A Cyclical Life

Here in the heavy depths of insolent woes,
We gesture and talk and waste our time,
Staking claim to each minute of our earthly life,
Running the hours through a clock by the day,
Never sated, not content to find even love,
Buried deep inside the petals of a perfect rose.

So was a metaphor created from the rose, 
Then plagiarized and used for all of time,
Simply here to represent the beauty of love,
A perfection to which we cannot aspire to in life,
Or even death, in the darkest of all those woes,
Great though they may seem by the passing day.

It's a fragile, soulful kind of love,
In the pressing presence of the breaking day,
Where your back breaks beneath ample woes,
And there just simply isn’t ever enough time,
To do what you plan to do with your life.
Then you start to resemble that rose.

Soft and delicate, with easy loss of life,
Mournful of the passage of time,
Counting down, day by dreary day,
Ever seeking out to find dear love,
The theoretical banishment of woes.
Such is the way of the deep red rose.

Has it ever occurred to us not to mark time?
Just to ignore it, along with any such woes,
Just to leap forth and enjoy life,
To live to the absolute fullest everyday,
And just as chosen by the poet's rose,
To find and hold on to, that one true love.

For I find, that it's mostly true these days,
That people don't make enough time,
For laughter and fullness in life,
So preoccupied with petty woes,
That they forget about the beauty of love,
And in doing that, they forget about the rose,

I know what the rose represents in my life,
And I work hard to expel my woes every day,
So that soon I will have time for true love.

*****Written in Sestina for Constance's Poetry 101 contest.*****
******* 5th Place winner*******
******Sarah Blake August 2010******

A sestina is a highly structured form of poetry consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-
line envoy (thirty-nine lines). The end words of the first stanza are repeated in varied order
as end words in the other stanzas and also recur in the envoy.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2010



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Date: 3/10/2011 11:22:00 AM
Congrats on your poem's well deserved win in the first round of the competition. Wish you success in the finals. -Mohammad
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Date: 3/9/2011 4:44:00 AM
Congratulations on your poetry making it through round one of PoetrySoup's contest. The best to you in the finals Sarah. Love Carol
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Date: 3/7/2011 4:42:00 PM
Congratulations..Sara
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Date: 3/7/2011 12:20:00 PM
Many congrats on your first round success Sarah - rgds Janette
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Date: 1/13/2011 11:15:00 PM
nice write Sarah....i enjoyed reading it......congratulations
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Date: 1/13/2011 9:43:00 AM
Congratulations on your featured poem this week Sarah. May you have many more. Love, Carol
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Date: 8/28/2010 9:26:00 PM
lovely poem, congrats on having it featured this week
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Date: 8/26/2010 7:57:00 AM
Good day Sarah, congratulation for having your poem featured this week . It is an awesome poem,..p.d.
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Date: 8/26/2010 7:53:00 AM
HI SARAH,GONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR POEM BEING FEATURED THIS WEEK~SKAT~
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Date: 8/23/2010 9:59:00 AM
Congratulations on your poetry being featured this week Sarah. Love, Carol
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Date: 8/23/2010 6:07:00 AM
congrats on the featured poem this week! well written!
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Date: 8/23/2010 12:30:00 AM
Thank you all for your wonderful comments. I will have to be careful not to let them go to my head! I wish you all a wonderful and inspiration-filled Monday and week to come. Much love Sarah
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Date: 8/22/2010 9:01:00 PM
I love this poem. Congratulations on winning; you definitely deserved it.
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Date: 8/22/2010 8:53:00 PM
Sarah, I commend you on your Sestina. Sestina's, if not done correctly are very repetitious in not only words but stanza content. You delivered this unique and masterfully. I truly reveled in its beauty.
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Date: 8/22/2010 6:08:00 PM
Sarah, Congratulations on your wonderful Sestina being featured and also on it winning. They are very difficult to write and you did a lovely job on this.
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Date: 8/22/2010 4:09:00 PM
Congrats Sarah on your featured poem this week on the Soup.. a great one to share with us all my friend.. with luv..ciao..
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Date: 8/19/2010 10:25:00 PM
YOu undertook the sestina challenge. Way to go. I remember when I did that. WHOOO ( I think it was my first and last one!) anyway, congratulations on your big win. LUv, Andrea
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Date: 8/17/2010 8:59:00 AM
Congratulations on your win Sarah in Constance~A Rambling Poet's~ contest " Forms of Poetry 101". Love, Carol
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Date: 8/17/2010 7:49:00 AM
congrats on your win Sarah, well done
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Date: 8/17/2010 7:13:00 AM
Highly structured form, indeed. You rose well to the challenge, Sara. Congratulations on your win! Love, Carolyn
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Date: 8/16/2010 9:15:00 PM
Congrats on the win, sarah
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Date: 8/16/2010 8:42:00 PM
Congrats Sarah on your winning poem in the Poetry Forms 101 contest.. a super write ..an awesome win.. so glad to see u entering these rare beauties for the contests and winning ..with luv ..enjoy your sweet success.. from Italy..caio..
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Date: 8/16/2010 7:02:00 AM
Thanks for entering my contest, Sarah, could I ask you to put a description of the sestina form on the poem, if it allows that is, I know sestina's take up most of the space, let me know if this is the reason you did not put it, it is part of the contest requirement, but I know another poet had the same problem of no space left, so that would be okay then ~~
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