The river runs under a stone bridge
down where no one ever goes
a place for old men where the trees bend
and ask, "Pourquoi chercher autre chose?"
Its source is hidden as is its end
this river that barely flows
where the trees bend, a place for old men
who ask, "Pourquoi chercher autre chose?"
Where the stone bridge breaks, it cannot mend
what deep January froze
a place for old men where the trees bend
and ask, "Pourquoi chercher autre chose?"
______________
pourquoi chercher autre chose? = why look for anything else?
A ZaniLa Rhyme for What's Going On? "In Your Deepest January" The instructions require that phrase or "In my deepest January" but there were two problems which I hope that our wonderful host Sherry will let me slide by with. One was, that phrase just doesn't sound like me, to me. The other is that a ZaniLa Rhyme has a syllable requirement of 9-7-9-9 and a rhyme scheme and inverted third line that would have made it almost impossible. The prompt phrase is 8 syllables all by itself, so I almost had to shorten it, and so I did. If Sherry sends the Prompt Police to collect me, I will understand.
Music: Simon & Garfunkel Old Friends
What an interesting form, which I have not encountered till now. The poem itself is wonderful, as always. I can feel the January freeze, see the bridge, that place for old men. Love it.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the form as well, and I enjoyed picturing the scene with the stone bridge. Your poems are, so often, an escape for me. "Why look for anything else?" is a good question!
ReplyDeleteI love the mystery of the repetition- really adds to the sense of the other and the dark undertones of January
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of this form before. Thank you for that and I am sure Sherry accepts bending rules. smiling...it sounds a bit mysterious and i wonder about these old men?
ReplyDeleteYour poem brought tears, maybe because I'm at the older end of my own life. "How terribly sad." (I'll cross that bridge when I come to it, but your old men are already there.) This form is new to me, too. Maybe it casts its own spell.
ReplyDeleteI love the scene and the repeated question in the final stanza triggers so much sadness. It's sometimes devastating when a 'bridge' is beyond repair. A very interesting form.
ReplyDeleteI’ve not come across a ZaniLa Rhyme before, Shay, and can understand how the phrase ‘In my deepest January’ wouldn’t fit. I love the way we followed the river under the stone bridge, ‘down where no one ever goes’, a mysterious river, and the idea that it ‘cannot mend what deep January froze’ – January in a nutshell.
ReplyDelete