Geneva in Grá Reformata

THIS WEEK’S WORDS come from “Wild Geese Alighting on a Lake” by Anne Porter: neared, wings, surface, rippling, lake, drift, composed, water, arc, glided, settled, nest

Geneva the city with its lake

The mountains and my independence

Flew my wings and here I was awake

The first time I drifted from home

Tried to settle while I roam

Composed myself for my sake

Rippling water I glided for my entrance

Geneva the city with its lake

Trial and error while building my nest

Met a guy who would have guessed

Fell in love, didn’t know he was a snake

Broke my heart for he was a menace

Flew my wings and here I was awake

And so I keep on learning

New job, new language, new friends

Learned to skate and bake a cake

Found a job that was stupendous

Geneva the city with its lake

The little town that’s so peaceful

Where I first saw snow

Near and far I have to take

For my sins I need penance

Flew my wings and here I was awake

The arc of life for my keepsake

Love Geneva for its essence

Geneva the city with its lake

Flew my wings and here I was awake*

(c) ladyleemanila 2021

The Grá Reformata, created by Michael King, is based upon the Villanelle form.

Following the basic setting of the Villanelle, the a Grá Reformata has an extra couplet between each tercet. This couplet can be either rhymed within the structure of the rest of the poem, or in free verse, but always in iambic pentameter.

Format:

a-b-a
x-x
a-b-a
x-x
a-b-a
x-x
a-b-a
x-x
a-b-a
a-b-a-a

The x consists of the rhymed, or unrhymed iambic couplet.

For: The Whirligig: Whirligig 307 (sundayswhirligig.blogspot.com), Reena’s Xploration Challenge #174 – Reena Saxena (wordpress.com)