villanelles

How Do We Make Up For Lost Time?
by Katharine Walls How do we make up for lost time? In lonely hours we try and hide. The waste of a day is the greatest crime.

While smart and strong at our prime, Through the best years we seem to glide. How do we make up for lost time?

Heavy from work and soot and grime, We come home with a longer stride. The waste of a day is the greatest crime.

Eager to move on, ready for the climb, We keep moving forward because of our pride. How do we make up for lost time?

In talent and ignorance so sublime, We can give up after we say we've tried. The waste of a day is the greatest crime.

How will we feel when the bells start to chime? When all we know is gone and died? How do we make up for lost time? The waste of a day is the greatest crime.

**Where Compassion Begins**
by Alison Doernberg '95

This is the place where compassion begins. A desolate echo from every cell wall: How do we ever release from our sins?

Skulls smashed with crowbars, guns fired with grins -- the gruesome envisioning holds us in thrall. This is the place where compassion begins.

Barbed wire encircling the heartbeats within these chambers, now cast in a shuddering pall. How do we ever release from our sins?

Our compasses tuned by the places we've been, our children inherit our penance, our gall. This is the place where compassion begins.

In every faith, we are taught to forgive, in answering a higher spiritual call. How do we ever release from our sins?

We claim evil pulses from under their skin, but there's no trait in one that is not in us all. This is the place where compassion begins. How do we ever release from our sins?

The War
by Katie Klingenberg

The war has ravaged it all. Nothing stood in the way. It was all lost in the brawl.

Nothing left for us to enthrall, No motivation even to pray. The war has ravaged it all.

So devastated, I can't even recall What I held dear yesterday. It was all lost in the brawl.

Out of the fiery wreck, we crawl. Only our wits will we obey. The war has ravaged it all.

And we will stand upon the wall To see the result of this fray. It was all lost in the brawl.

I only wish I could stand up tall And say to them what I need to say: The war has ravaged it all; It was all lost in the brawl.