I like me some Villanelle once in a while. Maybe more than once in a while. I have written a few of my own, but the one shown below was written by Dylan Thomas, and is a widely used example of the Villanelle form.

* In case you always wanted to know:
A villanelle has 19 lines, consisting of five tercets and a concluding quatrain.

The rhyme scheme is aba, with the same end-rhyme for every first and last line of each tercet and the final two lines of the quatrain.

Two of the lines are repeated:
The first line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the second and the fourth stanzas, and as the second-to-last line in the concluding quatrain.
The third line of the first stanza is repeated as the last line of the third and the fifth stanzas, and as the last line in the concluding quatrain.

I have always loved this by Dylan Thomas:

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
There will eventually come a point in all of our lives when we're unable to do some of the things we were perfectly capable of in the past. I myself would like to skip that part of life and just keel over when I'm 99, healthy as a horse. But we don't get to make that choice.

Dad developed a condition called Trigeminal Neuralgia a couple years ago. It's a strange condition, that in his case, results in severe shock-type pains in his face. Because of this, he takes a great deal of medication. He's always been in relatively good health, so it's very hard to see him struggling with the effects of the meds; the main one being constant drowsiness, maybe lethargy. Beyond the actual drug effects I think he's simply depressed about it all, besides. He seems to have given up on life in a lot of ways. That is a very hard thing to watch your parent go through.

He used to go for walks, putter around with lawn and driveway chores on his lawn tractor, maintain his bird feeders, go fishing, read books... and every day, I mean EVERY day he would do the crossword from the paper.

He has given up most everything I listed above, now, except he does still get out to fill the bird feeders.

His driving skills are not what they used to be. He gets confused about meds, can't always remember if he's taken them or not. He's tired a lot, very tired, and sleeps much of the day sometimes. He told me last weekend he's given up the daily crossword puzzle. Of all these things, that struck me like a dagger to the heart. Because he sleeps all day, he often stays awake well into the night. He recently purchased something he saw on an info-mercial, late at night, with his credit card, and was taken advantage of by the sleazy-slick salesperson on the other end of the phone line, to the tune of a lot of money. He has never previously in his life made a credit card purchase from a tv info-mercial.

So, you're saying, it's a simple solution: he should not be driving, he should not have a credit card, blah blah.

I will disagree. There is a thing called dignity. Who would think there is a time in one's life when someone else can take that from you? My friend at work says when he's at the end of his life, he's going to sail off, far away, over the ocean and into a sea storm and let nature take it's course.

I would not like to mess with anyone's dignity. What I hope can happen is something more like this:
* We as a family should come up a plan to give my parents some help with the day to day stuff they might want a hand with; driving longer distances, yard chores, house chores. This could be as simple as each of us offering to help out, more than now and then - more like a scheduled volunteer time slot.
* I would hope that Dad, on his own, would conclude that while he can probably still drive to grocery/gas store near their house, maybe he should not be driving to Brainerd.
* I would also hope that he carefully considers whether or not he should be doing certain heavier yard chores and things like that, and ask for help if he needs it.
* I would hope that the family becomes more diligent about visiting mom and dad (and this includes me). They love company, they love to see the grandkids, there's no better time like the present. There's no better present than your time.

I love my Dad.
I do not want him to go gentle into that good night.
I will do everything I can to help him rage, rage against the dying of the light.