06 August 2008

behold a mystery

a narrow vision leads us to the gate
where what we find is what we least desire
only those goods we wish not to acquire
those ugly gifts that we get just too late
the simple signs of those who most berate
rather than giving up in face of ire
the golden trinkets we do not admire
so we blame justice and sad misty fate
this is the hour when no star ever shines
but we hear nothing but our own long sighs
and do not see the monster when it comes
nor wish to know with which crew it aligns
mistrusting evidence of our own eyes
yet ready even now to gather crumbs

2 comments:

clarabella said...

Stopping by "behold a mystery", fsjl, in part because I'm writing sonnets myself, at the minute, a whole book of them. I'm interested in your strict use of the Italian form (right?), in both rhyme scheme and metre. I call the ones I'm writing subversive, and so use run-on lines, observe the pentameter when it suits me – though I rarely disturb the iambs – and rhyme any which way, as the spirit moves. Are you ever irreverent with traditional forms? And, a more general question, do you post from an already written store of poems, or are you setting them down as they come? Thanks for the poems, and have a good weekend.

FSJL said...

Pam: You're right, it is the Italian (or Petrarchan) sonnet. I've also written Shakespearean sonnets; when I started writing sonnets a couple of years back, the first ones I wrote (if you want to go back that far in the blog archives, and read some awful verse) were Shakespearean).

I find the discipline of the strict verse form (though I break the pentameter from time to time) is useful for forcing me to say just what I have to say and no more.

I set them down as they come (I use an online rhyming dictionary to help produce the rhymes, but that's all). I'm glad you like the poems.

You have a good weekend too.

Cheers,
Fragano