Sonnet 2

In this next sonnet, I tried putting the volta in the ninth line, and if you read it in a certain light, you can tell. But upon rereading, I don't think the mood truly does change until the couplet at the end. The natural pattern for me when composing Shakespeare style sonnets seems to be to place the volta in the couplet. I feel that is more natural as well as being more challenging; one must come up with two lines that change the momentum of the previous 12. Still, I plan to write some more with the volta appearing earlier. I will likely not mention it every time I do so, however, since if most readers can't find it, I;m not doing it well enough.

Here is the next sonnet:

Each night I lie in bed, deprived of sleep
Surrounded by the darkness of my room.
The memories I do not wish to keep
Fill spirit, heart and mind with bitter gloom.
A caravan of images invade,
Each one a gateway to a former bliss,
Reminders of how love has never stayed,
Reflections on the mark I always miss.
So many types of beauty have I held
With both my hands and sometimes with my heart
Divinity within me oft has swelled,
Though it be doomed to fade beyond the start.
If I have felt such pulchritude before,
No doubt I shall encounter it once more.

Sonnet 1

I now move on to sonnets. A few words about them before I share the first of them.

As with haiku, modern poets tend to call something a sonnet, and then proceed to invent any meter and rhyme scheme they wish. That is their right, but as I mentioned with haiku, I'm not sure what the point of following forms is, when one authorizes one's self to break any and all of the rules for same.

Not that there is only one hard and fast set of rules for a sonnet, as there are several varieties  During this exploration over the next few weeks I'll be composing sonnets of more than one formal structure, but I'll stick with one kind at a time, writing a few and then moving on to another variety when the time feels right. I may experiment with free verse sonnets near the end of the exploration, I haven't decided yet.

Actor that I am, I've decided to start with what's commonly known as the Shakespearean sonnet. (Though not invented by him.) Fourteen lines of iambic pentameter, three quatrains and ending with a rhyming couplet. Before the couplet, the quatrains generally follow an abab cdcd efef  rhyme scheme, and that is what I will do for now. (I will think about half-rhymes, like Shakespeare did, as needed.)

Many Shakespearean sonnets present the volta or change in tone, on the eleventh line, at  the start of the couplet. Sometimes the volta occurs on the ninth line, at the start of the final quatrain. I tend to prefer the former, but I will be playing with the latter as well.

Shakespeare himself usually confined his sonnets to matters of love or lust. While that topic will be covered by my own sonnets, I won't confine myself exclusively to that subject matter.

Finally, the point of a sonnet, or to me any poem, is to make breaks in meter come at natural breaks in a sentence, and that's what I try to do in my poetry. Breaking up a sentence at an awkward moment just to fit the meter is to me, usually cheaper.

And now, the first sonnet of this exploration.


So many things you do are not for me:
The easy smile. The tilting of your head.
The tapping foot you do not think I see.
How you refuse to drive, but walk instead.
You don't consider me before you write
The sentences and paragraphs you share.
Each time you read a poem with delight
It isn't done because you think I care.
A thousand little things that make you shine
Have earned for you a small place in my heart.
Yet none of them for others, I'd opine;
They would continue if I would depart.
But I consider that you've not been told.
It is a secret I prefer to hold.

English Haiku 7

This set of English haiku represents the last from my current exploration of the form. I will certainly return to it sometime in the future, but for now, it's time to move on to something else.

In these entries, though I did still stick to 5-7-5, I abandoned any sincere attempt to be profound. These haiku were pure fun. Not that I didn't have fun composing the others, but these were intentionally lighthearted in nature; I'm just playing with meter here, basically.

I know I've posted a lot of haiku since starting this blog, and that's one reason why I feel it's time to move on to another form. But given the shortness of the form, any given session during this exploration produced several poems at a time. Obviously if I had posted only one haiku per entry, I'd be sharing nothing but haiku for the next several months, and I didn't want to do that. I won't be as prolific with longer forms here on the blog, probably sticking to one at a time. Tune in next week for that.

But until then, enjoy these, the last of my haiku for this first exploration.

Baltimore Ravens.
Bringers of many heartaches.
All is forgiven.

(This one was written after the Super Bowl, but before the free agency self-slaughter.)

*

Major League Baseball.
Spring training games do not count.
I watch anyway.

*

Late night TV shows.
E.A.S. interruptions.
Safety first, I guess.

*

Ty Unglebower.
Writer of several haiku.
More to come someday. 

English Haiku 6

More somewhat less traditional English haiku from my recent exploration. Again, I've kept to the 5-7-5 meter, but have departed from the theme of nature.



Pencil to paper,
Forming words from heart and mind.
Poets brethren.

*

Schoolgirl, age fifteen.
Wind drying tears on her face.
Time drying her heart.

*

Statue of Hermes
Standing by in all weather
Imparts a message.

*

Sleeping on a couch
A young woman with arms crossed
Settles all disputes.

*

Sede vacante.
Benedict the Sixteenth lives.
New ground for the church.

*

Empty theater.
Shadows of thousands of plays.
Not truly empty.

*

Long forgotten bridge.
Duck with duckling caravan.
Only they can cross.

English Haiku 5

Though I started out this recent exploration of English haiku with the intention of practicing the "truest" of the form, I also played around with haiku that are a bit removed from that. I stuck to the 5-7-5 meter, but explored subjects that are generally outside of traditional haiku, outside of nature. Some I hope are still profound. Others were not at all intended to be, but were merely an example of me having fun with the meter.

The next few posts will be the slightly less traditional haiku I came up with during this recent exploration, starting with these below.

Morning of my birth.
Thinking of what's come before.
Trying to look up.

*

Long nights in my room.
Alone and also lonely.
I run from myself.

*

Movies and stories.
Creations of other's minds
Help me know my own.

*

Seeking out my youth.
Looks to the past are fruitless;
I was always old.

*

Lord and Savior Christ
Plus other Divinities.
There is no conflict.

English Haiku 4

My exploration of English haiku continues with these selections. I've mentioned before that the haiku I group together in a post were not necessarily all written at the exact same session, though often they were. These five, however, were all written at the exact same session. Though I couldn't know as I wrote them, these five represent what I think are among the best traditional English haiku that I've written during this exploration over the last month or so. In these, I feel I come closest to the ideal pace, meter, and atmosphere of the traditional haiku, as I defined it in my first entry on the subject.

Sitting on the ground.

Mountains rise in front of me.

Sound of flapping wings.

*

Rumble of thunder.

Sky the color of granite.

Imminent cleansing.

*

Dew on blades of grass.

Spider webs share the sparkle

Of the morning light.

(That may be my favorite and best one of this exploration.)

*

Coy shoot through a pond.

Ripples move a lily pad.

Nothing is disturbed.

*

Moonlight on the sea.

Undulation of the waves.

Perfect partnership.

English Haiku 3

Haiku of this kind are both easier and harder than one would think. With surprising regularity, I find the perfect middle line in my head to have six syllables as opposed to seven. Not eight and not five, but six. Exactly one less than the form requires. I wonder if there is something specific to English that draws it towards a phrase of six syllables right after one of five. I don't know. In either case, here are some more of my successful haiku.


Vultures high above.
All that remains of a fox.
Life and death and life.

*

Frozen solid lake.
Three wolves stand in the middle.
Winter serenade. 

*

Snakes on dry, hot sand.
Tumbleweeds bounce to new homes.
Succulent cacti.

*

Indigo bunting.
Jet black crows in nearby field.
Potential strange flock.

*

Dormant, brown tree limbs
Against a polished blue sky.
Past, present, future.

*

Moss-covered boulders
Flanking a raging river.
Behold yin and yang.

*

Blue jays. Cardinals. Crows.
Pheasants. Turkeys. Starlings. Doves.
Diverse sky masters.