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Simply Chilling

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I. A Boring Villanelle

My humdrum life has been a constant bore—
An unembellished scene of somber tone.
Monotony is coursing through its core.

My listless weekends whisper, never roar.
They lack in luster to the sober bone.
My humdrum life has been a constant bore.

I’ve never been a tarty party-whore—
I read a bit and knit at home alone.
Monotony is coursing through my core.

Pistachio lies dashed upon my floor.
Vanilla never fails to fill my cone.
My humdrum life has been a constant bore.

Each night by half past nine I yawn then snore
My way to dawn through torpor’s dreamless zone.
Monotony is coursing through my core.

I’m swathed in beige—an aura I adore.
No flapping ear will hear me grouse or groan.
My humdrum life has been a constant bore—
Monotony is coursing through its core.

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II. Sparkle

—a triolet

It’s never lost—it glows within
The mellow marrow of the meek.
It shimmers just below the skin.
It’s never lost—it grows within,
Beginning with an inner grin
That blooms then beams from cheek to cheek.
It’s never lost—it glows within
The mellow marrow of the meek.

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III. A Rankled Rondel

I’m spurning all drama—the ruckus and fuss
From strutters and nutters and naggers and pricks.
I’m snubbing the snoots, the galoots, and the dicks,
The pillocks on planes and buffoons on the bus.

I’m dodging all codgers who holler and cuss.
I’m shunning the cunning—I’m sick of their tricks.
I’m spurning the drama—the ruckus and fuss
From strutters and nutters and naggers and pricks.

I’m ready for rock-steady days of just us
With nothing and no one to sully the mix—
A fun day of wonder and nitwitless kicks
Away from the fray—an empyrean plus.
I’m spurning all drama—the ruckus and fuss.

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IV. An Unruffled Rispetto

A floral waft ignites the air
Delighting nostrils with its lift
Beneath the golden-noontide glare
Where dragonflies and daydreams drift.

As nations blaze in ire’s haze
Where chaos is the latest craze—
I doze upon a daisy lawn…
I yawn and snooze and snooze and yawn.

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Susan Jarvis Bryant is a poet originally from the U.K., now living on the Gulf Coast of Texas.

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18 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    What a dazzling display of your presumed humdrum life that excites the rest of us with brilliant flashes of imagery with your creative poetry. There is a wealth of wonder and scintillating scenes pouring from your cup that runneth over.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Roy, I had huge fun writing these and I’m so glad you had fun reading them. Thank you very much for your kind words of appreciation and encouragement.

      Reply
  2. Yael

    It’s great to chill out to your verbal musings on a hot July afternoon Susan. Thank you for this fine moody bunch.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      What a smile-inducing comment, Yael. I am thrilled my moody musings hit the spot. Thank you!

      Reply
  3. Joseph S. Salemi

    Roy is absolutely right about this. Two of the poems (I and III) are actually complaints about boredom, ennui, and the annoyances that come from troublesome persons. If someone in real life came to us with such complaints, we’d just express some pro forma sympathy and excuse ourselves to seek more interesting company, and write off the complainer as a depressing grouch.

    But this isn’t the real world — this is the hyper-reality called poetry, created by fictive imitation. Susan uses her linguistic skills to create poems that are verbally DELIGHTFUL and ENTERTAINING for the reader, regardless of the speaker’s professed unhappiness. This is what effective poetry is supposed to do — not preach, not edify, not teach lessons, not convince or convert, not tell our personal problems. Just be a delightful and entertaining confection of words!

    Poems II and IV are descriptive meditations, the first using the strange metaphor of “marrow” as a kind of conceit to represent the character of meek persons. Number IV presents the delight of relaxing in a pleasant garden while ignoring the noisy absurdities of current events. This second poem is clearly related to I and III, since the speaker in all three of them seems to be saying “Screw it all, I don’t want to hear from anybody about anything — just leave me in peace in my garden.”

    Every sane person feels this way at times. If you don’t, there’s something wrong with you.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Joe, I just love your comment – “… this isn’t the real world — this is the hyper-reality called poetry, created by fictive imitation” is a standout for me. Writing poems like these keeps me sane in an increasingly insane world, and to know my outlandish offerings delight and entertain makes me very happy indeed. The real world inspires my works… when one looks at the mad and mundane through a poetic lens, it can only lead to a smile. Joe, thank you very much indeed!

      Reply
  4. Russel Winick

    Thank you Susan, for the delightful education in poetic forms, on top of your singular alliteration and entertaining messages. I wonder whose humdrum life you’re writing about — not yours, I trust.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Russel, thank you so much. For me, humdrum has its appeal – an appeal that is growing in these manic days of mayhem.

      Reply
  5. Mark Stellinga

    Susan, if you happen to find (or are seeing) an exceptional shrink, would you kindly text me his/or/her number… I think you and I are sailing on the same Titanic! Hang in there, toots – 🙂

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Mark, we are most definitely on the same Titanic. As for a shrink – all the shrinks I know are seeing shrinks who are seeing shrinks… I tend to shrink away from shrinks. As ever, thank you for making me smile.

      Reply
  6. Brian Yapko

    What an entertaining quartet of poems, Susan, focused on the linked subjects of undramatic normalcy, good boundaries and, in the last two poems, a sanity-craving escapism. I love how each of the poems is in a different form and yet the colors all match – a tetraptych indeed. You chose an art word for this poetic set – perhaps asking us to notice the unique visual aspect of four different poetic forms. I find that interesting as well as the slightly cryptic title: “Simply Chilling”. There’s possibly a triple entendre here, possibly only a double. Is there a dark subtext to these poems to give support to a “chilling” (as in creepy) interpretation? Your poems are wry, but I don’t see that level of darkness. So I think we’re left solely with the “chilling” double entendre of “relaxing” and of “become detached and unemotional.” Both are highly relevant here.

    I think there’s a certain mild self-mocking in the villanelle. It assumes an ostensibly critical attitude towards normalcy and sanity. Humdrum. Boring. Perhaps. But I think there’s more. I’m reminded of something I heard once from a woman who was bored with her life after having suffered many traumas. Her revelation? It wasn’t boring. It was serene. Drama-queen that she had always been, she just had never recognized the difference. In a world of riots and storms and civil unrest, I say embrace the vanilla and pistachio whenever you can! Serenity is priceless. Ultimately, I think that’s where your villanelle goes: “I’m swathed in beige—an aura I adore./No flapping ear will hear me grouse or groan.” In other words, “maybe you find me a bit dull but I’m HAPPY this way. And I’m tired of your drama. So deal with it.”

    The “mellow marrow of the meek” in your triolet is a lovely alliterative phrase whose meaning, I believe, turns on how we view meekness. Given the hidden nature of the meekness described here and yet how beautifully it blooms in the personality, I would guess that this is the meekness we find in the Beatitudes – not a doormat meekness but, as Mr. AI says, “a strength under control, a gentleness and humility that allows one to be teachable, yielding and patient, particularly in the face of adversity or injustice.”

    “Rankles Rondel” delightfully extolls the virtues of having good boundaries and affirmatively seeking out the serene life – but this time more attractively described than in the villanelle. This one is less ironic and more direct. Give up the drama and the benefits are a happy life with the one I love.

    Lastly, there is the rispetto (an interesting, tight little form.) You make a very good argument for finding a garden space in one’s life (even a purely imaginary one) in which to seek refuge from the misery of the world. From the green pastures of Psalm 23 to Xanadu to the Secret Garden is there a more productive and desirable use for literature?

    These are not the emanations of a troubled mind. I think these poems are an expression of resilience, self-awareness and a celebration of the ability to tune the crap out. “Chilling” as both relaxation and self-caring detachment.

    I think I’m going to yawn and snooze now. Perhaps its time for a nap.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Brian, your comment is a gleaming gem, sparkling with insight and wit that delights me and lights up my poetic tetraptych! As ever, I’m thoroughly impressed by your keen eye for the finer details. The way you’ve unraveled the threads of serenity, boundaries, and that wink of a “Simply Chilling” title with its naughty double (or triple?) entendre. Your take on the villanelle’s embrace of beige as a badge of serene happiness, not dullness is spot on, and the way you caught the Beatitudes-inspired meekness in the triolet’s “mellow marrow” thrills me – it’s exactly that quiet strength I hoped to evoke. Your appreciation for the rondel’s no-nonsense snub of drama and the rispetto’s dreamy escape to a daisy lawn feels like you’ve strolled through my Eden of words and picked every blossom with care. Thank you for seeing the resilience and mindful mischief in these pieces – you have peeked into my poetic soul, and I thank you wholeheartedly for your perspicacious observations. I hope you enjoyed your nap – you most certainly earned it.

      Reply
  7. Martin Briggs

    I enjoyed these enormously, Susan. The cumulative effect (on me, at least) was of lazy, good-humoured resignation, and disengagement from the everyday. Who introduced the species pillocus britannicus to the US, I wonder?

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Martin, thank you very much indeed – the introduction to the US of the species “pillocus britannicus” has me laughing heartily! As Joe quite rightly says – they are everywhere. I fear I may be one of them!

      Reply
  8. Michael Vanyukov

    I had to have a martini, or it would be the effect akin to reading too much Chekhov. . Real masterpieces, with the emphasis on “master”.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Michael, what a wonderful comment – a comment that has left me stirred, not shaken… a comment that makes me want to chink martini glasses with you and toast Chekhov… although, I will admit that The Cherry Orchard left me feeling rather sad.

      Reply
  9. Theresa Werba

    Susan, I admire your use of the various descriptors in “A Boring Villanelle”: humdrum, bore, monotony, listless, “lack in luster” (clever turn of phrase), vanilla, torpor, beige– and how deftly you wove them together into the perfect homage to a boring person!! The use of the villanelle form works especially well because of its characteristic repetitiveness. Honestly this is the polar opposite of my life– I so rarely am ever bored, in fact I am generally overloaded and overstimulated!! Anyway fine work!!!

    Reply

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