pantoum's Diaryland Diary

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COUNTING LESSONS

This minor villanelle does not hold a candle in sexiness or technique to Debra Bruce's wonderfully titillating villanelle "For Roxeanna in the Spring" ( which begins

You make me think of pedals opening wide,
ambrosia tulips burning at the tips.
Desire is not something we decide.)

but it is sexy and it is what the Writer's Almanac delivered to my box today. Notice the lines that repeat in a specific pattern and take the time to appreciate how difficult it is to find enough interesting English words to rhyme without clunking through all those moving stanzas.

FROM JUNE TO DECEMBER: SUMMER VILLANELLE
by Wendy Cope

You know exactly what to do—
Your kiss, your fingers on my thigh—
I think of little else but you.

It's bliss to have a lover who,
Touching one shoulder, makes me sigh—
You know exactly what to do.

You make me happy through and through,
The way the sun lights up the sky—
I think of little else but you.

I hardly sleep-an hour or two;
I can't eat much and this is why—
You know exactly what to do.

The movie in my mind is blue—
As June runs into warm July
I think of little else but you.

But is it love? And is it true?
Who cares? This much I can't deny:
You know exactly what to do;
I think of little else but you.

5:20 p.m. - 2005-06-23

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