Poetry Friday: Packing Villanelle

Still working on moving out of state... Less than a week till M-day, when I actually leave town. In honor of the occasion, I thought I'd share a packing poem for Poetry Friday. This villanelle was inspired by a prompt April Halprin Wayland posted during National Poetry Month (see her April 13th entry).

Packing

Packing up to leave a home
with symbols scattered everyplace
is like dismantling a poem.
This metaphor is made of lace,
while that one is a small blue vase.
Packing up to leave a home
calls for a steady, leaning pace.
Removing each bright thing, each trace,
is like dismantling a poem.
Words in boxes. Lines erased,
the startling with the commonplace.
Packing up to leave a home
requires a sudden sort of grace,
for keeping feelings from a face
is like dismantling a poem.
Till nothing's left but one suitcase
and all the rest is empty space.
Packing up to leave a home
is like dismantling a poem.

—Kate Coombs, 2011, all rights reserved
















Poetry Friday is at Carol's Corner today, so stop by and check out the links!

Image is Edward Hopper's painting, Sun in an Empty Room.