April 16: Sonnet with a Different Letter at the End of Every Line
Martha
Sonnet with a Different Letter at the End of Every Line
George Starbuck
for Helen Vendler
O for a muse of fire, a sack of dough,
Or both! O promissory notes of woe!
One time in Santa Fe N.M.
Ol’ Winfield Townley Scott and I … But whoa.
One can exert oneself, ff,
Or architect a heaven like Rimbaud,
Or if that seems, how shall I say, de trop,
One can at least write sonnets, a propos
Of nothing save the do-re-mi-fa-sol
Of poetry itself. Is not the row
Of perfect rhymes, the terminal bon mot,
Obeisance enough to the Great O?
“Observe,” said Chairman Mao to Premier Chou,
“On voyage à Parnasse pour prendre les eaux.
On voyage comme poisson, incog.”
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More poems with wordplay and more sonnets.
Timewarp to:
2025: As a Human Being, Jericho Brown
2024: Love Comes Quietly, Robert Creeley
2023: After Touching You, I Think of Narcissus Drowning, Leila Chatti
2022: Will You?, Carrie Fountain
2021: After Graduate School, Valencia Robin
2020: in lieu of a poem, i’d like to say, Danez Smith
2019: from The Invention of Streetlights
2018: Returning, Tami Haaland
2017: An Ordinary Composure, James L. White
2016: Verge, Mark Doty
2015: Reasons to Survive November, Tony Hoagland
2014: Unhappy Hour, Richard Siken
2013: Just Once, Anne Sexton
2012: Talk, Noelle Kocot
2011: Why They Went, Elizabeth Bradfield
2010: Anxiety, Frank O’Hara
2009: The Continuous Life, Mark Strand
2008: An old story, Bob Hicok
2007: you can’t be a star in the sky without holy fire, Frank X. Gaspar
2006: For the Sisters of the Hotel Dieu, A.M. Klein
2005: Other Lives And Dimensions And Finally A Love Poem, Bob Hicok