Favorite Poems We've Written

It's the middle of NaPoWriMo! If you're participating, send us a link to wherever you're posting your poems! (Email us at reviewmetwice [at] gmail [dot] com, tweet us @ReviewMeTwice, post it on our wall on Facebook, or comment here on the blog with it!)

To encourage you, we're sharing our favorite poems that we have written ourselves.

Mine is from this year's NaPoWriMo, Day 2. It's a villanelle, which is something I had never attempted before. It's weird and mysterious and a little ominous. It was originally posted here, with a brief explanation of the structure of a villanelle.

(If you want to check out the rest of my NaPoWriMo poems, visit Grammar Amateur.)

The Secret

The secret is very old;
It's known by all and said by none:
The secret mustn't be told.

It has waited in the dark and cold,
And will wait until its wait is done.
The secret is very old.

Those who know it must withhold,

To protect it, many lies are spun:
The secret mustn't be told.

The secret is more precious than gold,

But its treasure cannot be won.

The secret is very old.

Complete destruction is foretold;

The telling has begun:

The secret mustn't be told.

There is nobody left to scold;

The secret is undone.

The secret is very old;

The secret mustn't be told.

Once upon a time, Cassy had to take a poetry class... and she hated it, just like she knew that she would, because she hates poetry.

Ok, so it wasn't a total bust.  I did end up enjoying it more than I thought that I would, but poetry is not really my thing.  In fact, while perusing old poems from that class for this post (trying to find the one that I wanted), I realized how TERRIBLE at poetry I am.  Seriously, readers, it's terrible.

But, there was one exercise where we had to write in iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets (like a sonnet, but we weren't restricted to 14 lines.)  The prompt was "talking your way out of something" and what resulted, well, wasn't half bad.  It might even make you laugh.

Instantly Ready Self-justification

I swear, a minute ago it was here

You have absolutely nothing to fear

Because I would never not do last night’s work

Though usually a writing major’s perk

Is that we have no work to take back

To your rooms once we put our books in our pack

But let me look this one last time

For the assignment we had to umm… rhyme?

Yes!  Now I remember where it went

See this time last month my mother had sent

Me an envelope with my tax forms in it

Since I never pay attention to this shit

I bet I sent my rhymes to the IRS!

It’s amazing how much they can be a pest

(Three weeks and where is my tax return?

The situation is enough to make my blood burn.)

However I am straying from my topic

My grade, you see, you can not dock it!

I am not saying an animal chowed down

On my homework in the Long Island Sound

Nor am I handing you a doctor’s note

Saying it’s not done ‘cuz of a sore throat.

I swear that it’s the God honest truth

That is unless you recognize my spoof.