Love and Defiance

I LOVE a challenge. A while back someone said the word sonnet so I wrote one. This comment Mmmm...you should write in sestina form with your repeating lines. It suits you well. by C. Michael Cox after my last poem sent me for a refresher on the form for the sestina. Here is what I came up with. It maybe be obvious that I have lately been reading some Jane Austen.

Love and Defiance

Beyond the hills of the land
the music of the lovers dance
and play the song of love
for the heart of the man
matches the adoration of woman
caring for the needs of their child

Then dusk falls and calms the boy child
and he comes in from the land
his eyes meet those of the woman
and in domestic bliss hearts dance
hers in ancient rhythm for the man
his quiet in steadfast masculine love

and their moments of love
go unmonitored by the almond-eyed boy child
who claims the heritage of the man
and holds the rights of the land.
Tonight the river of life will dance
and celebrate in the womb of woman

and the warm body of the woman
still held in the embrace of love
grows heavy with the life dance
until the birth of the girl child
with no claim to the land
steals handily the heart of the man

and the knowledge of fairness in that man
in devotion and pledged fealty to that woman
like in equal dipensation the love
discharges this precious land
in equal dispensation betwixt child
in a new and modern dance

and the moon celebrates the dance
and large is the pride of the man
less is the conflict betwixt child
and greater the love of the woman
who has no knowledge of love
of that inanimate land

For the eyes of a child will dance
and land with respect on a man
who treats woman with equal love

Comments

Debbie said…
I always enjoy reading what you write!! can't wait for your book!!! :)
ah! I wish I could find time to finish it..but I printed chapter 3 today for rewrites!

Now the inlaws are visiting and again I am distracted!

But thank you for the compliment!

Breeze
Anonymous said…
My suspicions were correct, this form fits you well. Nice work and fast considering you posted this two hours after my challenge.

Being the father of a girl, I understand that fourth stanza. And I like the role that the land takes in this poem: at first it is far away and mystical but in the end it is an "inanimate" right.
Thank you. It took me about 15 minutes. Poetry for me, writes itself easily. I really enjoyed writing it as well so that' always makes things go faster.

Thanks for the prompt. I'll be writing more of this for sure. And yes the land thing, I had it opposite sort of and moved the lines of those stanzas around a bit to make it more of a progression from one to the other.

Fun!
Breeze
Deepanjan Ghosh said…
This is just...DREAMY!!! Brilliant work.
Dreamy? I love that word! Thanks DD. Ps. I was walking yesterday and my iPod was on random and I started thinking about what you said about the Bollywood film(and thinking of story ideas) and right at that moment your song came on my iPod. I have over 800 songs on there..how coincidental. I love it!
Anonymous said…
You are amazing! That was, to quote DD, dreamy!
xoxoxo
Daria said…
Very nice.

Wishing you a warm and happy Easter this fine long weekend.
April said…
Wow, I have to agree that it really is both brilliant and dreamy! It really does suit you...this form of poetry just seems to fit naturally with your personality or something.
Love and Defiance AH! Can we really have love if in the teeth of a world of evil with out the defiance that men and women like Yeo Thomas exhibited at the right time. We enjoy what we have because of them. Thanks for reading his life. There were hundreds like him in the SOE at thattime.So many people have soft loves today, if there is such a phenomenon.
Well said Edward! It all comes down to the "rule breakers" doesn't it! Not the willy-nilly selfish rule breakers but those who break them on the side of injustice. Yeo Thomas is a hero in a time when heroes were in short supply but as they say, out of great strife comes great men! Thanks for your comment!

Breeze