Going to Poetry School

I haven't written anything for quite a long time. I suppose it must be because I have been too busy with Hugh's Poetry School. This regular Wednesday morning session has been very interesting and informative besides being most enjoyable. But it has also been challenging. We have been exposed to different kinds and  forms of poetry and then set the task of writing poems in the specific genres.  I have never been fond of using any formal structure in my poetry, but the discipline of writing something as rigidly defined as a sonnet has, I know, been very good for me. I have, to date, written three sonnets.  I battled over each one for days. But, to my surprise, when we turned to villanelles I found I could churn them out at the drop of a ballpoint. Here is my latest:

The companion

There is someone always following me

I’m sure, I’m sure, there’s someone there.

but when I turn, there’s nothing I can see

In the soft rustle of the dry leaves of a tree

and in the sighing grasses I can hear

there’s someone always following me

Sometimes walking alone beside the sea,

the splashing of his feet tells me he is near,

but when I turn there’s nothing I can see.

However fast I run I cannot flee

I try to hide away, but everywhere

I go there’s someone following me

That sound like the faint buzzing of a bee

I know he’s breathing at my back.  I fear

to turn, although there’s nothing I can see.

What can he mean by it? And who is he ?

What does he want? Why does he care?

He never speaks; he only follows me

and when I turn there’s nothing I can see