Theme : Be as kind to yourself as you are to others

Dear mothers, wives and daughters!
You don’t need to don the cape of a superwoman,
Be as kind to yourself as you are to others.

Embrace your life with a wide spectrum of colors,
Failures happen–you don’t need a perfect ten,
Dear mothers, wives and daughters!

The chores can wait, but not your youthful summers,
Embark on that planned solo trip–you don’t have to be always present for your children,
Be as kind to yourself as you are to others.

Success is not a yardstick, your mental health matters,
In the pursuit of chasing goals, don’t encage your mind in a prison,
Dear mothers, wives and daughters!

To the criticisms you hear, generously apply filters,
The unwarranted comments, learn to shun,
Be as kind to yourself as you are to others.

In the journey of life that constantly meanders,
Though you are constantly on the run,
Dear mothers, wives and daughters!
Be as kind to yourself as you are to others.

***
Written as a 𝗩𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲
The Villanelle is known for its repeated lines and a refrain. It consists of five tercets and a quatrain (6 stanzas or 19 lines in total). The form is expressed this way:

A1 b A2 (1st tercet)
a b A1 (2nd tercet)
a b A2 (3rd tercet)
a b A1 (4th tercet)
a b A2 (5th tercet)
a b A1 A2 (a quatrain; last stanza-serves as the poem’s concluding lines)
The capitals are for the refrains and lowercase letters are for the rhymes.

𝗣𝗶𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁 : 𝗣𝗶𝘅𝗮𝗯𝗮𝘆