Where the Lonely Gull Will Be

[Pendragon]

Where the Lonely Gull Will Be

The rivers flow down to the sea,
Piling silt upon some forgotten shore
Where the lonely gull will ever be…

Lonely myself, I wander there for ease,
Finding keepsakes among things washed ashore.
The rivers flow down to the sea,

The sky above sweeping off into eternity,
Above the sound of the breakers as they roar.
Where the lonely gull will ever be,

I wade almost trance-like into the foaming sea,
Towards a beckoning hand and a face that implores.
The rivers flow down to the sea,

As I stagger onward, upright as any tree,
Then the sun glints once, and the figure is no more.
Where the lonely gull will ever be…

Still I chase that spirit, so ethereal and hauntingly
Calling and calling me back to the sea once more.
The rivers flow down to the sea,
Where I and the lonely gull will ever be…

© 4/22/97 D L Harris
An earlier version was Published in Writer’s Cramp in 1998

[dafydd manton]

Nice on, Pen......brilliant bit of work. Espcially with living on an island, the sea becomes a part of ones being, and I love it. I just want to move to the Welsh coast now!! Thanks, lovely poem. (Like the new avatar, too!)

[hillwalker]

This wonderful poem has the same ebb and flow of the sea, I love it.

[PrinceMyshkin]

Marvellous how adept you are with the villanelle, and the slight change in the last line was very effective.

[tailor STATELY]

circa 2010... Here's a nice example of Pendragon's Villanelle prowess. Wonderful to see dafydd manton, hillwalker, and PrinceMyshkin chiming in

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY

[Danik 2016]

Beautiful Villanelle. Reminds me somehow of Victorian poetry.