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Write a Villanelle, My Genius Poets!
The villanelle is a French verse form consisting of five three-line stanzas and a final quatrain, with the first and third lines of the first stanza repeating alternately in the following stanzas. These two refrain lines from the final couplet in the quatrain. Here's what that looks like (letters for rhyme scheme, numbers mean a line repeats): A1 B A2//A B A1//A B A2//A B A1//A B A1 A2 No theme, no prompt other than make it great. For examples of villanelles, please enjoy: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44976/the-house-on-the-hill https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/150043/letter-to-my-blackout https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47536/one-art
Cover image for post Not Present, by Mariah
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Mariah in Poetry & Free Verse

Not Present

Unexpected downtime, I thought that we might play

Instead you pace and want to flee

Why can you not just stay?

I thought this was a good place to be…

Nowhere to go on this rainy day

Here with me

Yet I can feel your love decay

And sense your longing to be free

Why can you not just stay?

But other places you long to see

And your nerves, they seem to fray

Here with me

“Out there” seems to always outweigh

Time only spent with me

Why can you not just stay?

I wonder how long you’ve felt this way

A rainy day-- the truth exposed, I only have this plea:

Why can you not just stay

Here with me?