Tuesday, February 1, 2011

A Haiku and a Sonnet

Today, I'm doing a double poem post.

First, the Haiku.  February is the month of the Haiku-a-thon!  Few Miles is a site which actively encourages poets to write twenty-eight haiku during February - one for each day of the month. 

Image courtesy Krazykk's Weblog


Contemplating snow.
No plans to shovel it; just
contemplating. Snow.






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Second, the Sonnet.  Poetic Asides is currently running their Sonnet Challenge. If you are a Sonnet person, you really should give it a try!  Now, in addition to that, Magpie Tales offered up the photograph below as a writing prompt for this week.  I wrote a Pushkin Sonnet utilizing both sites as my twin inspirations.

Cobbled Bricks

I gingerly tread on old cobbled bricks
which pave the roadway to dark parts, unknown.
I seek Charon to navigate this Styx
but friendless am I on brick-laden stone.
Which door will lead to the warmth of the hearth?
Which door will lead to the chill of a Swarth*?
Crossing these cobbles and bricks bring me fear.
All that surrounds me is cold and austere.
I take but a step, and then look around.
Nothing’s familiar and nothing feels close
except for dread on a scale grandiose;
except for ghosts of the dead that abound.
And then, when all hope has vanished – a light.
It beckons me home, to end this drear night.

(* According to Webster's Dictionary, 1913, one definition of a 'Swarth' is an apparition of a person about to die; a wraith.)

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30 comments:

  1. Wow! I am happy to meet a person who write sonnet so lovely. And the haiku is too good.. I love it madly.. Welcome to the Haiku Challenge ! and have a great Haiku Month..

    Haiku on!

    Someone is Special

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  2. Loved both haiku and sonnet. Excellently done.

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  3. Ditto, everybody else. Both great!

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  4. Wow, Elizabeth! Coming from you that is such high praise! Thanks!

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  5. Someone is Special - thank you so much for your kind words!

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  6. Anthony - thank you! Your nice words are so very appreciated!

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  8. There's just something so elegant and old worldly in a sonnet. Beautiful.

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  9. Love the word,"Swarth"..thanks for that! Really, all chilling, and witty haiku!

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  10. Thank you, Lyn! I love finding new words that I never knew before, even if they are outdated or archaic. There's something that's just *fun* about it!

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  11. I love the Haiku, because it's comforting, and makes me smile, but this sonnet is brilliant. =))))

    Kiss your cheeks. =*

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  12. I love a sonnet and yours is etheral and rich. I am intrigued by the word swarth. I love that you enlightened us with the definition. Lovely blog if I handed out awards I would give one to you.

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  13. Kenia - wow! Thank you so much! ♪♫♪♫♪ (Me, whistling offkey.)

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  14. Kristen - what an incredibly sweet thing to say! I am so touched!

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  15. RJ, these are both fabulous!

    I guess you never did receive the email. Now, someone I don't know, is
    reading something that makes absolutely no sense at all:)
    Pamela

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  16. I enjoyed both of these very much! :)

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  17. I admire anyone who can write a sonnet; I've never managed it.

    Love the haiku.

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  18. TillyBud - thanks so much! But as good a writer as you are, I bet you could do sonnets just great!

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  19. Quite lovely, your sonnet echos my story, the light at the end... but yours writing is so much deeper than my simple efforts.

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  20. Thank you, Christine - but I'm sure your poem is brilliant too. I'm going to check it out right now!

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  21. Wow indeed! Love both, but then I am partial to sonnets....

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