I Have to Write a Villanelle Tonight

Over the last few weeks my manager and I have been working overtime to make a major writing deadline, leaving me utterly exhausted and stressed. Fortunately, the worst of it is over now, but today’s poem still felt fitting. I wrote it back in November, when the Poem a Day prompts challenged us to write a villanelle. I generally enjoy writing them for similar reasons that I tend to write sonnets, but trying to fit poems in at the end of a day with an undoubtedly stressful puppy was always difficult, and more than once I wrote about writing just to make things easier (see also the Humble Haiku). Anyway, you can see the result yourself.

Two quick notes. I generally hand-write my poems in a notebook, and the state of my handwriting definitely proves the veracity of this poem’s theme. I also changed the first line of the last stanza, which originally repeated “plight.” I was tempted to leave it in just to re-emphasize my tiredness, but figured changing it made a better poem.

I Have to Write a Villanelle Tonight

Originally written November 19, 2021

I have to write a villanelle tonight.
I’m tired. I just want to go to bed.
I’m cranky and I don’t know what to write.

Now normally, I would take some delight
In letting words take shape inside my head.
I have to write a villanelle tonight.

I’ll push on forward writing it, despite
My eyelids feeling like they’re full of lead.
I’m cranky and I don’t know what to write.

I’m nodding off now. That’s just a worse plight.
I should get up—do jumping jacks instead.
I have to write a villanelle tonight.

Too tired for my fancies to take flight.
They come up empty. My mind’s tangled thread.
I’m cranky and I don’t know what to write.

I’m almost done—almost done, but not quite.
I’ll finish up—there’s nothing more to dread.
I have to write a villanelle tonight.
I’m cranky and I don’t know what to write.

Photo by Ryan Snaadt on Unsplash