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