BLOG #2: VILLANELLES

Hello Everyone,

If you read my first post, you will know that I am dedicated to celebrating our literary heritage, so today I would like to draw your attention to the villanelle form of poetry made famous by Dylan Thomas’s poem, ‘Do not Go Gentle Into that Good Night’. Many of you will be familiar with his line, ‘Rage, rage against the dying of the light’ as he urged his aging father to keep fighting and not give in to old age and infirmity. Not surprisingly, that poem seems to gain in significance to me every year!!

If you have read my annotated poems, you will have discovered an example of this quite strictly structured form of poem, as I urged my readers to care for our environment before it is too late to save it. In my poem, ‘Negative Space,’ I have once again been seduced by the challenging (and very satisfying) discipline of the villanelle form which I have used to explore the idea of negative space. It seems appropriate to use such a disciplined poetic form. After all, negative space (in the artistic sense) relies on the discipline of the artist to provide space in their composition to draw attention to the object that is the focal point.

I like to think of this as breathing space and apply it to life and to landscape. It’s the wide open paddocks of stubble that help us see that straggly mallee in the corner. It’s the vast blue ocean of sea and sky that allows our eyes to rest on the sails of the yacht on the empty horizon. We need more negative space in our lives!

In a strange way, covid-19 gave some of us some breathing space. We ‘attended’ meetings from the comfort of our own home . . . or we just cancelled them altogether and enjoyed time with our families. Let’s not forget those lessons. Let’s look for those opportunities to be still. To find some space in our lives. Let’s luxuriate in it. Let’s find that focal point that is so often drowned out by the busyness that is swimming distractingly around it. That’s my message for 2021. And while you’re enjoying some space, may I recommend Edward Arlington Robinson’s melancholy poem, ‘The Home on the Hill’ and the pathos of Sylvia Plath’s ‘Mad Girl’s Love Song’ to inspire you to take up the villanelle challenge.

My very best wishes,

Julie