64TH BIRTHDAY VILLANELLE

[Note: the villanelle is an old French poetic form, in 3-line stanzas, each concluding with either the first or third line of the opening verse, and the last with both. The major example of the form in English is Dylan Thomas’ “Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night.” More recent examples might be Carolyn Kizer’s “On a Line from Valery,” or Anthony Hecht’s “Prospects,” both in the anthology Best American Poetry 1995. Moderns tend to be looser about the exactitude of the repetitions, and I have followed this trend. Also, the “traditional” form has six verses, and I wound up with seven.  My lucky number; I kinda like it this way.  A few more notes about the references are below.]

To live this long, and yet to do so little:
Still stringing iambs as though they paid the bills—
I’ve walked some maps’ worth, mounted minor hills,

But seen great peaks through others’ eyes alone,
As through the verse of my betters.  Virgil, old Dylan failed
To live this long, and yet my oeuvre’s but little,

To them a molehill, though my debts arose
As Ossa over Pelion, Darien—I ground money’s mills
As giants stalked their Everests, scorning my low-flung hills.

Reclining, I pored but dumbly o’er the masters
And puttered forth my pittance—these twelve years
I’ve outlived Shakespeare, Keats and Chaucer by no little

But built no manse, no, sailed nor yacht nor Argus,
Parked my trailers where the landlords willed,
Tried my dilettante hand at painting yonder hills

(Low landscapes, chiaroscuro-free),
Fought no battles, struggled at T’ai Chi,
Yet outlived saints and sages, learning little,

Beatitude, satori so much Sanskrit to me,
Failed at my full-lotus, rarely felt that blissful,
Stumped by koans, my livelong days belittled,
Washing, like but one more wave, o’er these timeless sandy hills.

Rick Park, Sept. 2009

[Notes: Shakespeare lived to be 52, Keats 29 I think, Chaucer 60, Thomas 53, Virgil 51.  Ossa and Pelion, Greek mountains piled in battle over the Titans, Darien the peak from which Balboa (or Cortez) saw both Atlantic and Pacific simultaneously in Panama. Argus the boat Jason sailed to find the Golden Fleece.]