To do Nothing
A Villanelle entry #PenMuse-51
To do nothing, how often, I have tried,
But my inquisitive mind won’t sit tight.
Jumpy, like a chipmunk, if it’d only abide.
Thoughts play havoc, hours of meditation glide.
My mind cooks up stories, it soars on fancy’s flight!
To do nothing, how often, I have tried.
Some sorcery’s up its sleeve, I’m left tongue-tied;
It floats on currents of memories, a stray kite,
Jumpy, like a chipmunk, if it’d only abide.
Minutes trickle, precious days ebb and slide
Into weeks: to tame its wildness, I’ve no insight.
To do nothing, how often, I have tried.
I’ve cussed and yelled, many times, I’ve tried it to chide.
It won’t listen, how I wish, I could set it right.
Jumpy, like a chipmunk, if it’d only abide.
A truant child, it flees gleefully, I’m petrified.
Alas, Time’s wasted on my mind’s futile fight!
To do nothing, how often, I have tried,
Jumpy, like a chipmunk, if it’d only abide.
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Mumtaz Khorakiwala
19-4-2023
Villanelle ( rustic/ peasant song)
Form
A Villanelle consists of 19 lines: a fixed standard form – five tercets & a quatrain. The first and third lines of the first verse act as a refrain. They recur, alternately, and are a part of the last quatrain.
Dylan Thomas and Elizabeth Bishop’s villanelles won this French pastoral verse form popularity. A number of English poets including Oscar Wilde , WE Henley & WH Auden have experimented with this form. Auden’s If I Could tell You,is a another noteworthy example.
Here are some links you could visit:
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/55798/september-2011
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/89008/my-darling-turns-to-poetry-at-night
Reference:
1. J. A. Cuddon: Dictionary of Literary Terms & Literary Theory: Penguin References, 1999. London
