To think what some writers and artistes had to endure at the hands of those who feared them for their undying worth...

Villanelle: Whenever Life stamps me down under heels

Whenever Life stamps me down under heels
I think of those who died living deaths young
So say i who am i to bleat meek squeals

Ages gone by how many mute appeals
Fell on deaf bigot ears great lives un-sung
Whenever Life stamps me down under heels

Who dared shift Earth from centre to out-fields
How Galileo ate humble pie dung
So say i who am i to bleat meek squeals

Nuanced scales stringed by chords neuronic peals
Had Mozart in debt into common grave flung
Whenever Life stamps me down under heels

Van Gogh Cervantes Dostoyevski shields
Me from vainly emptying my spent lung
So say i who am i to bleat meek squeals

If my words can’t Gorki's lives serve dire meals
Then would not mine and your pen seem low-strung
Whenever Life stamps me down under heels
So say i who am i to bleat meek squeals

© T. Wignesan - Paris, 2017