Winning Poem, Parody Contest: The Villanelle, by J-T Kelly

J-T Kelly is an innkeeper in Indianapolis. He lives in a brick house with his wife, their six kids, his two parents, and a dog. Chapbook Like Now (CCCP/Subpress, 2023).

The Villanelle

(a parody of "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop)

The villanelle is not that hard to master;

like many forms it's crafted to prevent

the poet from arriving at disaster.

Write villanelles each day. Accept the fluster

of slant rhymes and of rhymes just badly bent.

The villanelle is not that hard to master.

Then practice writing better, writing faster.

Every discarded draft, each moment spent

is golden. They will save you from disaster.

You wrote an awful line. But look! your last, or

next-to-last, attempt was competent.

The villanelle is not that hard to master.

I've villanelled some lovely pomes. And, vaster,

sestinas, ballads, ghazals. Even cent-

os weren't complete unqualified disasters.

—Every villanelle (the form itself, or gesture

toward it) is wonderful. It's evident

the villanelle is not that hard to master

though each one’s inches (Save it!) from disaster.