alexiscartwheel | Poem of the Day: "The Shrinking Lonesome Sestina"

I didn't really know anything about Miller Williams, other than that he wrote this poem that I really like, so I checked him out on Wikipedia. Apparently he read at Clinton's second inauguration, and he's Lucinda Williams dad. Awesome! Anyway, my ignorance about Williams aside, I first encountered "The Shrinking Lonesome Sestina" in a poetry writing class my freshman year in college. The sestina is a tricky form. The same six words are repeated at the ends of the lines of each stanza in strict pattern. Done poorly, the repetition seems clunky and contrived. Done well, you get this poem.

The Shrinking Lonesome Sestina

Somewhere in everyone's head something points toward home,
a dashboard's floating compass, turning all the time
to keep from turning. It doesn't matter how we come
to be wherever we are, someplace where nothing goes
the way it went once, where nothing holds fast
to where it belongs, or what you've risen or fallen to.

What the bubble always points to,
whether we notice it or not, is home.
It may be true that if you move fast
everything fades away, that given time
and noise enough, every memory goes
into the blackness, and if new ones come-

small, mole-like memories that come
to live in the furry dark-they, too,
curl up and die. But Carol goes
to high school now. John works at home
what days he can to spend some time
with Sue and the kids. He drives too fast.

Ellen won't eat her breakfast.
Your sister was going to come
but didn't have the time.
Some mornings at one or two
or three I want you home
a lot, but then it goes.

It all goes.
Hold on fast
to thoughts of home
when they come.
They're going to
less with time.

Time
goes
too
fast.
Come
home.

Forgive me that. One time it wasn't fast.
A myth goes that when the years come
then you will, too. Me, I'll still be home.