Villanelle: I Stand for You

A Christmas present to his lady, the poet writes his first new villanelle in some time.

There's a movie, "Bite the Bullet", where a character wonders if the order given to him by Gene Hackman's hard-bitten but soft-hearted cowboy was serious.

"He must have," muses one onlooker "he said it twice".

When this poet says something in a villanelle, a form I know requires great pain for him, he means it. What next? The return of the Alysian form and the songs of the Amomancer? We can only hope.

Villanelle: I Stand for You

I stand for you and lay for you as wills your perfect heart,
plucked from the Earth by time and toil to fulfill patient cause.
I beg from you an answer true to my bold suit and part.

For Diamondhearts and passioned priests the truth is as a dart
that pierces deep while mortals sleep to lay the pathway's laws.
I stand for you and lay for you as wills your perfect heart,

I knew your soul had struck a toll when witnessed from the start:
A dutied beauty in the stone ripped out by careless claws.
I beg from you an answer true to my bold suit and part.

I bleed out love to wash away the stains life would impart
and purify the petty lies the fools would curse as flaws.
I stand for you and lay for you as wills your perfect heart,

The waves will roar and tides may ebb but I shall stand apart
from sounding seas and soul's disease that would give others pause:
I beg from you an answer true to my bold suit and part.

I am not here for a fraction less than what fulfills my art,
and your kiss matters more to me than any crowd's applause.
I stand for you and lay for you as wills your perfect heart,
I beg from you an answer true to my bold suit and part.


William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.