shades of gray

is it gray or is it grey?
spelling often fits my mood
depending upon the day

how I’m feeling tends to sway
mostly when I’m sad and blue
is it gray or is it grey?

it feels fitting to say grey
“e” lends a melancholy hue
depending upon the day

but to spell gray with an “a”
denotes color in my view
is it gray or is it grey?

blended black and white at play
gray in shades, but never true
depending upon the day

gray skies make me feel grey
wond’ring if you feel it too…
is it gray or is it grey?

~kat

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 21 Challenge: write a poem that repeats or focuses on a single color. Some examples for you – Diane Wakoski’s “Blue Monday,” Walter de la Mare’s “Silver,” and Dorothea Lasky’s “Red Rum.”

Poetry Form: Villanelle

The villanelle is another very old form of poetry that came from France and has lots of rules. It is made up of 19 lines; five stanzas of three lines (tercet) each and a final stanza of four lines (quatrain). As you can see from the rhyme scheme; ABA ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA, this type of poem only has two rhyming sounds. Plus, there is a lot of repetition throughout the villanelle. Line one will be repeated in lines six, 12 and 18; and line three will be repeated in lines nine, 15 and 19.