The brink

Today's exercise is to write a pantoum. This incredibly difficult verse form must surely have been dreamed up by the devil! These are the rules:-

Each stanza has 4 lines
The rhyme scheme is abab bcbc cdcd dada
The 2nd and 4th lines of the first stanza = the 1st and 3rd of the next stanza, and so on (!!)
In the last stanza, the original a lines become b lines (???)
The very first line of the poem becomes the last line.

Fortunately there was an example, so rules 3 and 4 started to make sense. But good grief, this was hard!

(In the discussion following the exercise the book suggests it can result in an obsessive, melancholic mood - I think I achieved that.)

The Brink

One day is much like all the rest -

Wake, eat, maintain, endure and sleep -

When you're not feeling at your best,

When back to bed you want to creep.

Wake, eat, maintain, endure and sleep

Seems far too hard, too much to bear,

When back to bed you want to creep,

And groan out loud "Life isn't fair!"

It seems too hard, too much to bear,

Everything's too much, you cannot think,

You groan out loud "Life isn't fair!"

When you feel close to the brink.

Everything's too much, you cannot think,

When you're not feeling at your best.

When you feel close to the brink,

One day is just like all the rest.

Everyday Poetry