Tonight at the Short Form Poetry workshop we got acquainted with a poetic device called the anaphora.

To paraphrase, we learned that “anaphora” comes from Greek for “a carrying up or back’.  It refers to a type of parallelism created with successive phrases or lines beginning with the same words.  These often resemble a litany. The repetition can be as simple as a single word or as long as an entire phrase.

As one of the world’s oldest poetic techniques, anaphora is used in much of the world’s religious and devotional poetry.  This includes numerous Biblical Psalms.  Anaphora can create a driving rhythm by the recurrence of the same sound. It can also intensify the emotion of the poem.

Bearing all of this in mind, my first attempt in this form is something I wrote for Ally.

My Forever Love
by Michael Romani

You tell me you love me
With the things that you do
You tell me you love me
By always being true
You tell me you love me
With every word and kiss
You tell me you love me
And I know I would always miss
How you tell me you love me
You are my forever love

You tell me that you love me
By the things you don't do
You tell me you love me
I need never worry about you
You tell me you love me
By giving your all to me
You tell me that you love me
By fitting into my life so comfortably
You tell me you love me
You are my forever love

(c) May 9, 2017  Michael Romani