Looks like I get to buy a new hearing aid. The lady said to send her the part, but if they decide to call that a repair job, it'll be because they really really like me. I conducted a walkthrough of one of my documents today--my first walkthrough since I left MBNA. It went pretty well; at least my boss' boss said so. They're on a big paperless kick, so I taught myself Live Meeting, and we all sat around the room (and several other places) and they followed along on their computers. I made edits live, just like I used to, except we didn't need a projector. It's a workable approach. Today was Pi Day! Did anyone celebrate? I brought a pie to the meeting, and everyone had a piece. The lady at America Hears said my ballad was lovely, by the way. But I have moved on in my studies (I certainly intend to write more ballads when the mood strikes me--it's now something I can do on purpose). The next form is called the Villanelle—it's a medieval Italian form that moved into English. Five tercets (tercet=3-line stanza), aba rhyme scheme, and a quatrain, abaa. The first and last lines of the first stanza are repeated throughout the poem in alternating stanzas as shown in my humble effort below. The poem ends with a quatrain that ends with the two repeated lines. The type and number of feet don't matter, but iambic is most common. When you write a villanelle, pick end words with lots of rhymes--you'll need seven a's and six b's. Get yourself a good basketful of words, and it's not too hard; I pretty much tossed my off my first attempt. And the two lines that repeat—well, give them some thought. They need to make sense in all the stanzas. This form has become fairly popular in modern poetry, I'm told. Where's the poem? I posted it over on Allpoetry. You can find a more general link to my Allpoetry site on the left of this page.