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Greatest Thought

10/26/2017

By Bob Dougherty

I’m cursed by a great thought that will not rhyme.
I’ve tried so many times to my dismay.
I’m growing old and running out of time,
yet rhyme, this thought does stubbornly betray
and likely will until my angel sings.
I won’t be untrue to my chosen style.
I curse my great thought, since to prose it clings.
My signature method I won’t defile!
What a tragic loss to humanity!
There must be a rational compromise
to this translational calamity!
Oh, why do I intellectualize?
A nom de plume would work fine, I suppose,
then I could repose knowing no one knows.

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10/12/2017

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By Bob Dougherty

hard dust reigns over memories
ware now just vacant space
store shelves sagging with emptiness
windows into nothing

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Cento Villanelle

10/5/2017

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By Bob Dougherty

Oh hell, I’ll write a villanelle today.
Though wise men at their end know(1) it’s a blight.
Maybe a cento villanelle, OK?

Time only knows the price we have to pay(2);
and further still at an unearthly height(4).
Oh hell, I’ll write a villanelle today.

Now that I have your heart by heart(5) astray
with wine and women and song(6) ‘til twilight.
Maybe a cento villanelle, OK?

And learn, too late, they grieve it on its way(1),
yet gather them while we may(6) before night.
Oh hell, I’ll write a villanelle today.

When I know there is nothing more to say(3),
I’ll claim the time was neither wrong nor right(4).
Maybe a cento villanelle, OK?

If we should stumble when musicians play(2),
like men who caught and sang the sun in flight(1).
Oh hell, I’ll write a villanelle today.
Maybe a cento villanelle, OK?

     1. Dylan Thomas: Do not go Gentle into That Good Night
     2. W. H. Auden: If I Could Tell You
     3. Edwin Arlington Robinson: The House on the Hill
     4. Robert Frost: Acquainted with the Night
     5. Louise Bogan: Song of the Last Act
     6. Earnest Christopher Dowson: Villanelle of the Poet’s Road

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Greatest Thought

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Cento Villanelle

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