been waiting for since nineteen eighty-four.
Since nineteen eighty-four, I’ve had a vision
Every year of breaking with the past
To build a future for my life
April 29, 2009 at 12:49 pm
i really rather like this! unfortunately i’m so exhausted with word after this month i can’t be any more specific than that! lol
April 29, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I’m either running on empty or I’ve got my second wind. No I’ll stick with being mad…
April 29, 2009 at 2:17 pm
This is a lovely poem. Madness does have it benefits. ;D
April 29, 2009 at 2:52 pm
You’re right of course, you should have written it as a villanelle – joking, of course. It’s a fine poem.
April 29, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Kimberly, we’re nearly there. After tomorrow, I will have time enough to attend to the Kreative blog award you were kind enough to give me.
Dave, I love the villanelle, but it didn’t seem to be expansive enough.
April 29, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Watermaid, this is a great sestina about lives moving on and the struggle of your own life trying to find footing. I think I’m at a crossroads of sorts because my daughter will be leaving the nest in a few more years and I’ve wondered how I will move forward from there. Well done. Have a nice day.
April 29, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Wow, great poem. We have so much stuff of our own in our garage from past moves that I can’t imagine have our three kids stuff later when they are older (just 12, 10 and 8 now but growing fast) Great poem. I hope you’re able to build the future you want
April 29, 2009 at 6:48 pm
I’m in a sestina tizzy myself after wasting all of yesterday on one about frogs. Of all things – Frogs! And the result was pretty messy; it probably should be a villanelle or maybe whittled down to a haiku. Anyway, I think you chose a more suitable topic and used the form to enhance it very well. The repetitions give an elegant rhythm of comings and goings.
April 29, 2009 at 9:24 pm
nice one….ya i aint ever moving again…and i don’t think i can write a “sestina” i have no idea..i just write poetry paint play old timers hockey and garden and make eyes with my lover…keep writing though
April 29, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Michelle,
I may have exaggerated a little. I’m not tied to the past, but I will have to get rid of stuff, if I really want to move.
Jim,
Enjoy those kids while you can.
Liz,
I’ve read your sestina and it’s great.
Wayne,
Your life sounds idyllic.
April 30, 2009 at 3:15 am
Lovely, I’ve been out of the loop for a few days and it’s wonderful to come back to this. I’ve never tried this form, ‘um. It looks rather challenging.
April 30, 2009 at 3:22 am
you did such a wonderful sestina, the poem grows and expands with the repetitions, leaving behind the past, going forwards