Love-All: A Villanelle

Written for Wea’ve Written Weekly.
Our PoW, Kim, challenges us to write
a poem about a person, real or imagined,
who was forced to leave their home.

Confirming the loss of his home in the 2025 California wildfires, Billy Crystal, 78, said in a statement: “Janice and I lived in our home since 1979. We raised our children and grandchildren here. Every inch of our house was filled with love. Beautiful memories that can’t be taken away. We are heartbroken but, with the love of our children and friends, we will get through this.” All that remains of the property is his tennis court. The title of my poem is a tennis score. In tennis, “love” means zero …. like a property reduced to nothing. It also reads as “love for all,” which is what Crystal said survived.

The laughing mask and weeping share one face.
For forty-six years, the canyon heard him play,
and love that made it a home outlasts the place.

He served a punchline like a tennis ace
to grandkids shrieking, One more joke! Okay?
The laughing mask and weeping share one face.

Then January winds gave fire its race
down Palisades ravines, a roaring gray;
the love that made it a home outlasts the place.

He walked the ash and couldn’t find a trace,
like something out of The Walking Dead, he’d say.
The laughing mask and weeping share one face.

Only the tennis court still holds its space,
its white lines clean where all the rubble lay;
the love that made it a home outlasts the place.

They say that comedy is grief plus grace.
He’ll take the court again, and serve, and play.
The laughing mask and weeping share one face;
the love that made it a home outlasts the place.

NAR©2026
#W3

Nancy’s Notes: A villanelle is comprised of 19 lines in total, with five tercets (three-line stanzas) with the final verse being a quatrain (four-line stanza). The rhyme scheme is ABA/ABA/ABA/ABA/ABA/ABAA. The very first line (A1) repeats as lines 6, 12, and 18. The third line (A2) repeats as lines 9,15, and 19. Together, A1 and A2 form the final couplet of the closing quatrain. I chose the villanelle because its two refrains keep coming back, the way grief and humor keep returning in a life like Billy Crystal’s. The first refrain carries the comedy vs tragedy theme. The second echoes his own statement that the love and memories can’t be taken away.

This is a news clip about the wildfires:

This is “Wildfire” by Watchhouse

W3 Prompt #234: Wea’ve Written Weekly

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