I try to let go gracefully
The things that belong to the young
Even less extreme sports must go
But memories remain of course…
The things that belong to the young
The youthful bloom on firmer flesh
The ups and downs of first-time love
(Without risk there can be no love…)
Even less extreme sports must go
The slightest risk to fragile bones
Now rates a resounding no-no!
Gentle exercise suffices…
But memories remain of course
A landscape filled with friends and loves
Some still remain alive – some lost
From an atlas of life and love…
© Andrew Wilson 2026
Over at dVerse Poets Pub, Laura Bloomsbury in Meeting the Bar: Critique and Craft, invites us to write a poem using a French poetry form – very similar to the more familiar Quatern but for today we focus on The Retourne
unrhymed
16 lines made up of 4 quatrains
8 syllables per line
a tumbling refrain using the last 3 lines of the first stanza thus:
xABC Axxx Bxxx Cxxx.