Publication Date: January, 2021
Location: October Hill Magazine, Winter Edition, available here.
Genesis: Back in the Spring of 2020, I started an ambitious project – to write a poem in each of the one hundred different poetry forms listed here. The plan was to try to complete this project within a year. That’s unlikely to happen now, since it’s mid-January and I’ve only managed to cover 14 forms so far. A bit slack, I know, but at least there’s only me watching!
Anyway, Peace in Death is in the catena rondo form which, for those not into clicking links, has the following rules;
- The poem is comprised of a variable number of quatrains.
- Each quatrain has a rhyme pattern of AbbA.
- The first line of each quatrain is also the final line of the quatrain.
- The second line of each quatrain is the first line of the next quatrain.
- The final quatrain should repeat the first quatrain word for word.
My memory on this is a little hazy, but I think it was the phrase from a newspaper article that kicked off the poem, and the memory of the day my sister died (January 8, 1996) wove itself in as the work progressed.
Finally, in one of those odd coincidences that make life so interesting, the day the October Hill editors emailed to say they had accepted this poem was the twenty-fifth anniversary of Paula’s death.
I was struck by the phrase In an article on Afghanistan; “Peace in death”, said the man. I was struck by the phrase. In an article on Afghanistan, Boys blow themselves up in crowded places, Parting limbs from torsos, heads from faces, In an article on Afghanistan, Boys blow themselves up in crowded places. Yet I saw peace in death when my sister died With my parents and I right by her side; Boys blow themselves up in crowded places. Yet I saw peace in death when my sister died, Death wiping her face clear of pain, Of stress, of lines, of fear, every stain; Yet I saw peace in death when my sister died, Death wiping her face clear of pain. Is peace in death a lament or a longing, For solitary silence or a sense of belonging? Death wiping her face clear of pain; Is peace in death a lament or a longing? I was struck by the phrase Virgins in Paradise, Praise! Is peace in death a lament or a longing? I was struck by the phrase In an article on Afghanistan; “Peace in death”, said the man. I was struck by the phrase.