Workplace Villanelle

I sit and contemplate my desk, my place
of work where I achieve so much, you see;
outside there's only sky and empty space.

My piles of paper, super neat, embrace
a life of suits and smiles, a guarantee.
I sit and contemplate my desk, my place.

My keyboard occupies my hands which race
to please the boss with my efficiency.
Outside there's only sky and windy space.

Amongst my files a small shell lies misplaced,
its creamy whorl once polished by the sea.
I sit and contemplate its shape, my place.

The sun breaks in, and patterns form like lace,
a net of light and shade which dances free;
outside there's sky and trees and birds and space.

I dream a breeze upon my skin, the trace
of salt within the air, the scent of sea.
I sit and contemplate my desk, this place;
outside are crashing waves and light and space.

Fiona Lewis

Note: this was written as an exercise in the Villanelle form. A villanelle is defined as being written in five tercets, in which the first and last lines of the first stanza alternately appear as the last lines of the subsequent stanzas, with a final quatrain repeating both lines together as the last two lines. There are only two rhymes through the whole poem, the tercets rhymed aba and the quatrain abaa, and the lines are usually in iambic pentameter. It's a rigid form, which I felt reflected the tightness of soul I experienced in that office job, in contrast to the increasing freedom I felt outdoors. It was also very interesting that in concentrating on the strict form, the ideas themselves began to develop almost unconsciously. Let me know what you think!

If you're interested in the form, Dylan Thomas' 'Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night' is probably the best-known villanelle in English.