Today's poem is by Carolyne Wright

History of a Villanelle
       

Let's face it. Villanelles are hell.
My first Creative Writing teacher said so.
"It takes all you've got to write one well."

"Your poem's shit," a classmate drawled. Ashes fell
from her Winston as she flicked the page. "Inferno
is too good for you and your villanelle from hell."

My next teacher shrugged: "Your poems ring no bell.
You may never get beyond the so-so.
It takes all you've got to write them well."

Another classmate on my first book: "This won't sell.
I should have a published book: Yo! Tú no.
I write great villanelles—but you? Like hell!"

Before he died, my first teacher wrote a farewell
note: "I wish more students had turned out like you.
You've given all you've got to write so well.

"One classmate's a best seller. The other's in a cell.
My teachers have passed on. There's only me to go.
Have I paid my dues? Villanelles are hell
but have I given all to write one well?

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Copyright © 2023 Carolyne Wright All rights reserved
from Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission