Monday, January 24, 2011

"Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.", a poem, 115/365


The photo above is for "Partially Seen in January" and also my 115 photo of my march towards a photo a day for a whole year!

The poem below is an exercise for - Monday's One Stop Poetry Form   The form they are still highlighting is the villanelle - which I find extremely difficult.  It has a very specific repetitive rhyming pattern with certain lines repeating themselves and a certain word count per line.  The following poem is inspired by certain quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  that I found on a blog I follow, but for the life of me I can't remember whose blog it was.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther planted a freedom tree
He envisioned it laden with ripe fruit
To help us reach a peaceful destiny

Branches of hope, courage, and dignity
Prayerful a perfect harvest could take root
Martin Luther planted a freedom tree

To gather as "A single garment", key
Life as interrelated; our pursuit
To help us reach a peaceful destiny

Hard work and sacrifice a certainty
Believing the dream; a difficult route
Martin Luter planted a freedom tree

"Determined courage", a must we agree
"Urgency" with one voice we must recruit
To help us reach a peaceful destiny

A better world Dr. King did foresee
Watering and nurturing, our salute
Martin Luther planted a freedom tree
To help us reach a peaceful destiny

Margaret Bednar

8 comments:

Pitterle Postings said...

Love the picture. It would make a beautiful painting too. Such a nice tribute to a very memorable man. Great job!

Vicki Lane said...

Nice poem -- I can hear it as a gospel song.

Justine said...

lovely poem and great shot

Anonymous said...

Great tribute to a truly worthy figure x

Claudia said...

very well done margaret - it's all pentameter and scans very good. you have an interesting content and strong A1 and A2 rhymes (very important because they form the backbone of a villanelle) and the rhymes are well and carefully chosen. kudos - i like it

G-Man said...

Votre Villanelle est tres bien!!

forgetmenot said...

Lovely poem--you say things so nicely! :)

Margaret said...

Thank you all for commenting on this poem. It was a struggle for me - almost gave up but think it is important to try these "structured" forms. And I would like to believe that with practice they get easier... The next time a photograph still life, I'm going to try and put my camera on a tripod and activate the 5 second timer - I think I will have a clearer photo that way...