• Submit Poetry
  • About Us
  • Members
  • Support SCP
Thursday, October 9, 2025
Society of Classical Poets
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Art
    • Children’s Poetry
    • Covid-19
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Found Poems
    • Human Rights in China
    • Humor
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • Terrorism
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
  • Poetry Forms
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Pantoum
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondeau
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Sestina
    • Shape Poems
    • Sonnet
    • Terza Rima
    • Triolet
    • Villanelle
  • Great Poets
    • Dante Alighieri
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Homer
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Robert Frost
    • William Blake
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books
No Result
View All Result
Society of Classical Poets
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Art
    • Children’s Poetry
    • Covid-19
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Found Poems
    • Human Rights in China
    • Humor
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • Terrorism
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
  • Poetry Forms
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Pantoum
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondeau
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Sestina
    • Shape Poems
    • Sonnet
    • Terza Rima
    • Triolet
    • Villanelle
  • Great Poets
    • Dante Alighieri
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Homer
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Robert Frost
    • William Blake
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books
No Result
View All Result
Society of Classical Poets
No Result
View All Result
Home Poetry Beauty

‘Over the Hill’: A Trimeter Villanelle and Other Poetry by Cheryl Corey

September 11, 2024
in Beauty, Poetry, Villanelle
A A
12

.

Over the Hill

Now that you’re “over the hill,”
Relax. Enjoy the view.
Life’s a beach, so chill.

Work? You’ve had your fill.
It’s time to just do you;
And now that you’re over the hill,

RELATED

‘When Helen Keller Met Mark Twain’: A Poem by Brian Yapko

‘When Helen Keller Met Mark Twain’: A Poem by Brian Yapko

September 21, 2025
Five Rose Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, Translated by Alan Orsborn

‘Roses Are Red’: A Poem by Evan Tester

September 10, 2025

You’ve better ways to fill
The coming days. Your new
Life’s a beach, so chill.

Resolve to live a tranquil
Life. Let cares be few,
Now that you’re over the hill.

Hear the warblers trill.
Observe the sky, it’s blue.
Life’s a beach, so chill.

What dream can you fulfill?
What course can you pursue,
Now that you’re over the hill?
Life’s a beach, so chill.

.

.

Falling Star

So here you are. It all comes down to this:
You’re not some figure painted on a Grecian urn,
Forever young and playing timbrels turn
By turn. You had your chance, a genesis

As good as any. That breathless urgency
Of youth is gone. Well what did you expect?
So give yourself the time to self-reflect,
Or not, but face your new reality—

Retired. You knew that it was bound to happen,
By choice or fate’s design. You’ve known success
And failure, illness, grief, the loneliness
And pain of unfulfilled desire; but when

Will you accept that this is where you are?
You blaze the western sky, a falling star.

            First published in Passager

.

.

Cheryl Corey is a poet who lives in Connecticut. “Three Sisters,” her trio of poems about the sisters of Fate which were first published by the Society of Classical Poets, are featured in “Gods and Monsters,” an anthology of mythological poems (MacMillan Children’s Books, 2023).

ShareTweetShare
The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.
Read Our Comments Policy Here
Next Post
‘There Are Masters and Then There Are Masters’ and Other Poetry by Phillip Whidden

'There Are Masters and Then There Are Masters' and Other Poetry by Phillip Whidden

‘Solitaire’ and Other Poetry by Stephen M. Dickey

'Solitaire' and Other Poetry by Stephen M. Dickey

‘Citizens’ (For Donald J. Trump) by Joseph Charles MacKenzie

'When Your Foe Is Perilously Strong': A Villanelle by Maria Panayi

Comments 12

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson says:
    1 year ago

    Cheryl, you have captured my retirement phase feelings perfectly. “Over the Hill” does not mean an emotionally depressing ending. We can still go out like the “Falling Star” in a blaze of glory leaving a trail over the horizon.

    Reply
    • Cheryl Corey says:
      1 year ago

      Roy, I find it hard to articulate the mixed feelings that I have about this time of my life. I tell myself that it’s meant to be, but the transition has often felt very strange. I guess what I’m trying to say with these poems is that there’s always something more that you can strive to achieve. It ain’t over til the fat lady sings, as the expression goes.

      Reply
  2. Jeremiah Johnson says:
    1 year ago

    Cheryl, I love the straightforward eloquence of “Falling Star”. It’s got all the directness of the best free verse, accompanied with the beauty of the classical form. As Wordsworth commented on the sonnet form, “Nuns fret not at their convent’s narrow room.”

    And, while I’m referencing Romantic poets, I love the shout-out to Keats, and how it’s more than just an Easter egg – how you actually get some mileage out of it.

    I share a weekly sonnet with my college students, and, though its not the time of life they’re in, I think they will appreciate the style of your poem – not to mention it’s good for them to occasionally get a glimpse of the other end of their aspirations!

    Reply
    • Cheryl Corey says:
      1 year ago

      I hope you can impress upon your students how quickly the years go by. You wake up one day and you’re 60, yet it seems like only yesterday that you were 40.

      Reply
  3. Paul A. Freeman says:
    1 year ago

    Of course, we’d all prefer to be ‘under-the-hill’, but have to make the best of it. The trick is to stay active, as your last stanza in ‘Over the Hill’ advises.

    I like the philosophy of ‘Falling Star’, that we need to blaze as long as possible, even as we’re falling.

    Thanks for the reads, Cheryl.

    Reply
    • Cheryl Corey says:
      1 year ago

      To be active, yes; but also, to stay as healthy and be as strong as you can be for as long as possible. Every time I pick up the newspaper and see that another person that I went to high school with has died, it freaks me out. They never got to enjoy any retirement or “golden years”. And a neighbor of ours recently had a bad fall. One day he’s in his own home, the next he’s stuck in a nursing home. So yes, Paul, let’s keep blazing!

      Reply
  4. Margaret Coats says:
    1 year ago

    Good villanelle showing ambiguity about retirement, especially in the refrain line “Life’s a beach,” bringing to mind the common expression, “Life’s a bitch.” In addition, “so chill” seems to have a condescending tone to it, and of course “over the hill,” while it could have the congratulatory connotation of having overcome obstacles, is probably derogatory.

    But things could be worse, as in the other trimeter villanelle I can think of:

    https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/villanelle-8

    Interesting that the poet John Davidson was dealing with the contrasting problem of not making enough money from his work to support his family, even though he was living apart from them for that very purpose.

    As for “Falling Star,” I sometimes visit an exclusive retirement home when the retirees joke that they are all FIPs (formerly important persons). Keep up the good humor and the artistic work, Cheryl. You are quite right that attention to healthspan is just as important as attention to lifespan. Best wishes in new opportunities!

    Reply
    • Cheryl Corey says:
      1 year ago

      Thank you for taking the time to read and comment. I came across a trimeter villanelle, “The House On The Hill”, by Edwin A. Robinson, and thought that I’d give it go. https://poets.org/poem/house-hill

      Reply
  5. James A. Tweedie says:
    1 year ago

    Cheryl,

    It’s been eight years for me, and I wouldn’t trade one of them for any of the ones that came before, nor any of the former years for the latter! All marvelous!

    Loved your tackling the tri-meter challenge. It reads well and smoothly segues in some important insights.

    As for “Falling Star,” the whole is wonderfully summed up in the words, “Face your new reality.” In my case, I would go so far as to suggest that we, whenever possible, “embrace” it!

    Then again, there are these words I recently saw on a t-shirt: “Hill? What hill? I don’t remember any hill?”

    Thanks for your more helpful, sober, and insightful take on retirement!

    Reply
    • Cheryl Corey says:
      1 year ago

      I’m coming to embrace it more and more, James.

      Reply
  6. Shamik Ban says:
    1 year ago

    Falling Star was an eye-opener. Although I’m young, the third stanza hit me hard. Especially the lines:
    “You knew that it was bound to happen…
    …And pain of unfulfilled desire”
    That’s because just like everyone else, I can’t escape old age either; so whenever I think of it, I get engulfed by fear. I believe true contentment comes from the fulfillment of long-stored desires. Lucky are those who fulfill them. Thanks for these poems, Cheryl.

    Reply
  7. Maria says:
    1 year ago

    Have enjoyed reading these beautiful poems. I can relate to the subject matter very much after writing my first villanelle in my retirement but I need to write one now in the standard form. Not as easy as it sounds. Thank you for the inspiration.
    .

    Reply

Leave a Reply to James A. Tweedie Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Discussions

  • Garima Obrah on The Society of Classical Poets 2025 Haiku Competition
  • Prashant Rawal on The Society of Classical Poets 2025 Haiku Competition
  • Michael Vanyukov on ‘Dear Blabby’s Advice for the Clueless’: A Poem by Roy E. Peterson
  • Michael Vanyukov on ‘Absalom, Absalom’: A Poem by Brian Yapko
  • Sreeja Mohandas on The Society of Classical Poets 2025 Haiku Competition
  • Amie on The Society of Classical Poets 2025 Haiku Competition
  • Katherine Davies on The Society of Classical Poets 2025 Haiku Competition
  • Leslie Hendrickson-Baral on The Society of Classical Poets 2025 Haiku Competition
  • Paulette Calasibetta on ‘Absalom, Absalom’: A Poem by Brian Yapko
  • Joseph S. Salemi on ‘Absalom, Absalom’: A Poem by Brian Yapko
  • Prae Pathanasethpong on The Society of Classical Poets 2025 Haiku Competition
  • Venessa Lee-Estevez on The Society of Classical Poets 2025 Haiku Competition
Facebook Twitter Youtube

Archive

Categories

Quick Links

  • Submit Poetry
  • About Us
  • Become a Member
  • Members List
  • Support the Society
  • Advertisement Placement
  • Comments Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

Welcome Back!

Sign In with Facebook
Sign In with Google
OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Sign Up with Facebook
Sign Up with Google
OR

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Poems
    • Beauty
    • Culture
    • Satire
    • Art
    • Children’s Poetry
    • Covid-19
    • Ekphrastic
    • Epic
    • Epigrams and Proverbs
    • Found Poems
    • Human Rights in China
    • Humor
    • Music
    • Performing Arts
    • Riddles
    • Science
    • Song Lyrics
    • Terrorism
    • The Environment
    • The Raven
  • Poetry Forms
    • Acrostic
    • Alexandroid
    • Alliterative
    • Blank Verse
    • Chant Royal
    • Clerihew
    • Haiku
    • Limerick
    • Pantoum
    • Rhupunt
    • Rondeau Redoublé
    • Rondeau
    • Rondel
    • Rubaiyat
    • Sapphic Verse
    • Sestina
    • Shape Poems
    • Sonnet
    • Terza Rima
    • Triolet
    • Villanelle
  • Great Poets
    • Dante Alighieri
    • Edgar Allan Poe
    • Emily Dickinson
    • Geoffrey Chaucer
    • Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
    • Homer
    • John Keats
    • John Milton
    • Robert Frost
    • William Blake
    • William Shakespeare
    • William Wordsworth
  • Love Poems
  • Contests
  • SCP Academy
    • Educational
    • Teaching Classical Poetry—A Guide for Educators
    • Poetry Forms
    • The SCP Journal
    • Books

© 2025 SCP. WebDesign by CODEC Prime.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.