Calvin Ross, Sunflowers around the Sea

Calvin Ross

   Sunflowers around the Sea

   (A Villanelle)

 

The Kansas sea conceded to land

to make a home for you and me,

Where once the surf slid onto sand.

 

In ‘60 with rolled diplomas in hand

we ventured forth confidently ready.

The Kansas sea had yielded to land.

 

Tornado lore enchants with Tin Man,

Scarecrow, Lion, and Toto’s Dorothy,

Where once the surf slid onto sand.

 

A spirit arose to herald a command

for abundant Jayhawk prosperity,

The Kansas sea conceded to land.

 

The spirit gracefully waved her hand

for soaring Blue Aces to fly bravely,

Once the surf had slid onto sand.

 

Here sunflowers had their first stand

then spread to flourish in Tuscany.

The Kansas sea had yielded to land,

Where once the surf slid onto sand.

 

A villanelle, also known as villanesque, is a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third lines of the first tercet repeated alternately at the end of each subsequent stanza until the last stanza, which includes both repeated lines. The villanelle is an example of a fixed verse form.

TERCET definition: a group of three lines rhyming together or connected by rhyme with the adjacent group or groups of three lines.

Editor’s Note: We all know Calvin as our student body president, but perhaps we need to add a new title: Poet Laureate Class of 1960.

More Poems by Calvin Ross

• Keeper of the Plains
• Poetry for Aging
• Old Long Since, An Ode to the New Year