Wolves

Gold cherry

By jennifer

Fri, 11 Aug 2023
  • 680 reads
6 comments
 

Wolves (A Villanelle)

Jennifer Pickup 10.08.2023

 

My heart starts to race at the close of light –

There are wolves in the shadows, wolves outside,

I hear them call in the slavering night.

 

Those of sounder minds cannot know my plight –

They do not fear my wolves, for wolves can hide,

My heart starts to race at the close of light.

 

Pad-falls behind me, and yet out of sight –

The darkness is open and far too wide,

I hear them call in the slavering night.

 

In gathering darkness, I run in fright –

I was safe inside but now I’m outside,

My heart starts to race at the close of light.

 

You try to catch me, to make it alright,

But the wolves keep coming from far and wide,

I hear them call in the slavering night.

 

If I could see them, I could stand and fight,

But always pitch blackness, no moon as guide.

My heart starts to race at the close of light –

I hear them call in the slavering night.

Certificate PG
Poem
Storm on the Horizon (2023-2024)
Autobiography

Comments

Submitted by onemorething on

An excellent villanelle. 

 

Submitted by jennifer on

And also thanks to Dylan Thomas for the inspiration for the structure/rhyme scheme. You know when a poem starts to form in your head and you start to jot down lines free-flow, but it's just random and disorganised ideas and words and rhymes? That happened the night before. Then something connected in my head the next day - ideas of a repetitive refrain and a rhyme structure...a feeling of familiarity...and then the poem clicked together very quickly, once I'd wrapped my head around the mathematics of it, which was a fun challenge! It makes you realise the power of the mind and memory, how everything we have read makes us the writers we are. 

J x

 

Submitted by celticman on

yes it's got terror and yet understanding. 

 

Submitted by jennifer on

For writing it out of your head helps control the terror and begin to understand it. Catharsis.

J x

 

Submitted by drew_gummerson on

Really enjoyed this. 
 

Congratulations. It's our Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day. 

 

Submitted by jennifer on

Thank you - what an honour!

It was hugely enjoyable and challenging to write - not just understanding and then following the structure of the poetic form, but addressing the subject matter. Personal and yet also the experience of others, perhaps? Poetry for mental health, trapping the wolves in words - it's always helped me so much.

J x