One More Sonnet

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  • Loosely Sketched

    Loosely Sketched

    An old man, reads old books,
    On a digital screen…
    While the poet looks,
    At the passing scene…
    Nice man turns to menace,
    Table tennis, with a Chinese grip…
    No crowd of words to pen this,
    Nor would one word equip…
    They walk the promenade, twice,
    They loop the pool, backwards…
    He thinks to himself, quite nice,
    But at best a set of hack words.
    .    Some scenes are easily sketched,
    .    Freely fetched, and loosely stretched.

    © Tim Grace, 10 February 2011

     

    To the reader: Apparently, functional networks extend to about 150 people. Beyond that, it’s difficult to maintain anything but a virtual relationship. And so, by far, most people we see are strangers. As often as not we are their observers. In a closed community, such as a cruise ship, the strangers become familiar but not known. These familiar strangers become predictable; their routines are normalised, and shared circumstance they are attached to backdrop sceneries.

    To the poet: I once tried writing a poem using the advertising text plastered to passing trucks on a highway. What resulted was a random accumulation of words… a traffic jam. As we watch life in passing it has its logical sequence; there is a sense of connection. Place and time give people and events their context. Take away that context and the subject loses its objective frame; might as well write about things.

     

    loosely sketched loosely sketched
  • Day of Rest

    Day of Rest

    I speak to you (who came before us),
    Not by name selective,
    I speak to you (and your same chorus),
    The common man’s collective.
    To those of you who bore a child,
    Gave birth to inspiration,
    Still we have not reconciled,
    The gap in generation.
    To those of you who laboured hard,
    Who life-long sought a quest,
    Still we treat with disregard,
    Your well-earned day of rest.
    . Still it is our destiny, so to be ignored,
    . Later rediscovered, then to be restored.

    © Tim Grace, 8 February 2011

    To the reader: The wisdom of past customs is lost over time. As relics they become quaintly revered. So the day of rest. Past generations recall Sundays spent in contemplation ‘of God’s good work’. All semblance of labour’s toil replaced by a more sombre duty; heaven’s dedication. Not such a bad idea, the notion of dropping tools and turning our attention to the more spiritual side of existence. Come a day, someone will resurrect the day of rest; rest assured.

    To the poet: The speech, in this case a contemplative monologue, needs particular thought given to phrasing. It’s the natural respiration of familiar tones that resonate with the listener’s ears. Give thought to lilt, the rise and fall of intonation. Take care not to force the natural gate into a contrived trot. The neat structure of a sonnet delivers a compact form well suited to delivery. A spoken delivery requires practice; first readings are rarely the best.

     

    day of rest day of rest

     

  • Through Gilded Gums

    Through Gilded Gums

    Here she comes, a silhouette,
    She’ll dance ’til dusk is done,
    Through gilded gums, freshly wet,
    She’ll absorb the sinking sun.
    What nature here creates,
    She’ll draw upon that source,
    In looping figure-eights,
    She’ll trace the ribbon’s course.
    With feather-like finesse,
    She’ll ride the evening breeze,
    Light-footed as a princess,
    She’ll adorn this glade of trees.
    . Born to dance, she’s her mother’s child,
    . So it’s not by chance, she’s like-wise styled.

    © Tim Grace, 28 January 2011

    To the reader: Summer evenings. Warm shower wets the gums. Sun sets. Leaves turn to gold. Band plays an encore. Last note bids farewell. The day is done. The dance is done; for all but one. Free of business, a child calls her grandmother to skip. They do the last dance; as if it was their first. Two ribbons … one path home.

    To the poet: On the edge of sentimental; a soft fall from grace. There are some scenes that need a delicate treatment, they are of themselves romantic, and touched with love. What rescues the sentimental poet is technique. Not so besotted that all sense has been lost. Not so overwhelmed that control has been forsaken. I quite like the discipline of every second line beginning with ‘She’ll’ followed be a verb: dance, absorb, draw, trace, ride and adorn.

     

    through gilded gums through gilded gums

     

  • Now and Then

    Now and Then

    Now and then, a stop-start
    Turn of phrase; periodic.
    Dash becomes a dart,
    Comfortably chaotic.
    Come and go, ebb and flow,
    A phase that’s episodic.
    Much the same as to and fro,
    Naturally melodic.
    Period, teaches us to wait;
    Pause and let things rest,
    Episode, helps us calculate
    the extent that we’ve progressed.
    . We manage flow with punctuation,
    . Then let it go with syncopation.

    © Tim Grace, 23 January 2011

    To the reader: Time, an infinite resource, so scarce of understanding; humanities worst invention. In the short term a niggling nuisance; impatient, full of expectation. In the long term, an ominous, foreboding presence that hangs heavy with anticipation. Understood in seconds or millennia, time resists the patient pause. Those who can manage time, craft it into shape and trick it into submission. They let the big hand turn, the little one stop; without notice … all of a sudden.

    To the poet: Possibly deliberate, this sonnet’s meter is chaotic. Lines are broken, punctuation is contrived; structures are stressed. It’s a poem that invites an editor’s stroke of pen. And yet, that’s the nature of time; a shapeless mess. Some’times’ we just have to make-do, draw upon what’s available and celebrate the compromise. The poem’s not perfect, but it’s of its time … rushed.

     

    now and then now and then

     

  • Inundated

    Inundated

    Overwhelmed. Swamped by a deluge
    of cascading abundance.
    Engulfed; swallowed by a huge
    and raging expanse
    of turmoil. A torrent unleashed.
    Swollen by a backwash; pressing
    itself into spaces diminished
    of capacity. Structures stressing,
    crushed beyond identity. Ripped,
    flipped – agitated – broken debris.
    Strewn remains; a carcass stripped
    of shape … and what might be.
    . Sodden and soaked – saturated.
    . Clogged and choked – inundated.

    © Tim Grace, 16 January 2011

    To the reader: When enraged, the elements devour what lays before them; fire consumes and water engulfs. Flood victims are utterly inundated. The rising intrusion is unstoppable. The creeping thief, enters without welcome, invades every crevice; leaves behind a crime-scene of muddied mayhem. The forlorn victim, sodden and soaked, has no recompense; can expect no apology; the thief has come and gone… more than escaped, evaporated!

    To the poet: In this sonnet it was pleasing to arrive at a wash of words that flowed with singular effect. The flood of words were delivered through the media, describing the devastation of a summer flood in Queensland, Australia. Capturing the graphic vocabulary of an event is important in constructing a descriptive poem. Words, with particular nuances, speak through a sonnet. Words locate a poem as real. Words give the poet a licence to authentically narrate the scene; albeit from a distance.

     

    inundated inundated

     

     

  • Invisible Thread

    Invisible Thread

    As attached to an invisible thread,
    We are bound to all humanity,
    Through this communion we are wed,
    To a common sense of sanity.
    When round about our strings combine,
    Care should be enlisted,
    For as with any rope or twine,
    Our threads are easily twisted.
    The unravelling reel, the looping lash,
    Beware the rope that’s rotted,
    The curling cord, the whirling sash,
    Are never far from knotted.
    . This string is neither noose nor tether,
    . It’s the thing that holds us all together.

    © Tim Grace, 14 January 2011

    To the reader: Our bond to others is invisible; thread-like. We imagine threads as social ‘ties’. Family ties are life-long; others are short-lived and useful for just a moment of interaction. Regardless of strength and character the invisible threads can tangle to a mighty mess. Attending to the health of our invisible threads is important. Frayed and worn-out threads lose their flexibility and stretch; become difficult to manage, and are far from dependable. In rope we trust.

    To the poet: The neatness of each four-lined verse helps to ‘tie’ this sonnet together; it’s well packaged, well bundled… well versed. In a later sonnet, the invisible thread is again used as the main reference-point. As an invisible subject, a thread has endless possibility for metaphorical word-play. Whether rope string or cord; it ravels, loops and twists obligingly around your topic of choice. Money for rope.

     

    invisible thread invisible thread