Rengas to Villanelles to Sonnets
Well, the ideas have been flowing better, and I’ve been doing some more free writing throughout the process of drafting these poems. I have been working on a poem for the project that includes aspects of the sonnet form. I am following the ababcdcdefefgg rhyme scheme and using a ten syllable count per line. It, again, has been interesting responding to these Japanese tales and using specific forms.
I thought I’d include a draft of one of the villanelles that I’ve been working on for the project.
The Change of Falling
after the Japanese tale “Kume and the Washerwoman”
What makes us love what we cannot hold,
that which forces us to fall into the water
where women wash their dirty clothes?
Wasn’t I a god before I saw her, bold
and robed in clouds? I knew the thoughts
that make mortals love what they cannot hold.
A pattern of wanting things forbidden,
fruit, and places touched that must be bought
with blame and cleaned like dirty clothes.
They say it was her thigh where I lost my hold
on everything above, on knowing like a father
what makes children love what they cannot hold.
But it was her dark eyes that found me, showed
me what it was to be born out of the water,
the river where the women wash their clothes.
Loving her meant knowing what was old;
for time became something that mattered.
And what makes fools love what they cannot hold,
I found in that woman washing clothes.