L Milton Hankins | + Follow Poet |
Villanelle | + Fav Poem | Comment | Email | Print |

Unrelenting Sadness Knocks

Once again unrelenting sadness knocks at my door,
Like the inveterate seeker of my generous charity
Calls on others like me and always demanding more.

Could it be that I am a lone favored mark to score?
And I am deigned to entertain gloom incessantly
Once again, unrelenting sadness knocks at my door.

Would that I could be like others who in autumn soar
And, seeing in falling leaves, they hope abundantly,
Calls on others like me and always demanding more.

I find at autumn’s advent a bitter chilling to the core
Rising to the level of self-uncontrolled ascendancy,
Once again, unrelenting sadness knocks at my door

Every year I have vowed I’ll not suffer again, I swore,
But this annual sadness I cannot explain from infancy
Calls on others like me and always demanding more.

Worse still, I have become a nauseous, weary boor,
Complaining and whining that this SAD has primacy.
Once again, unrelenting sadness knocks at my door
Calls on others like me and always demanding more.

written October 30, 2021

Please Login to post a comment

Rico Leffanta Date: 10/31/2021 11:55:00 AM "To every thing there is a season ...." since Adam & Eve, the winter solstice has been a welcome celebration of life, but hanging on for that does not seem to have eased one little bit! Login to Reply L Milton Hankins Date: 10/31/2021 2:11:00 PM Thanks so much for your fine comment, Rico.

Gail Foster Date: 10/31/2021 1:09:00 AM Thank you for this, I enjoyed reading it and identify. If there's anything worse than winter it's hearing myself moaning about winter! Best wishes to you. Login to Reply L Milton Hankins Date: 10/31/2021 11:32:00 AM Thanks for your thoughts, Gail. You are so right.

Maurice Rigoler Date: 10/30/2021 10:13:00 PM This is another fine villanelle, Milton. I was reading this week an analysis of Dylan Thomas' famous villanelle "Do not go gentle into that good night." He explained why "gentle" in the first line is not "gently." Interesting but I wasn't convinced of the critic's interpretation, given the poet's history of alcoholism. No matter, it's still a moving poem. / Maurice Login to Reply L Milton Hankins Date: 10/31/2021 11:33:00 AM Indeed, yes, Maurice. I love that poem, and I think that's my initial reason for trying a villanelle a long time ago. I love the format. Thanks for your thoughtful comment.

Beryl Edmonds Date: 10/30/2021 9:32:00 PM Milton when you get the winter blues, go and put on your dancing shoes. Go singing in the rain alike Gene Kelly, or if you’d rather, go jumping puddles wearing your wellies. That should cheer you up, good luck… Belle Login to Reply L Milton Hankins Date: 10/30/2021 9:52:00 PM Thanks, Belle. My grandmother used to call it the "winter blues." Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm a bit old for singing in the rain or jumping into mud puddles. I am most cheered by Jack Ellison and Caren Krutsinger's poems!

Shirley Hawkins Date: 10/30/2021 7:12:00 PM So sorry, Milt to read you are feeling under the weather (no pun intended.) At the risk of you thinking I have lost the plot, would you care to read a silly rhyme I penned sometime ago called 'COPY ME' and do the actions in front of a mirror. I hope it brings a smile. Take care.... Shirley Login to Reply L Milton Hankins Date: 10/30/2021 8:28:00 PM Thank you so much, Shirley. I will do that right now! I did...and I left you a note there. Thanks!!!!

Heidi Sands Date: 10/30/2021 4:46:00 PM I used to get a strange, sadness in the fall each year, but not so much now as before. (Apart from what is happening in the world lately) Sending you light and smiles :) Login to Reply L Milton Hankins Date: 10/30/2021 6:40:00 PM Thanks so much, Heidi. It's a difficult thing to deal with, to be sure.

Joe Dimino Date: 10/30/2021 4:00:00 PM I know...I have been burned-out many times -- often trying to give it to God, and not take the pain and suffering of others entirely onto myself, compounding my own -- just do my job. But, I am a very flawed human, not always capable of rising above. Oh well...we do our best. God does not expect more I believe. Poetry is a great release. Blessings my friend! Login to Reply L Milton Hankins Date: 10/30/2021 6:41:00 PM Thank you, Joe. I appreciate your sharing your thoughts.

Caren Krutsinger Date: 10/30/2021 3:14:00 PM This has such an underglow of sadness. I hope writing it was therapeutic. Login to Reply L Milton Hankins Date: 10/30/2021 6:55:00 PM Me, too, and I think it was. I've been struggling the past few days because it has turned colder here. I'll be okay.