Sonnet

  The Golden Soldier ---for my grandfather He had a calming charm. He always spoke Of garden-basking instances of joy--- His apple yield; his acorn-laden oak Abuzz with busy squirrels, keen and coy. Each dusk he sipped a whisky in his chair, Eyes drinking in the shimmer of his wife....

  Alas! “Alas!” A word of grief and rueful mourning; A gut-punch from what was but is no more Or “almost was,” miscarried, died aborning. “Alas!” A raven croaking, “Nevermore.” “Alas!” Shall time deface, erase, surrender The still-warm memory of love’s last kiss? A gasping grasp at fading spectral splendor;...

  In the Days of the Green Comet (February, 2023) A green-tailed comet’s in the sky tonight; Neanderthals and cats with sabre teeth were last to see it glistening this bright. But neither now is wandering beneath this ice-and-dust phenomenon whose head bedazzles as it closes on the sun. When...

  Like a Book He reads me like a book, the One Who wrote Me; knows, it seems, each page of me by heart And can to my chagrin succinctly quote Each savory (and somewhat less so) part. His first draft was, of course, a work of art, But soon...

  Persona Assume a work identity, conform And hide behind an urban harlequin, Conceal the tattoo beneath a uniform, Desert yourself and cloak the genuine. The Greeks devised a rich formality, Dramatic masks of frozen mirth and gloom. A shaman’s rites in anonymity Demand an alien spiritual costume. Conceive of...

  Angel I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set free. —Michelangelo (attributed) One wonders what an angel does all day. Just sit there, wings slack, staring into space? But that assumes space-time is where she’ll stay. A comrade of the host that fell from grace?...

Unjust Trade   I. An endless wet: Earth’s gathered sea-salt tears Wept-swept before a rising, darkening gale, As dim horizon fades and disappears Behind a slave ship’s squared tri-masted sail. Her hold full-filled with human suffering, With chain-torn flesh sustained by lice-laced gruel, To serve the needs of cotton, cane...

. A Sonnet upon a Most Ungrateful Gnat Upon my back a spiteful gnat did sting, I cried aloud, and clapped my hand in pain; The knave returned, still buzzing on the wing, As though my torment were his chiefest gain. I struck him down, yet soon there came his...

. Hope By no means has my hope turned to despair. I’ve not the wakeful nights, the woeful gaze Up at the ceiling as I chew the day’s Disasters and a world beyond repair. I’ve not that inner desolation where Your every thought is but a paraphrase Of emptiness and...

. Band of Brothers A picture of two soldiers in their prime. A scribbled note in cursive on the back. “My Dearest Son, if ever comes a time When I am gone, whatever you may lack Or need, just phone this number. When you do, Just tell the man who...

. Autism Sonnet The lights are much too light and sounds too loud; And thoughts are only thought in black and white; Try to tolerate a middling crowd And talk so small, so pointless, so polite. To hyper-focus is the narrow way That leads to life, that few will ever...

. A Sonnet for My One True Love Forever let the night go on and on, My body to your softness gently pressed, Nor let the touch of shameful, blushing dawn, Wake me, part us, and end a lover’s rest. How I adore your smooth and silky form, And how...

. Sonnet XIII On days you do not need my sound embrace, When tenderness and warmth envelop you And Fortune shines upon your amber face And suffering and sorrow are but few, I wonder what your mind then does with me? From the shore the grey tide pulls away; Of...

. The Comedy of Rosalind ---As You Like It I show more mirth than I am mistress of. This forest and my folly prompted change Of sex, and my disguise dissembles love. I’m altered by men’s hose and doublet strange, While sweet Orlando carves on every tree The name I...

. On Shen Yun . I. The land of China. Deep in history That like a river flows with people and culture, Extending into misty mystery. But now this fascinating, gleaming treasure Is buried in the mud beneath the beast Of communism seeking to destroy The goodness and the beauty...

. How Many Homes? ---January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires Twelve thousand lost, from stricken memories more Schools, churches, meeting places, shops and homes Of residents and others moved away, Bereaved of yesterday disastrously. The concrete evidence that life was lived In cool or agonizing passageways Lies toxic waste in space...

. . Sonnet 1 I felt like trying something new today, And so I put my pen upon a page To mimic Shakespeare's famous olden way— A style which, I hear, was all the rage. So here I am committing fourteen lines, To document my thoughts dynamically: I think it...

. Snow Sonnet Where silent flakes of whiteness fill the air And cutting winds of winter come to rule The bitter storm of new year strips all bare With iciness at once perfect and cruel. We drift into an otherworldly realm Where spectral pallor shrouds the sleeping earth Such beauty...

. Dim and Not He carries one white candle in the space Beneath cathedral vaults. He has to hold His hand in front of it so just a trace Of light escapes. The candle’s flame shines gold Yet it is blocked by palm and fingers, so A forward gleam is...

. Imitating Shakespeare’s Sonnet 107 . Sonnet 107 __by William Shakespeare Not mine own fears, nor the prophetic soul Of the wide world dreaming on things to come, Can yet the lease of my true love control, Supposed as forfeit to a confined doom. The mortal moon hath her eclipse...

. Just Doin' Our Job As if they didn’t have enough to do already---harvesting the light to make food for the tree and seeing to it you and I have clean air every day---leaves slake their host tree’s constant thirst by managing the process whereby unseen roots will take the...

. Diners For single men alone, what impulse spurs us To find them everywhere? –the burned-out lights, the squat brick block, so many times repurposed, the worn, clichéd inside, lit over-bright: Plump rows of sticky pseudo-leather booths, And dusty ferns suspended from the ceiling. The waitress looms like Venus, sturdy...

. https://youtu.be/B9aMXFVpFEk . . Andrew Benson Brown's epic-in-progress, Legends of Liberty, chronicles the major events of the American Revolution. He writes history articles for American Essence magazine and resides in Missouri. Watch his Classical Poets Live videos here.

. O Lord, Let Me Not Fall O Lord, let me not fall today, I pray, Not in some vague or metaphoric way, As into sin or moral turpitude Or somewhat less than pious interludes. I’m talking, Lord, my face against the floor, The sidewalk, in some random corridor; Someplace...

. Horse Figurine —one inch by one point nine inch, 32,000 to 35,000 years before Giacometti's famous horse   A hallowed tiny horse, but missing legs, Comes down to us impossibly, or near In its impossibility.  No dregs Of artistry such items are.  They jeer At us for thinking we are...

. Elisha's Bones II Kings 4:32–37, 13:20–21 Elisha died, the prophet doubly strong In spirit, and his sepulcher was grand, For he had caused a lifeless child to stand And speak, then heard the mother’s grateful song. A withered elder passed away—erelong The bier was carried forth, with burial planned...

. Sonnet 83 A thankless task. You churn them singly out. They’re ordered chronologic’ly. And when someone asks idly what they’re all about, you can’t avow a single theme. But then you add as afterthought, “I like being arch”--- you’d think wit travels on iambic wheels. Alas, the modern earnestness...

. The Force of Dreams I dreamed of you last night.  I dreamed and dreamed, Yet more, as if there never had been dreams In me before.  Reality it seemed Had never been reality.  Green dreams Of Eden never could have been like you There in this night of nights....

. The Meaning of Pearl Necklaces Most pearls are prized because the luster of Their loveliness lies held in shapely spheres— Though never perfect.  Given with a love Strung out on strings of strength to last for years, The little globes repose on bodies made For fondness.  Warmth of skin...

. The Prestige of the Puppet-Master To be deceived must bring some satisfaction, For all are well aware of the illusion Yet most will play the dupe quite willingly; Indeed, they’ll pay good coin for cheap distraction, Preferring the excitements of confusion To the drab wasteland of sobriety. But let...

. A Heroic Crown of Sonnets in Honor of the Ever Virgin . ---1st Mystery: The Prophecy of Isaiah . The Timeless Song The timeless song of her virginity, Intoned by holy angels, signifies The consecration to the Trinity Of her who godly grandeur glorifies. As font of Christian being...

. A Sonnet for My Son on Father’s Day You coo her name in buoyant notes of joy Then watch her toddle, tickled by her grin. She spies the bug-eyed crab---her leggy toy In Daddy’s hands all set to twirl and spin--- To scuttle on the floor beneath her gaze....

. A Sonnet ---for my father, an avid gardener and feeder of wildlife, who recently underwent hip surgery No one shall intervene this afternoon. The well fed squirrel squats upon his branch; The chipmunk chills within his rocky room; Both stare expectantly, their faces blanch To see their lord emerge...

. Leopold and Loeb Or, the Consequences of Ideas A Frenchman’s thought-experiments Argued by Englishmen until A German stripped pure thought from sense; A second then conceived the will; And last, a third who said God died, Made will his god and from it sought The superman he prophesied--- Three...

. Love and Vipers for Harrison Butker, the football player criticized for supporting traditional views of women in a commencement address How hated you are for proclaiming love---Not just your own, but love as sacrifice,Selfless and fruitful at once, that puts no priceOn what it builds, and draws strength from...

. Unopened Letters Unopened letters strewn across the floor Addressed to me with your name on the back. Left where they fell inside my slotted door. A postal service-aided sneak attack. I step on them with smug indifference, Rejecting your repentance with distain. A callous disregard my best defense From...

. Epic poet and poetry video maker Andrew Benson Brown created a bit of excitement with his invented sonnet-haiku or haiku-sonnet published earlier this month---what poet Michael Pietrack has coined as "the sonku." It turns out that, unbeknownst to Benson Brown, this form was already invented by David Marshall over...

Edmund Spenser by Margaret Coats Edmund Spenser (1552–1599) wrote 121 sonnets of rhyme scheme abab bcbc cdcd ee, including 87 in his love sequence Amoretti. The Spenserian sonnet differs from the Shakespearean because its three quatrains are linked by rhyming couplets. This variant is sometimes treated as the third important...

by Lew Icarus Bede "A sonnet is a coin: its face reveals The soul—its converse, to what Power 'tis due: Whether for tribute to the august appeals Of Life, or dower in Love's high retinue, It serve; or, 'mid the dark wharf's cavernous breath, In Charon's palm it pay the...

Updated January 9, 2020 A Quick Sonnet Guide.  A traditional sonnet should have... 14 lines. X Rhyming. The most common is the Shakespearean rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. These 14  letters represent the sonnet's 14 lines and the same letter means those lines rhyme with each other. The more...