Shadow’s long fingers move with sun’s shadow
I parse your warm tanned lines with languid eye
Shallow thoughts wander in summer shallows
Why’s not a question I’m asking. Not why.
Not where, as here. Not when, as now. No knot.
Questions: how; how long. No other questions.
Taut thrust’s dilection; practiced lessons taught
Suggestions exhausted; not suggestion.
Rose backlights eastern tree silhouette’s rows
Dreamless, slumber-blessed brought from fulfilled dreams
Morning finds us blissed, yet grieved in mourning
Deep reflection pools, flounders in the deep
Our spouses soon to know terminal hour
Dowered past is gone now cursed with dour
top image is by Rene Capone
This challenge was extremely difficult, but I enjoy a good challenge. I went with the English (shadow) sonnet without the iambic pentameter.
The musical selection is from Cake’s, “Showroom of Compassion” album (CD) that I’ve been listening to in the car the past few days.
Laura is today’s host for dVerse’ Meet the Bar. Laura says:
Your challenge is simply(!):
- write a sonnet poem of 14 lines and 10 syllables (iambic pentameter is optional extra)
- choose the Italian, English or French rhyme form *
- start and end each line with the same word (including derivatives and homophones)
- put ‘shadow’ or its derivative in your title
- use the notion of shadow as metaphor or reality somewhere in your poem
Tao Talk 
Your sonnet is extraordinary and poignant. Truly blown away by it! 🏆
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Ami, thank you so much. Glad you connected with it.
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Beautifully penned!
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Thank you, Reena 🙂
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Beautiful and thought-provoking! This was a really hard one today, but you rocked it! ❣️👏👏
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Tricia, thank you 🙂 I sweat blood on this one lol
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You have to bleed to get this one right! ❣️
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Very deep and thought provoking poem Li
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Sadje thank you very much.
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You’re welcome my friend
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It’s just incredible how you put these poems together based on instructions.
I’m also intrigued by your song choice. There’s just something about this tune that drew me in – not quite sure what it is. Anyway, this prompted me to quickly look up Cake. Apparently, the album from which you took this song was self-released in 2011 and debuted at no. 1 on the Billboard 200 – that pretty remarkable!
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Thank you, Christian. Cake is one of my top 25 favorite groups, maybe even top 10. They have a very loyal following and don’t care much for our corporatocracy.
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Sounds like I should check ’em out, Lisa. The pile keeps growing. I love it! 🙂
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❤ YAY! I hope you do.
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Wow! You nailed it!
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Thank you! Much appreciated, Carol
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You did an excellent job with this challenging prompt!
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Dwight, thank you!
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You went deep…deep…deep…and the poem was luscious for that..poetry of such valour controls..the reader is pulled and pulled. So interesting also cause it felt different …I agree that was tough, but you really created something there, from that prompt..
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Ain, glad you connected with the poem, thank you!
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You’ve risen majestically to the prompt, managing to create a thought provoking piece that doesn’t lose itself under the weight of the challenge. Utterly impressed.
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Thank you, Darius. It was like trying to put a piece of Ikea furniture together. Hoping it would hold heavy things without collapsing.
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You managed it well!
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Lisa, this sonnet rocks my world. Amazing.
-David
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Thank you, David 🙂
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Lisa you did wonders with this shadow sonnet – a magical poem and a joy to read
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Thanks much, Laura!
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The shadows are strong in this one. Great atmosphere. (K)
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Thank you, Kerfe. If it makes any sense at all it has succeeded! 🙂
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That is deep!
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Max, thank you 🙂
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I loved the sonnet…my favourite lines are “Morning finds us blissed, yet grieved in mourning
Deep reflection pools, flounders in the deep”
Very deep!
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You made it look so easy! Wonderfully done!!
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You are kind, Dale. Thank you so much.
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I loved it!
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❤
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Sonnets are so hard, and yet so worth it. This is very good. I whiffed on the prompt and wrote about shadows and not in the shadow form. I was told in school that never following the directions would get me in the end.
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Alexandra, I’ve been watching Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyer’s series, “The Power of Myth” and see that the “rule breakers”, i.e. artists, are society’s Shamans. More than that, they are, as Princess Leia said, “our only hope.” So your teacher didn’t realize her prophecy but she’s right. 🙂
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This is spectacular, you managed to go deep, love that you made it in such a journey into the night… I feel we were both on the same wavelength there by incorporating the shadow as a theme..
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High praise from you, Bjorn, thank you. I think you’re right about the wavelength.
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