Sonnets? Oh, I know. The meter isn't right on some. These are experiments. I won't apologize. But I will explain.

Sonnets are structure. One must count one's syllables and lines. One OUGHT keep the iambic pentameter (de DUM de DUM de DUM de DUM).

It's good discipline, actually. The problem with poetry is that one tackles huge, emotionally-packed issues. But one must pare away the extraneous. Gushing, protracted whining, telegraphing one's wittiness, etc. (Ogden Nash and, particularly, Dorothy Parker excepted for the last) distract from the content of the poem.

To use a cooking term, poetry is a reduction. One cooks the meat 'til done. But the juices, mixed with wine and herbs, are simmered very slowly until most of the unnecessary water evaporates and one is left with a rich, satisfying sauce.

I'm very out-of-practice.

I chose sonnets for a few reasons. First, iambic pentameter is most like natural speech, so easier to write. Second, the 14 lines give me enough time to finish a thought. I like the last 2 lines as a "punch" line; they're meant to resolve the problem, issue or query of the first three quatrains. For this reason, sonnets are conducive to irony or humor.

Finally, sonnets are love poems. I realize they're traditionally love poems to an erotic subject (probably actually an object, but I hate referring to people as objects). I have no Significant Other. I have only Lost or Unrequited Loves.

But these are, indeed, love poems, on my own terms, to the rest of humanity and to reality, in general.

As with any poetry, what one reads is not the meaning of the poems. Poetry uses metaphor, imagery, etc. Reading between lines is encouraged.

I have hopes to expand beyond sonnets into other forms. I'm even working on rewriting Edna St. Vincent Millay's "Renascence."

It's rather like scrabble. Right now, I'm in an elementary phase. No triple word scores, no fancy tricks with "Qs" and "Xs." I may never get there. But I can try. I may get lucky. And practice does help.

In the mean time, I am having fun, addressing seemingly-topical issues in sonnet form.

So, I hope you enjoy yourselves. Check back from time to time; I seem to be producing these on a semi-regular basis now.

Thank you for stopping by.