Dear Son, I Just Need to Know You’re Alive (Kyrielle)

Since it’s poetry month, I thought I would try out some new forms and I bumped into a great blog post from A Different Perspective listing out 13 poetic form prompts. A big thanks to them for the inspiration

Prompt 8

Write an Kyrielle poem or

Write a poem incorporating the theme of servitude

A Different Perspective by muisopsis

Here are the guidelines for a Kyrielle:

– Made up of two or more four line stanzas
– Each line 8 made up of 8 syllables
– Rhyme Scheme can be aabb, abab, aaab, or abcb
– The last line of each stanza repeats as a refrain

This sounds fairly technical, but the 8 syllable short lines keep it reasonable. Let’s give it a try. I haven’t yet decided on the subject of this poem so not sure if I will include the optional theme or not. Let’s see what happens.

Dear Son, I Just Need to Know Your Alive

I’ve never felt so far away,
Like a continental divide.
Is this silence to make me pay?
I just need to know you’re alive.

My messages go unanswered;
You’ve declined all the calls I’ve tried;
Is this silence your sharp sword?
I just need to know you’re alive.

The last time you spoke in anger;
Mommy’s heart broke down as she cried;
Although your words truly hurt her,
I just need to know you’re alive.

Since, its been a war of silence;
Anger would mean loves not yet died
But is this just indifference?
I just need to know you’re alive.

I’ve never felt so far away,
Like a continental divide.
How did we ever get this way?
I just need to know you’re alive.

Well, I clearly needed to get a weight off of my chest and express my current state of distress about my son’s silence. I know he’s struggling and while I don’t claim to know his exact feelings I’ve certainly experienced my own struggles and can empathize. I also know what it’s like to just want to escape life. To exit. I know this feeling all too well. I think this is why the silence is so scary.

As for the poetic form, I think its quite worthy to revisit. I’m not loving this particular poem’s use of it as my feelings are very messy and so compartmentalizing them into a specific syllabic and rhyming scheme was probably too limiting in this instance. Maybe I’ll come back again later this month and give this form another go. Let’s see. For now, I got what I needed in expressing and sharing my worries.

Be well,

Monty

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• REDACTED
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