Heartbreak

For this is how the heart breaks

A falling bough shatters the ice,

To give every piece its own ache

Broken bits float on the frozen lake,

Splintered shards that tell no lies

For this is how the heart breaks

Never any noise does it make

As jagged edges slice old ties

To give every piece its own ache

Through long nights stars stay awake

Watching how the moon cries

For this is how the heart breaks

No matter the many lives at stake

At every turn unkind fate tries

To give every piece its own ache

In terror does the world quake

And shudder as love dies

For this is how the heart breaks

To give every piece its own ache

*I have attempted a villanelle (also known as villanesque), a nineteen-line poetic form consisting of five tercets followed by a quatrain. There are two refrains and two repeating rhymes, with the first and third line of the first tercet repeated alternately until the last stanza, which includes both repeated lines. The villanelle is an example of a fixed verse form. 

© 2014 Uma Venkatraman ~ All Rights Reserved