Only sonnets

[Winter_Fare]

Join me if you enjoy writing in a straight jacket, it doesn't have to be pretty.

 

[Winter_Fare]

Rose Window

Old varnish growing blacker every year
On incense lit and incense lit before
The eyes of silent watchers keep the score
The wood and plaster saints shed not a tear
Deaf to the words that drew the faithful here
No heav'n beyond the sanctuary door
No ticket to salvation nothing more
Than bread and wine and ashes on the bier

Remember now a wellspring in the wild
Where water red and holly berries bright
Drew up your mother's blessings from the earth
Open yourself self to her and like a child
Lift up your face and kiss the golden light
The spring of love and light that gave you birth

 

[GuiltyPleasure]

Dust to dust and back to earth,
mourning cronies stand around
wondering when they’ll fill their berth
knowing there’s no backing down.
Time to count one’s end of life's worth,
whether it’s by fire or in the ground.
List your royalties by net worth
and tally all the pints you’ve downed.
Brace yourself for your rebirth

 

[Winter_Fare]

After Spielhur

I wanted silence for its own allure
I wanted something softer than the night
I wanted my connection to the light
Cut - deeds be dark although the will be pure

Not emptiness not loneliness so sure
Becalmed in silence no ennui no fight
For solitude becomes the soul's delight
An ending without ending without cure

How bitter is the loamy taste of truth
How sweet the music from beneath the ground
How lost now is the certainty of youth
Its dreams bound by reality unbound

 

[MargotPayge]

Can I post one of the ones I've already published?
I have been afraid to post in this part of AH. I'm not sure my stuff is good enough.

 

[29wordsforsnow]

Can I post one of the ones I've already published?
I have been afraid to post in this part of AH. I'm not sure my stuff is good enough

Please share, everyone is welcome. I really don't think this forum is about competition but trying to put the many facets of poetry on display. So 'good enough' is really just one of them.

 

[MargotPayge]

Swallowing

My lips and tongue caress the tender crown
Of his manhood, like a true wanton girl.
Desp’rately, he coerces my nightgown
Open, and finds my dewy, hidden pearl,
Which he delicately strokes. The pause is
Exquisite. Still, I continue my task
With fervor. Soon my thirsty tongue causes
Thick liqueur to flow from his carnal flask.
The warm, salty sip of love’s full measure
Gushes down my throat. Thus, the naughty thrill
Of triumph, and the taste of his pleasure,
Reward my greedy tongue's prodigious skill.

This amorous nectar, this heady bliss,
Is wine more potent than the sweetest kiss.

 

[Angeline]

Please share, everyone is welcome. I really don't think this forum is about competition but trying to put the many facets of poetry on display. So 'good enough' is really just one of them.

Well put and thank you Snow.

The PF&DF is not part of the Authors Forum, but its own little island in the sea of Literotica. I've been here 21 years , and a moderator for over 19. When I came here I was welcomed and encouraged to post my poems, give feedback, hang out and shoot the breeze, whatever. That's still the idea imo and while it may be a quieter forum it's a supportive one. I think everyone here, no matter how long we've been posting, is learning so we try to help each other. This ain't a judgemental kinda place!

 

[MargotPayge]

To Her Well-endowed Lover

“If gravity depends on size,” I say,
Breathlessly, “then might our attraction’s spell
Be explained by the massive sun’s ballet
With the planets in its gravity well.”
“But what of the moon and the sea?” you ask,
“What impulse explains the sea’s reaction?”
“The moon,” I reply, “has a mystic task
Of gravitational interaction
With the sea, which causes the changing tides.
Bestowed not by science nor random chance,
For love of the moon, the sea gently slides
Back and forth in her endless, ageless dance.”

Our gravity mirrors Heaven above,
Though great your manhood, greater still our love.

 

[butters]

stop and smell the (poets)roses

when choosing shrubs to plant it's hard to miss
if picking out a rose to climb or form
a bushy rush of colour; such is bliss
when scented air becomes a garden's norm

from formal scheme to cloistered walk a-blush
from scrambling vines with shower heads of blooms
from open-faced to ruffled-petals' hush
from pots and trellis, roses make the rooms

with vibrant names—some dainty, some obscure
we populate each space, creating views;
by promises of more each pathway lures
as eyes delight in knowns whilst seeking news

and though the bees still ruffle every head
a rose without perfume to me is dead

 

[MargotPayge]

as eyes delight in knowns whilst seeking news

OMG. This is my favorite line. And what a beautiful metaphor, so apt.

 

[butters]

OMG. This is my favorite line. And what a beautiful metaphor, so apt.

thanks!

i left out the thorns 'cos we all knowwwwwwwwwwwww about the thorns

 

[Winter_Fare]

This started as a sonnet then twisted itself into something odd and unwieldy

Reflection

Restless Narcissus would conquer the world see how
Cleanly he tears out the heart from the hind then he
Knocks up a boat from the wet marrow bones and he
Conquers me prow to the headwind rolling skyward
Riding white horses so he can be free

I say

Lover is bold to call my name his truth when we
Prey on the blind fools and priests when we know that
Wishes made at midnight to old cold stars don't work
They dance in their heaven we dance in ours

Lover

Let us play make believe cover my hair and I'll
Court your affection til stars become sharks teeth
That cut to the quick as I pour out my heart

I was never alive it's the water that speaks

 

[butters]

Reflection

Restless Narcissus would conquer the world see how
Cleanly he tears out the heart from the hind then he
Knocks up a boat from the wet marrow bones

we know that
Wishes made at midnight to old cold stars don't work
They dance in their heaven we dance in ours

stars become sharks teeth
That cut to the quick as I pour out my heart

I was never alive it's the water that speaks

i found originality in both phrasing and content with these lines, WF. nice!

 

[Winter_Fare]

i found originality in both phrasing and content with these lines, WF. nice!

Thank you x

 

[29wordsforsnow]

My dear mermaid in your foamy bathtub
half afloat in this smallest of oceans,
your sight is a siren song as you scrub
and relieve yourself of my love potions.

A hundred million stars on your wet skin
cast by the lonely candle on the edge
upon ripples in this cover so thin
my ever-roaming gaze is a sure catch.

If only I had a pair of spare legs
for you to get out and close the distance
on tippy-toes who would know what came next,
a happy end to this wry existence?

All we can do is replenish this pool
with more tears of you and me, each a fool.

 

[butters]

forget roses

when likening each poet to a flower
beware those spiteful thorns that have us moan
just waiting to draw blood in lovers' bower
but gardens are not built by rose alone

and every poet's nature's represented
diversity of form and scent and hue
an iris, phlox or jonquil isn't dented
by presence of a foxglove, vetch or rue

a daisy isn't fazed by gladioli
violas aren't embarrassed by a thyme
chrysanthemums will nestle with a lily
and larkspur gives a fig when talking rhyme

the pitcher and the sundew find their space
and even blooming grasses have their place

 

[Winter_Fare]

Influence

Now what false light through yonder window breaks?
To trump the eye and haunt a poet's dreams
The picture's far from photo real it seems
Ruthless artistic license fuck the stakes
A nip a tuck a filler a false smile
Curated truth of youth without a care
When several thousand strangers like and share
Then maybe she'll be happy for a while
I want to shift the view into her mind
As frozen in the flash we stand and stare
Bejudge th'imperfect. It's a cruel world where
You can be anything. Choose to be kind

Turn the mirror flat against the wall
Remember her. Anyone can fall.

 

[Winter_Fare]

Stingers

I will walk between the rows of nettles
I will let them grow and go to seed
I will let them touch me when I need
Something less gentle than flower petals
And when I am walking in the rain
And the air is heavy with thunder
I will take my hand and run it under
Nodding banks of silver clouds again

I'm not afraid to kiss the honey bee
Nor red admiral nor the painted lady
I have a yen for blood in my beauty
There's room for all of life in this ditty
In my garden in my philosophy
All life is a blessing in the city

 

[Broken_paladin]

Words spoke true in cryptic phrases
Leave your mark or take your piece
Be gentle knife that guts so deep
Easy be the scars to hide
Love turned hate in a twist of fate
Silence screams a mighty roar
I see it now without despair
Falling short to meet our needs
Given chance to start again
A viscous cycle without an end
Wicked be the changing tide
Was no doubt a solid try

 

[Angeline]

~I apologize in advance for this disgusting sonnet I wrote in 2002. I just found it in the Writing Live thread. Forgive me, but it *is* spooky season!


When slimy pus runs down my sickly face
And greasy groans pour from my mewling lips
It's just the season my sick needs embrace
Come let me hold you in my rotting grip

For it's the one night of the straight-laced year
To be disgusting with immunity
Come caper drool with me and have no fear
It's fun to be gross with impugnity

For if some saintly mother shakes her head
And clucks her tongue while holding door ajar
We'll shake our snotty noses; act ill-bred
Now tell me that's not worth a Hershey bar!

Bleed greasy oily blood and stroll serene
Be sick my fetid one: it's Halloween!

 

[Winter_Fare]

~I apologize in advance for this disgusting sonnet I wrote in 2002. I just found it in the Writing Live thread. Forgive me, but it *is* spooky season!


When slimy pus runs down my sickly face
And greasy groans pour from my mewling lips
It's just the season my sick needs embrace
Come let me hold you in my rotting grip

For it's the one night of the straight-laced year
To be disgusting with immunity
Come caper drool with me and have no fear
It's fun to be gross with impugnity

For if some saintly mother shakes her head
And clucks her tongue while holding door ajar
We'll shake our snotty noses; act ill-bred
Now tell me that's not worth a Hershey bar!

Bleed greasy oily blood and stroll serene
Be sick my fetid one: it's Halloween!

This time of year is full of tears and snot
Twixt cold weather and homework, there's a lot
Complaining that they're sniffing doesn't work
They see me wince, the little buggers smirk

Nose goblins as my naughty spawn call them
And other things that look and feel like phlegm
Are bogies only in the humorous sense
A Halloweeny greeny gob offense

From deep within the hairy facial mines
Some come out nice and smooth some come with spines
Now and again since hoary ancient times
Some come attached to nasty little rhymes

And if you can consider if you should
Sometimes the muses are up to no good

 

[Tzara]

Elegy for Elizabeth Siddal

Perhaps the child she lost, perhaps neglect,
Her husband having other women friends,
Perhaps the strain the artist's life extends—
Emotions overwrought so that they wreck
One's sense of balanced life and so infect
The mind that feels the distancing of friends—
Is that what led to laudanum? A cleanse,
Acknowledgement she'd failed to connect,
A final purge of her unhappiness,
So like Ophelia drifting in the stream
Before descending to the depths and death.
Did she sing with her last, labored breath
Or did she drift off gently into dream?
Did she hope she finally would be blessed?

Cross-posted from the Poem a Week thread.

 

[vagrantx]

I've never tried my hand a meter before, nor anything as structured as a sonnet, this was a challenge.. From what I read they're usually something like long/short/long/short? I tried short/short/long/short/short/long. Is this a thing, or a complete faux pas? It's hard to research when you don't know the terms.

one final journey

as I lay bleeding out in the snow
car horns honking and voices so loud
a man stops and looks down through his shroud
his hand reaches for me; "time to go"

"we will travel through lands best forgot
across borders with heavy a' toll
we'll see fields where old battles were fought
wars 'tween heaven and hell for your soul"

we arrive at the gates at long last
they are guarded by fiends clad in masque
demons shrieking 'bout me, 'bout my past
"have you any last questions to ask?"

"is this truly the place I will rest?
please forgive me, I did try my best."

 

[MargotPayge]

I've never tried my hand a meter before, nor anything as structured as a sonnet, this was a challenge.. From what I read they're usually something like long/short/long/short? I tried short/short/long/short/short/long. Is this a thing, or a complete faux pas? It's hard to research when you don't know the terms.

one final journey

as I lay bleeding out in the snow
car horns honking and voices so loud
a man stops and looks down through his shroud
his hand reaches for me; "time to go"

"we will travel through lands best forgot
across borders with heavy a' toll
we'll see fields where old battles were fought
wars 'tween heaven and hell for your soul"

we arrive at the gates at long last
they are guarded by fiends clad in masque
demons shrieking 'bout me, 'bout my past
"have you any last questions to ask?"

"is this truly the place I will rest?
please forgive me, I did try my best."

It's a cool idea for a sonnet.
Here are my technical observations (But remember: I am not an English Lit teacher!)
A sonnet is traditionally in iambic pentameter.
Each iamb is short-long and there are 5 of them. So each line has 10 syllables. It's not really natural to English. But there it is. LOL
Short-short-long is an anapest; you used 3 of them in each line for 9 syllables.