Thursday, April 24, 2014

PAD Day 24: A Villanelle on Walls

First of all, I'm pleased that NaPoWriMo, who have been featuring a link to a different poetry journal every day, took my suggestion today and featured my friends at Chantarelle's Notebook.  Thanks again, Maureen!

Today's prompts from Poetic Asides and NaPoWriMo: (1) Write a poem with the title "Tell It to the ______", and (2) write a poem that's "masonry-related"- about walls, bricks or stones, arches, etc. What other title could I pick but this one?  I decided a villanelle would be a good repeating form to feature the phrase, and what came out sounds a bit callous, but I consider it more of a "persona" poem than advice I would really give a friend.

Tell It to the Wall

My friend, why don't you tell it to the wall?
Just vent your wrath, anxieties and fears
against a silent partner, hard and tall.

Berlin, Great China, Hadrian's and all,
The Wailing, and so many through the years
have journeyed just to tell it to the wall.

One Humpty Dumpty, he of the great fall,
as he lay broken, mumbled through his tears
up to his silent partner, hard and tall.

Pink Floyd, bombastic in the music hall,
performed a tale about a man who veers
to madness, and then tells it through The Wall.

Go buy some spray paint for graffiti-scrawl.
No matter where the barrier appears,
make it your writing partner, hard and tall.

 A jail, a padded cell, a bathroom stall -
 I don't care where, just save my bleeding ears,
 my friend.  Why don't you tell it to the wall,
 your cold and silent partner, hard and tall?



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