Happy Halloween, Everyone! Ingrid Wilson at Experiments in Fiction is hosting a special Halloween Sonnet Sunday. Here is the link to my sonnet, but be sure to check out all the rest for a spooky poetic treat!
I discovered Fairport Convention and first heard “Tam Lin” when I was in high school. That’s where the Fairy Queen in my poem comes from. My favorite Halloween song sung by the late Sandy Denny:
How does the Earth begin its spin each day?
With constancy it turns to seek the light
of sun, then sister stars dance in their way
sparkling the darkling, glimmering the night.
And with these sights, so constant and so true,
the physics of space, the motions that trace
the course of years, our course, being with you
through sorrow, more joy, a smile on your face,
even as lines delve deeper, gray grows hair,
the trees once green are dusted with the snow,
fledglings feather-wing themselves in the air
catching the currents, soaring through wind-blow—
and I watch the river glow as it flows
reflecting dreams, life, us, endures and goes.
My attempt at a Shakespearean sonnet for Ingrid’s EIF Sonnet Sunday for Valentine’s Day. I don’t quite have the meter right, but it’s a first draft and written at 6 AM. Anyway, Happy Valentine’s Day!
When misted twilight shifts to midnight black,
then I drift, but hear her mournful sighing
outside the window, crying, “bring me back”–-
whispers first, but then intensifying.
Why does she with grief-filled moans so haunt me?
What soul-stricken sprite struggles at moon nights,
flickering at a flame–moth-winged banshee–
fleeing at dawn, in sunshine’s gilding light?
And yet–-her shadowed-face, ghostly image
appears each night, (bewitching) she calls me–
I rise, unsure, do I smile or grimace?
Two here on different planes, one not yet free.
So, I know now when next she comes again
the light will fade for me–not why, but when.
This is for dVerse, where Sanaa is asking us to write Gothic-themed poems. It’s my birthday, so this will be fun reading. 😀 I’ve re-worked this sonnet that I wrote for another dVerse prompt about a year ago.
I met a man who told me tales of wand’ring
long on lonesome trails of silvered hazel wood,
where by a stream he dreamed, and his pond’ring
the ships he sailed, and battles fought as he could.
Then how his dream seemed more real than all of this—
of his darling’s kiss, how missed, and what he should
have done. Now old, I think of his dreamed kiss,
his plans altered and rued. I instead stayed,
cast wishes on waters true, finding bliss
with you, I thank that man, his lesson taught,
grateful my hopes granted in love long sought.
Another sonnet for dVerse, this time in Terza Rima, with thoughts, too, of enjambment, per Jilly’s post. I’m still reading the sonnets, and I’m so impressed with the philosophical questioning. I seem only to be able to write these narrative type sonnets. This started out as a poem based on a Yeats challenge, Jane Dougherty did a while ago. If you want to read that version, it’s here. So indirectly, this is inspired by Yeats. Feel free to comment.
When misty twilight shifts to midnight black
then I fear to hear her mournful sighing
outside the window, cries of “bring me back”–
whispers first, but then intensifying.
Who is this spirit whose cries so haunt me?
What darkness of the soul fights through the night,
flutters about a flame as if to plea,
fleeing as dawn awakes, sheds rosy light,
wondrous–I see but her ghostly image
in her darkling visitations to me,
confusing, the purpose of the scrimmage
of our spirits, hers dead, but not set free.
Still, now I know when next she comes again
the light will fade for me–not why, but when.
For dVerse, where Björn has asked us to write a sonnet. I find sonnets very difficult to write. This one follows the Shakespearean rhyme scheme, and I hope the meter, too, but with an added twist of gothic sensibility.
How do I wander? Through crowded city street,
with hazel wand in hand, or sailing roiling seas,
seeking golden apples of the sun, finding defeat,
wondering the gods whose hearts I must appease.
The glimmering girl has vanished, forever in the past
her heartaches muted grief in throes of fitful slumber.
The blossom of youth soon goes, beauty does not last,
time journeys on, carrying our destined number.
Yet I realize that dreams change, they come in many forms,
as starlight reaches us, and its reds shift to blue,
as heroes stay the course through life’s constant storms,
I see rainbows now in the changing hues.
So we’ll float together, our raft on time’s stream,
we’ll love, be together, and share a dream.
NaPoWriMo, Day 25 Today’s challenge–to use a line from a poem. I attempted a sonnet here, which was a prompt from a previous day. I used phrases from Yeats’s “The Song of Wandering Aengus.”
You can also listen to it sung here by Judy Collins.
Golden Apples show up in many myths, including one of the tasks given to Hercules.
Yesterday and today: Merril's historical musings 
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