As I sit beside my nonna
watching her nimble fingers move
we share a cup of warming brew
with stories of her days gone by.
Watching her nimble fingers move
the colorful skeins in her lap;
she builds afghans to keep us warm,
crocheting in bits of her love.
We share a cup of warming brew
making mustaches from the foam,
the heady smell of espresso
wafting across the parlor air.
With stories of her days gone by,
the Tuscan hills where she was born,
I spend the afternoon at peace
enveloped by her loving gaze.
Author notes
This poem is in the Retourne form.
Like so many other French forms, the retourne is all about repetition. It contains four quatrains (four-line stanzas), and each line has eight syllables. The trick is that the first stanza's second line must also be the second stanza's first line, the first stanza's third line is the third stanza's first, and the first stanza's fourth line is the fourth stanza's first. Retournes do not have to rhyme.
A contest entry
- A Spot by ea.
500 points, ended April 27, 2007, 13 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think
Comments
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Your retournee paints a quiet portrait of the granddaughter's love for her grandmother as well as the grandmother at her craft. You add a special flavor to a poem about Italian coffee with this story telling aspect of revealing her Tuscan girlhood. I like the detail of making foam mustaches; I can imagine it's a little girl and her Nonna when I read that and see what fun they are having. Thanks so much for entering the Xperiment!
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