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Synonyms for “Tom”
Today’s synonym: glutton for punishment. On top of getting extra-special fun projects at work to be completed in addition to my normal full-time job, on top of the kind of phone call you expect and you wait for but still really sucks when you get it (vague, I know, but too bad), I wrote another villanelle. If that wasn’t masochistic enough (how many form poems do you get before your free verse cred is used up?) I wrote this one to turn in for class! This instructor does not dig the tom style (such as one may be roughly condensed) so much as very imagistic, modernist verse. And there is nothing wrong with that style at all. But this one… It’s a good thing I’m not graded on how well he likes the poems. Something to bear in mind: he was hard-pressed to name three good villanelles in English, not that I could do much better. For all of you out there is blog-o-land, enjoy as you will.
“Just to live in a dream…”
I lay kisses on your back as if gold
needed further adornment, or even
met the value of your austere hold.
A spring garden blooming against cold
in your agate eyes. Like dew when
I lay kisses on your back as if gold
fought against frost and this bold
poet was an April sun, who then
met the value of your austere hold
in his ink-stained palms. Lines sold
as merit, planted like orchids. Can
I lay kisses on your back as if gold
ink was on the page? This spine folds
across the glue of jasmine. Profane
met the value of your austere hold
in this kiss: lips, skin, passion- told
it was sacred: this angel tipped pen.
I lay kisses on your back as if gold
met the value of your austere hold.
I think it’s a brilliant one. The villanelle is hard to do well. I’ve written a few, and none have turned out like this. I’ve been trying to edit an old one; maybe I should go back and tweak it some more and post it.