Through the Window

Mesh wire laced windows

with pulley closures

like Popeye the Sailor Man

rigged them up

sun streaming on the gym floor

basketball goals sans nets

inner city school in a town

that doesn't know it's a city

disconnected masses

someone asks

"Howya doin' Miss?"

if they slip by

they'll wander the dungeons

of this old school

linger in its haunted auditorium

spirits leftover from the 1920s

are we here the sum total

of its morter and brick?

living off the glorified past

of its now defunct alumni

no one here drives those

oak-lined streets now

glimpse through the spruce hedge

that deflects the wind

see a real life hustle outside

every year closes out the former

as decades carve themselves

upon stone memorabilia

and those that remain

climb the fracture-laden cracked steps

meeting the struggle

transcending time

A Villianless Villanelle

A villanelle is a nineteen-line poem consisting of five sections known as tercets followed by a final quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet repeated alternately until the last stanza, which includes both repeated lines. I think this style it may have gone the way of the quill and ruffled collar, but I found one that I wrote many years ago for an English class. I think I made a "C" on it. Why would I possibly want to share this with the world? I'm sure if you are reading it that you might be posing this question. I don't know except maybe to ask if anyone else writes these. If so, I would love to hear about it in the comments section. So here is example of mine:

Oh why save the Holt Hotel at last

That stands stoically on the corner of the street

A reverent, cemented reminder of the past.

Early founders now vanished, time passes so fast

Who tarried in these rooms to plan and meet

Oh why save the Holt Hotel at last?

Sally Rand and her bubbles, spellbinding with her cast

Danced rhythms wild upon her feet

A reverent, cemented reminder of the past.

The city where Bonnie and Clyde ran wild and vast

Never apprehended by sleazy sheriff Pete

Oh why save the Holt Hotel at last?

No statues here left to cast

Pioneers so solid that weathered the heat

A reverent, cemented reminder of the past.

And the secrets so torrid and decadent to tell

Will keep you glued concretely to your chair

Oh why save the Holt Hotel at last?

A reverent, cemented reminder of the past.

Now some examples of good ones:

Dylan Thomas

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, 

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night,

Elizabeth Bishop

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,

some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn’t a disaster.

Sylvia Plath

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;

At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head).

The House on Tenth Street

I passed by this old house

one evening

alive with candlelight

where it stands

on 10th Street

it has been there

since the early 1900s

against ratcheting time

life expanded

and dissolved

like the neighborhood bakery

barber shop, trinket stores

horses and carriages

replaced by autos

Bonnie and Clyde

roamed the backside

of these streets

World War II ushered in

rationing, praying

tears amid destruction

A tornado hit close

sixties racial turmoil

schools closed

This house was here

when Andy Sims

disappeared without a trace

in 1961

It has been lucky

to remain

in a place where they

tear down history

trying to keep appearance

hip and modern

not even considering

how we need

the contributions of yesterday

and how we can admire

the continuance

of the elegant

yet simple style

the testament to the past

the grace of another time

the comfort that

all those candles

must give to those

returning home