Looking for Answers

The question I must ask is why?

I know it’s oft’ been asked before.

Don’t troubles vanish when we die?

My mind’s fatigued; my heart is sore.

So tell me why I should press on.

I know it’s oft’ been asked before.

A longing, with my children gone –

The hole inside I’ll never fill.

So tell me why I should press on.

Is reason more than strength of will?

Or is there something else to mend

The hole inside I’ll never fill.

And just how final is the end?

Are soul and ashes turned to dust?

Or is there something else to mend?

At least for now, go on I must.

The question I must ask is why?

Are soul and ashes turned to dust?

Don’t troubles vanish when we die?

Today’s challenge provided by http://www.napowrimo.net/ in honor of National Poetry Month is to write a terzanelle. “A hybrid of the villanelle and terza rima, terzanelles consist of five three-line stanzas and a concluding quatrain. Lines and rhymes are chained throughout the poem, so that the middle line of each triplet is repeated as the last line of the following triplet (or, for the last triplet, in the concluding quatrain). The pattern goes like this: ABA/bCB/cDC/dED/eFE/fAFA or fFAA. You can use any meter or line length, though you may want to try to have all of your lines in the same meter!”