Meditation III
NovPAD 2024 • Day 22 • Form Friday Sonnet
This month’s theme: “Where I Am: Poems of Place”
11/22 • Form Friday • Sonnet
O God whose amaranthine breath resides in casks that crack; who presses wine and stores it new within old skins that split and pours more in despite the mess; who sits astride the rivers when they rise and opens wide the skies until they wash away the shore; who cannot help but hear the sounds of war and smell the martyrs’ prayers that rise beside the throne like smoke; who dwells in holy light while half the world is night and shadows hold the serpent, spiteful still though crushed of old; whose word-born world now staggers under blight; have mercy—bring your harvest home at last and send these groaning years into the past.
This sonnet is written using the Petrarchan rhyme scheme. Where a Shakespearean sonnet would run a/b/a/b | c/d/c/d | e/f/e/f | g/g and a Spenserian sonnet would run a/b/a/b | b/c/b/c | c/d/c/d | e/e, the Petrarchan scheme always has an octave of a/b/b/a/a/b/b/a to start, then a number of other possible combinations to close with a sestet. I’ve chosen c/d/d/c/e/e.
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A good month to move into, October. ~ Your sonnets bring dignity and elegance where I wouldn’t expect them.
This sonnet is exceptional, it reads like a psalm. The imagery is so robust and full of energy, it has a very powerful effect. Thank you for sharing Mark. 🙏