Nurtured By Nature (A Retourne) Poem by Dawn Slanker

The retourne is all about repetition. It contains four quatrains and each line has eight syllables. The trick is that the first stanza's second line must also be the second stanza's first line, the first stanza's third line is the third stanza's first, and the first stanza's fourth line is the fourth stanza's first. Retournes do not have to rhyme.

Nurtured by Nature

Contemplate the earth around you
What wonders can your eyes behold?
Perhaps a flowers fragrant blooms
And insects deep within the soil.

What wonders can your eyes behold?
The gift of life you'll often see
Living within the fertile land
Nurturing all of human kind.

Perhaps a flowers fragrant blooms
Can ease the fear of darkened skies
Ensuring growth through tempest dower.
Providing nature's guests, a gift.

And insects deep within the soil
Must mend and till the earth anew
They give what other creatures take
Assuring life will never end.

©2008 Dawn Slanker