Abandon all expectations and fear
Distractions can be destructive
Turn inward to find your own seer
Know yourself so that you can steer
Desires and devices are seductive
Abandon any expectations and fear
Be still so you may really hear
Cease all habits that are self-destructive
Be still to find your inner seer
Keep worthy people and habits near
Let errant emotions fade, be inductive
Abandon all expectations and fear
Know that we have the inner gear
Don’t be distracted by the seductive
Turn inward to know your own seer
Make your contemplation deeply sincere
Adopt what is sincerely constructive
Abandon any expectations and fear
Turn inward to connect with your seer
d’Verse: A villanelle has 19 lines – 5 three-line stanzas and a final four line stanza. It has a definite rhyme and repeating structure.
aroused 
I love this! Have only written one villanelle but I loved making it. I also like your Cheerful Choices. You may like my poems which I just published since the messages are of a similar vein.
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congrats on getting published, sounds like it was and will be a lot of work! Have insufficient time to read my followers blogs … can only stretch so far. Good luck 🙂
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I think this works really well. The message is great, and I think the repetition increases the meditative air. The subtle changes in the repeat lines are very well done.
Sorry to be so late coming to this. I’ve been away from internet connections for the last 10 days!
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Good advice: “Cease all habits that are self-destructive”
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some are riddled with them, others have less to conquer 🙂
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Lovely Villanelle, Kate! You’ve really done well with this challenge. I think it’s fine to change some words in the repeating line for modern Villanelles.
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Most difficult part… Abandon expectations and fear… Great piece of advice..
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A complete recipe for living!
(And ah, I knew that was an Australian beach! Confirmed by checking your profile. 🙂 )
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Love your poetry but complicated leaving a comment!
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Well, looks like you possibly don’t live very far from, me! 🙂
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Love this, so well spoken and constructed as per the style.
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Too often we are distracted by what all everyone else thinks is the best.
Sadly children are often mislead to not listen to their inner voices.
May all of us learn to hear that inner seer and directions which are helpful to all.
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it is the deepest most profound guide we have right inside 🙂
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Turning inside, listening to ourselves is very good. Like your theme of inner journey and self knowledge.
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Loved it so wonderfully written.
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I love the repeated line, “abandon all expectations and fear” because those really are the two things that hold us back from living the life we want. Thanks for this one, Kate!
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Kate, thank you for sharing your poem. It is always great to see other poetry styles.
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Great words and great advice. All the answers are within ourselves. Silence, stillness and being open will bring the peace that we crave. We cannot find it outside of ourselves.
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wow you really do get it Mary!
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i love the repetition of advice, drives home the truth we must see from our actions. looking inwards is a painful thing, easier to look outwards and blame others. you write this form very well Kate
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wow thanks so much for your generous kind words Gina, they mean a lot … I did enjoy writing it 🙂
As I said to Carolyn I’m enjoying these challenges coz they make me think … just got to work out how to count those blinking syllables!
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i am loving your response to the challenges, I am behind this week as I need to catch up with other writing in real life. but just had to stop and read yours first! villanelle are tricky devils, but you ado it effortlessly! i like the themes you chose, so relevant and current. ah you will get the hang of it, you are doing great
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I am smiling as i read this. I can see you have been consistently joinig dverse and i am so happy that you are trying out different poetry forms.
This one is beautiful kate..and as always you level up poetry in the sense that yours deal with the forces affecting human emotions….
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Very nice! I like the link. I am inspired to try this out.
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I noticed you are a teacher 😀 I like that you share these different ways to write poetry. I will have to follow your page here.
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No I do teach meditation but have not been or ever will be a teacher of anything else!
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That’s cool 😀 meditation is the key to peace and being happy.
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Oh, a powerful inspiring villanelle, Kate! Well done! And you are teaching me about poetry forms, and such! Thank you! 🙂
HUGS!!! and ❤ 🙂
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I think your poetry style is absolutely fine Carolyn … but then I am biased 🙂 ❤
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Thank you! And I’m glad you’re biased! 🙂
Poems just kinda’ pop out of me…I say they are birth-ed. And I try to write them down as fast as I can. Ha. 🙂
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best way to go, mine have usually been like that but these dVerse challenges for particular poetry styles does make me think a bit longer 🙂
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An interesting poem about life, love and man.
Best wishes
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I love the rhythm of this poem. It did draw me inward as I read to the end 🙂
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I have read of this poetry form but never have attempted. You have executed it so beautifully Kate and love the profound message in your poem too.
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Such a lovely villanelle, Kate. I haven’t tried this form ever. Will give it a try. 🙂
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LOVE this. I learn a lot about poetry during the month of April but I love poems (no matter what type) that speak to me…this one did. 😉
Elizabeth
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Thank you, Kate to teach us about villanelle.
You made a beautiful poem axed on : “Abandon any expectations and fear”. To be confident in ones seer.
Love ❤
Michel
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thanks so much Michel, really appreciate your comment ❤
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I like the poem that delivers a message as the yours , Kate ❤
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A series of New Age aphorisms in poetic form. Interesting
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thanks Sabio, I don’t see myself as new agey, just a meditator 🙂
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Thank you for visiting my thought blog, but here is my third Villanelle from my poetry blog.
Concerning Meditation vs New Age. There are very many meditations techniques and ideology that follows these techniques vary greatly. In other words, one meditation and teachings can vary hugely from others. I am a fan of Vajrayana Buddhist stuff which embraces even negative emotions. I do view all expectations as bad, I do not think their is a “self” to know — we flux and vary. I also don’t believe in an inner seer. But I do think many meditations techniques can be helpful, but many can be very harmful. We must be careful, eh?
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I’ve been meditating for decades and have an authentic experienced guide, who is your Vajrayana teacher? Maybe it’s just semantics …
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I wondered what a villanelle was. I noticed the rhyme, but especially the repetitive structure before you told me it was required. I was going to tell you how much I enjoyed the repetition and how effective I thought it was. It is, but I thought it before you told me. Well done. 🙂
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Really well done Kate, they quite hard to do and get everything right. ( a couple of little line errors, but you’ll pick them up, when you reread)
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it’s a completely new form to me Ivor and I can’t see errors when I haven’t a clue what I’m looking for … please be more specific so that I can correct it?
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Profound and insightful words of what we need to do and not look at what we are not and just let it go. Lovely poem, Kate. So true to itself.
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It would figure – here you are ‘vanilla-ing’. Just as I moo my cereal with chocolate. Holy… vanilla…white. // sinful…chocolate
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