I was enjoying sitting in the garden, pondering the beauty and the timelessness of nature, compared to the fickleness and unreliability we see in our leaders and found myself writing a villanelle. First draft below – may yet be edited but I wanted to share it now.

Constancy

Reminders of a life, a dream now torn
Scabia, flags and tulips, forget me nots
Behind the privet hedge a rolling lawn

A rose garden beyond the lilied pond
Clematis climbing up the ancient wall
Reminders of a life, a dream now torn.

Lavender fragrance rubbed to soft release
Between the index finger and the thumb
Behind the privet hedge a rolling lawn

Pansies, violets and petunias
Share beauty, each in their allotted time
Reminders of a life, a dream now torn.

The red hot pokers in the flower bed
Stand to attention for a code now dead
Behind the privet hedge a rolling lawn

Such constancy before my eyes arrayed
While principles have elsewhere been betrayed
Reminders of a life, a dream now torn
Behind the privet hedge a rolling lawn.