gone away – Leonas Lines

My Dad 1967 standing near what was left of his childhood home in Sisseton, South Dakota

My people are all gone away

Leaving me with memories

That live on and stay

Siblings can no longer play

Under the South Dakota trees

They are all gone away

I alone stand today

With active sensories

That live on and stay

Under the heavy clouds of gray

I see them in reveries

They are all gone away

My pen searches to convey

Words filled with remedies

That live on and stay

Reaching to grasp each past day

I stand yet float feathery

They are all gone away

That live on and stay

Villanelle

(“They are all gone away” line taken from:”The House on the Hill” by Edwin Arlington Robinson—a Villanelle Poem)

(“They are all gone away” and “That live on and stay” are two phrases that oppose each other)

#NaPoWriMo 2019–Day 5-Prompt: today we’d like to challenge you to write a poem that incorporates at least one of the following: (1) the villanelle form, (2) lines taken from an outside text, and/or (3) phrases that oppose each other in some way. If you can use two elements, great – and if you can do all three,

It’s some better today.
The pain in my heart has not gone way,
but the initial reaction to it all
has fallen away like a leaf in the fall.

All that lies now within my sight,
is a room that is empty,
but cheery and bright.
Void of his things, it sits there,
clean, and willing to be called “spare”.
This room that held him and all he held dear,
is with me still, though he is not near.

It helps that it has a different look,
for when I pass by I don’t see his favorite nook.
New pillows and coverlet are now upon the bed,
and the walls hold my pictures instead.
Traces of him are no longer found in there,
were it not so, it would be too much to bear.

I pray that someday, he will find his way,
and God will show him what to do and say,
To accomplish the purpose that God created him for,
Then the spare room will rejoice, and might hold him once more.

Rhyme
Leona J. Atkinson Posted 11-16-13 (Originally written May 27, 2011)

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