Metrical Poems
I admit neither of these poems is my best, but I think this is more coincidence than that I can’t handle meter. The villanelle is a hideously tight form to work with, and I made the mistake of choosing to rhyme on /ɔlt/, which really didn't help. The other is my first attempt at writing bad love poetry. ☺
Lake Ontario
I thought a lakeside walk would cheer me,
and wrest my thoughts from mires where they halt.
Still I am cold and this is not the sea.
I press into the gale, shun the lee,
eager to mend my spirits, to exalt:
I thought a lakeside walk would cheer me.
The lake is broken, though the wind is free;
the smell is far from fresh, but is not salt.
Still I am cold and this is not the sea.
No massive swells here heaving mightily:
rippling reflected moonlight shows my fault.
I thought a lakeside walk would cheer me,
I yearn for ocean’s crash against the quay,
but only feeble wavelets make the assault.
Still I am cold and this is not the sea.
There’s nothing in this hopeless parody
but echoes in my hollow memory’s vault.
I thought a lakeside walk would cheer me,
Still I am cold and this is not the sea.
Wist
Our eyes didn’t meet in longing,
our lips would never kiss.
Your smile was meant for others,
though my incidental bliss.
No words we ever whispered
softer, sweeter than ‘good day’.
We never wove our fingers.
I never did embrace you
or press you to me tight,
nor trace your contours gently.
We never shared the night.
Our eyes didn’t meet in longing,
our lips would never kiss.
And yet, of every stranger’s face
it’s your face that I miss.