‘Form Sonnet’ and Other Poetry by Theresa Rodriguez

Form Sonnet

Turn the page and write again today
Make something come out of an eager mind
Make something in a new and different way
In something both of earthy and refined

For when I strive it seems that I can find
What I am looking for in forms like this
In stricture and in structure there in kind
Thus in the freedom that free form can miss

For freedom in most freedom is remiss
In finding beauty in this poetry
In building such some scoffers might dismiss:
But such is perfect perfection to me.

And in this challenge offer what I know
In demonstrating where this form can go.

Spenserian Sonnet

Another form of poetry for me
Poetic forms concrete, sublime, refined
Another type of sonnet flowing free
The product of a careful, studied mind

In joyous new discovery I find
The puzzle-solving different mental way
Creative energy will flow in kind
In all that I can do and write and say

If only every word would thus obey
The many thoughts that full within me spring
Then I could make a miracle today
And I would birth again a brand-new thing.

O could I create worthiness in this:
That not a word would here appear amiss.

Theresa Rodriguez is the author of Jesus and Eros: Sonnets, Poems and Songs. She is a classically-trained singer and voice teacher who has written for Classical Singer magazine.