One More Sonnet

Category: Uncategorized

  • Time is Tense

    Time is Tense

    Expansive time will not be caught,
    put on pause to cause delay.
    Expensive time will not be bought;
    beg nor borrow tomorrow’s day.
    Time has not the nature to be still,
    it’s too erratic to be framed.
    It matters not your strength of will,
    time will not be tamed.
    Evasive time will not be gripped,
    not be chained, with lock and bolt.
    Elusive time will not be clipped;
    not contained within a vault.
    . Elapsed time has no recompense,
    . it’s this regret that makes it tense.

    © Tim Grace, 27 May 2011

    To the reader: Time, as Shakespeare discovered, is most cruel on the living. We who age, suffer the ravages of time; have stolen our youthful prime. In the end, acceptance is our best defence. Once resigned to the impact of time, this beast ceases to be our enemy; never a friend, more an acquaintance. And as an acquaintance, time offers legacy; the past is an archive; a fathomless vault. Love lives, until the death of time, in a Shakespeare sonnet.

    To the poet: Four blocks of verse related to a common theme; a coarsely sewn thread of thought about time. While not rhythmically satisfying, this sonnet achieves its interest through internal word-similarities (expansive and expensive; elusive and evasive). In a poem’s writing phase, the interest of word features is ever-present. As one word suggests another by sight or sound they both enter the realm of possible inclusion; a fusion of sorts.

    time is tense time is tense

     

  • No Good Can Come

    No Good Can Come

    No good can come of this … surely.
    In the end truth will out,
    to reveal just how poorly
    our captains, our leaders, go about…
    Surely, we are not prisoners to this
    misdirected manipulation of good.
    It can not be that we are captives,
    confined to the limits of must and should.
    Surely, it is through free will (not ill),
    that goodness finds itself expressed.
    Surely then, only then, and not until,
    as free … we will see good’s best.
    . When shackled, good can get no better;
    . set it free from chains and fetter.

    © Tim Grace, (WS-Sonnet 66: line 12) 14 May 2011

     

    To the reader: Goodness is a quality, a state of being attributed to anything that makes a worthwhile contribution. For those wielding power the branding of ‘good’ is a priceless claim. Unfortunately, goodness is open to manipulation by those with nefarious intent. Often the claim of betterment, for a good cause, has a self-serving purpose only revealed when deception is post-hoc revealed; after the fact is known… what good is that?

    To the poet: Surely… is the anchor-point of this sonnet which responds to Shakespeare’s frustration with the corruption of good. Incredulous… he shakes his head ‘how could this be so?’ Placing ‘surely’ at the end of the first line and then repeating it at the beginning of each quatrain gives it emphasis; surely enough to ease frustration… some good may come of that!

     

     

     

    no good can come no good can come
  • Simple Creed

    Simple Creed

    Somewhere in the forest dense,
    With old-growth thickly sewn,
    There’s a single seed of commonsense,
    Long since over grown.
    It’s buried ‘mongst a bed of leaves,
    As laid through years of scatter,
    Beneath this heavy mass it heaves,
    Giving reason to its matter.
    It’s not the seed of discontent,
    That festers complication,
    It’s more the source of new intent,
    And the essence of creation.
    – What knowledge from a seed does breed?
    – Keep it simple – is its simple creed.

    © Tim Grace, 6 May 2011

    To the reader: Simple solutions are too often over-looked; dismissed as trite. The ‘tried and true’ remedy outlives its novelty; so shiny becomes dull and none-too attractive. Human nature thrives on surprise and quickly habituates to ‘sameness’; we look to see things differently. Unfortunately, simple routines, as efficient as they are, become mundane and tiresome. And so, in an attempt to add a little sparkle to our tasks we inadvertently make things difficult … too clever by half.

    To the poet: Revisiting a sonnet, years after it was first finished, is sometimes an exercise in restraint. There’s always the temptation to fiddle; nudge a couple of words; alter the length of a line; or swap one word for another. As a poem’s substance is mostly well-set, it’s then readability that gets the work-over. The rule of restraint relates to originality; don’t distance the sonnet too far from its time-bound source.

     

    simple creed
    simple creed

     

  • Simple Truth

    Simple Truth

    Sometimes a simple truth is sacrificed;
    abandoned; let go, as surplus to need.
    For utility’s sake it’s cut and spliced;
    modified; stripped of its seminal seed.
    Sometimes too, a simple truth is buried;
    covered by layers of expedience,
    overgrown, entombed in a myriad
    of rows; for folioed convenience.
    And sometimes simple truth is set aside.
    It’s rendered small enough to ridicule;
    belittled; nothingness personified;
    significance reduced to minuscule.
    . When by design – we’re too clever by half,
    . who is it … who is it, has the last laugh?

    © Tim Grace, (WS-Sonnet 66: line 11) 4 May 2011

    To the reader: Simple solutions are too often over-looked; dismissed as trite. The ‘tried and true’ remedy outlives its novelty; so, shiny becomes dull and none-too attractive. Human nature thrives on surprise and quickly habituates to ‘sameness’; we look to see things differently. Unfortunately, simple routines, as efficient as they are, become mundane and tiresome. And so, in an attempt to add a little sparkle to our tasks we inadvertently make things difficult … too clever by half.

    To the poet: Revisiting a sonnet, years after it was first finished, is sometimes an exercise in restraint. There’s always the temptation to fiddle; nudge a couple of words; alter the length of a line; or swap one word for another. As a poem’s substance is mostly well-set, it’s then readability that gets the work-over. The rule of restraint relates to originality; don’t distance the sonnet too far from its time-bound source.

     

    simple truth simple truth

     

  • Missing Sonnet

    Missing Sonnet

    The case of the missing sonnet unfolds,
    Layers of intrigue yet to be revealed:
    One, the sonneteer vehemently upholds
    That crucial evidence has been concealed;
    Two, he claims the sonnet (to date his best)
    Was finished and the draft had gone to print;
    And three, as aggrieved plaintiff, he’d suggest
    The weight of evidence does more than hint
    That the crime was payback, a vendetta,
    A deliberate and well executed
    Act of retribution; Every letter,
    Every word, in every way disputed.
    . Why take possession of what causes grief?
    . What’s the obsession… it beggars belief?

    © Tim Grace, 29 September 2011

    To the reader: A lost object has the potential to be found; it’s not yet fully gone. Retrieval is usually a simple matter of retracing steps; upturning the obvious. Annoyingly, in the lost-zone, while it lasts, there dwells frustration and self-doubt. But, having acquitted yourself of simple misplacement there comes the temptation to attribute blame to others. They become the culprits.

    To the poet: This is the first sonnet, sequentially but not chronologically, to have fourteen lines loaded with ten syllables each. The first line also adheres to the pattern of iambic-pentameter with paired emphasis bouncing from heel to toe. It’s also a sonnet that, for my pleasure, reads across the lines as a single passage of thought. As structured, this sonnet works well as a self-contained package.

     

    missing sonnet missing sonnet

     

  • Durability

    Durability

    Durable strength – be it strong and able;
    with resilient build, with spinal structure;
    be it rugged, be it tough and stable;
    forms a shape that’s hard to rupture.
    Dependable strength – with guts and grit;
    there when a crisis comes to crunch;
    there when needed; there in the midst of it;
    a powerhouse; a pool of potential punch!
    Disabled strength – crippled and lame;
    buckled and bent with nothing to harness;
    a spent force, nothing but a crying shame;
    a collapse of faith, be it more or less.
    . Strength – not given break or buffer,
    . under weight will cause us all to suffer.

    © Tim Grace, (WS-Sonnet 66: line 8) 25 April 2011

    To the reader: The concept of strength has been a long-held theme of mine … an early poem read: ‘My strength is such I can not yield, and therein lies my weakness; a gentle touch can pierce my shield and shatter my completeness’. In Shakespeare’s sonnets he often refers to strength in terms of resilience, with fatigue being its major draw of energies: “Tired of these, for restful death I cry … for these would I be gone.”

    To the poet: Durable, dependable and disabled strength. When giving a sonnet its structure there’s an endless pattern of combinations from which to choose; some patterns work better than others. Too obvious and the pattern becomes trite, too subtle and the effort is lost to all but the deepest of readers. In this sonnet, the visual and aural cue of strength’s dual dimensions leads the reader to your desired definition.

     

    durability durability