Mother’s Day Poems

In a continuing celebration of Mother’s Day, I offer two villanelles my own mother wrote in college. My mother was both an engineer and a poet. These verses hint at those two dimensions of her personality.

Our First Try at a Villanelle

I had to write a villanelle,
To try my hand at rhyme,
I could not do it very well.

I tried to make the poem jell,
I didn’t have much time,
I had to write a villanelle.

I went into the college dell
To form my work sublime.
I could not do it very well.

What I brought forth  hate to tell.
To read it is a crime.
I had to write a villanelle.

To make it tinkle like a bell,
Melodious as a chime.
I could not do it very well.

I give you, then, my parting knell –
Oh how I hate this rhyme,
I had to write a villanelle
I could not do it very well.

Experiment # 8: Instructor Should Be Present

Pipette your acid into solution,
Not acid into base.
Titrate at infinite dilution.

Eliminate chloride pollution,
There must not be a trace.
Pipette your acid into solution,

Reacting direct substitution,
Explosion chance will be the case.
Titrate at infinite dilution.

Don’t heat your mixture up to fusion,
Or watch out for your face.
Pipette your acid into solution.

Allow the scales a revolution,
For this is not a race.
Titrate at infinite dilution.

If you preserve your constitution,
Then make your tongs a brace.
Pipette your acid into solution.
Titrate at infinite dilution.