You’ve Become All That’s Earth

Exploring Villanelle for National Poetry Month

As a mama of a 10-year-old, I often think about how my child has his own path, totally separate from me. In the words of my mother, “he has his own guides.” I take this to mean, he is of the earth and he can find his way through life. I believe her, but I want him to know he has the right to always come home, just like I can always come home.

Today, (thanks to two poet goddesses, Melissa Coffey and ◦•●Christina M. Ward ●•◦), I explored this really tricky poetic form, the villanelle. This form is probably best known from Dylan Thomas’s “Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night.”

One thing that is important, I realized in working on the villanelle, is to choose your rhyme words carefully. I chose ‘birth’ as my focus word, partially because of The POM’s National Poetry Month challenge. Today the prompt is to write a poem using the word, birth. I plan to rearrange this poem to see how else it could be written with the ideas I want to convey, but using a different ending word. Aesthetically, I am not a fan of the word ‘girth,’ but I used it. I write all this to show my thoughts and process in writing.

So here is my first attempt:

You’ve Become All That’s Earth

You’ve become all that’s earth The wind and sea, you’re known Home again, your right from birth

A mother’s eyes see your worth Reliving life as you’ve grown You’ve become all that’s earth

Hand in hand, full of mirth Harvesting what you’ve sown Home again, your right from birth

You’ll find, at times, life seems dearth Of things you thought you’d own You’ve become all that’s earth

San Francisco, London, Perth Around the world you’ve flown Home again, your right from birth

Your potential has the widest girth But you’ll never be alone You’ve become all that’s earth Home again, your right from birth

Samantha Lazar 2021