Sonnet V: Her Majesty

A word, then two, a fountain like a stream
That wears away a mountain. Time, a spring,
Reflection over aeons; it can bring
Perfection. Though it presses down, extreme

In ways of mystery. Its form can seem
To press its history:  On such a common thing
As common coal–transformative–may wring
A diamond fine and whole.  And so supreme

A form may limit, yet such limits might
Become the set of forces pressed upon
So commonplace a line as these I write.

The queen of all poetic forms: I fight
Her storms of pressure, educated on;
And open up my mind to all her light.

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Sonnet IV: An Oath

No Oath, no cause, nor promise do I need;
For promises, with duty, must be kept.
This violet, a promise could impede;
For I, by every faculty, am swept

To tend, and make to prosper, every bloom.
I long have tried to stay my hand; but could
Not ever stay my soul; nor–and, assuming
Such could keep me whole–remand, for good

Or ill, that Holy Thread I share with God.
His will–all beauty, and all bounty, came
From His divine, all knowing light–abroad
To His creations fly; and in His Name,

Created He those beings He deemed as great,
Entrusted, in His image, to create.

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Sonnet III: A call

No albatross is this around my neck,
This talisman to set my soul afire,
A host of angels, heavenly; a choir
Who, singing endless blessings, at my beck

And call, continue to adorn, bedeck,
Enthral, enslave the muses they acquire.
And, subject to my will, they must inspire
My pen to greater heights; until no speck

Of life remains within my body; or
My soul is, from its heart still beating, ripped;
Or locked in shadow, knowing only breath.
For, nothing less will end the oath I swore;
Until I have, this mortal coil slipped;
Or when the shadow takes me unto death.

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Sonnet II: Steps

First one foot, then the next, and then the next;
They step on recklessly five at a time;
Hindered fecklessly by internal rhyme;
And by Olympus mercilessly vexed.

First one, then two, then three, this playful text;
Until the beast is bested; until I’m
So mercilessly tested; and sublime
Pursuits I may attend. Much more complex,

They joyously transcend this five foot beast;
And I am taken in: to my own world;
When to this world, my life may be released.
To better times and places I am hurled

Away. ‘Til four, or five, or six, can this,
My day allow, and dream, and write, in bliss.

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Sonnet I: Not Alone

I sleep and then I dream and then I wake,
And live and work and play from sleep to sleep.
And sleep again and dream, and wake, and keep
My hand, to pen, and psalm, and song; and slake

This lust I feel when, weak or strong, I make
Them manifest; I sow, and press, and reap;
And joyously, my vintage test; I weep
And laugh as, for one day, I quell this ache;

And thrill to share each cup with those I love,
And even those I may; though not in hope
That I might ever sway, or help them cope;
But merely seek them out; and deem, above
All else, they might not doubt that there was one
Who felt as they, when sleep and dream was done.

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Sonnet III: Dark Lady

O Mistress of the Light, why burn thine eyes
So bright? What mystery dost thou reveal;
What stranger thee, thine eye to me conceal
Within thy night, thine opalescent skies?

O Child of the Earth, Who guards so fine
Thy berth? Who hath consoled thine eyes of pain;
And giv’st thee hold, to lands controlled? Explain
What purpose gives’ thee worth to thus enshrine.

O Mistress of the Dark, When shalt thou next
Embark? Dost one thou know as darker still;
So dark as goe the depths below? But thrill
Such depths, as stark, Cimmerian, as vexed?

As vexed, but thrilling still, thou next enshrine;
Thine eyes reveal concealing skies so fine.

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Sonnet VII: Respite

In peace, my love, forever do I goe,
That blessed nectar I adored to seek,
That gave thee rest and ease in its mystique
That long ago hath poured and I bestow.

Take thou, my love,  these tears that overflow
To quench thy soul; restored, do they forespeak
To thee; I shed them gladly, take my cheek
To drink–so blush, as though with wine aglow.

But soft, my sweet, and drink thou ever deep;
Breathe now the vapours of my soul–and heart:
Read thou its sonnets, and thou wilt mee know.
But peaceful, shall I lay thee down to sleep,
Bequeathing thee, when we awake, such art
And dance that from thy hearth shall never goe.

This sonnet is part of a short sequence; click here to read it all: