Two Poems by a friend named KATY BROWN Jill

[jill stockinger]

Katy read these 2 poems the night before, at the Twin Lotus Thai Restaurant, at the "Fourth Tuesday Poetry Night"!

She wrote them both. I thought you'd all get a KICK out of the FIRST one. (Especially You, Bob the Sonneteer!!) Note she even mentions Commas.

And I think you'll be MOVED by her second one.

Jill

[Hi Jill,

Here are both poems I read last night.  I can't remember which one (specifically) you wanted. Katy]

Poetry in the Time of Drought

 

It’s been a bad year to grow sonnets—

even the hothouse stanzas can’t force rhyme;

and villanelles languish, all watery and pale.

 

Tercets won't blossom into haiku;

quatrains careen in uneven rows;

sonnets lack form and inspiration—

 

couplets deny heroism;

limericks aren't funny;

leggy villanelles stagger around,  themeless.

 

Even free verse seems incarcerated.

All varieties suffer in this garden of verse.

It’s been an especially hard year for sonnets.

 

We’ve sprayed for clichés, pruned the commas,

carefully dug out all the adverbs;

but even unrhymed villanelles lack taste.

 

Poets rhapsodize about the weather,

ignoring how quickly it can change.

It’s been a horrid year for sonnets

and villanelles grow spiteful and deranged.

 

—Katy Brown

Guardians of the homeless:

 

this battalion of angels watches

doorways and park benches.

 

Perching on light poles and in porches,

they extend their wings over

children and lost animals, addicts,

refugees —

legions of invisible poor

unable to find food or shelter

when winds howl from the north.

 

Guardians of the homeless

weep for those they cannot save:

sick infants; elderly cast-outs;

veterans, shattered by war that haunts

them in their sleep.

 

Angels watch them drift and wander.

Guardian spirits witness the sorrow

of the shunned, the scorned —

they murmur carols of comfort

— bring dreams of home

and of redemption.  They mourn.

 

This is heavy work they do —

so many living on the edge,

so many dying there.

 

—Katy Brown

[theresa tranquillo]

Dear Jill,

   Thank you so much for sending these poems onward! Please send me anything else that Katy Brown writes.   I am completely amused, and moved (respectively) by her two poems.

   Theresa

Sent from my iPhone

On Jun 26, 2024, at 10:10 PM, jill stockinger <jills...@gmail.com> wrote: