ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

Full marks to all of you who managed to write such evocative poetry using the bushfire prompts! I couldn't and I apologise, Maureen, for not participating. We had too many friends affected, and it was all too close to home emotionally for me, I'm afraid.

At the moment I'm revisiting sonnets I wrote some years ago, polishing them up, and adding new ones to my collection. The current prompts seemed to lend themselves to a sonnet - so here goes!

A POET'S VOICE (Petrarchan Sonnet)
(c) Shelley Hansen 3/2/20

They ask me why I write. Perhaps they think
I strive for immortality or fame –
to have an epithet against my name
or teeter on the edge of fashion’s brink.
They do not stop to understand the link
between the mind and heart’s relentless game.
The sky, a tree, a man may spark a flame –
a moment snatched to ponder, just a blink
of poetry in sounds that strike my ears
and teach me how to know myself so well
that I, compelled, must write. I have no choice
as life dictates the stories I should tell.
And so I gather with a poet’s voice
collections of my laughter and my tears.

Very clever Shelley. You have written quite a few sonnets lately and I've enjoyed them all. Writing to such structures is not always easy and in this one you have combined the prompts and meaning so well

Thanks so much Catherine! Yes, I'm having a bit if a splurge on sonnets at the moment - while the inspiration lasts! It will run out soon enough!

Good work Shelley, there is some nice reflection there . ( sorry about using "nice " ) Sonnets are usually about passion aren't they, I doubt if you could ever run out of passion.

Thank you so much Neville - and I'm perfectly fine with "nice"!

I appreciate what you said about my passion - certainly it continues to burn for poetry! I guess sonnets are traditionally associated with that emotion, although they can be on any subject of course. I tried for years to write a satisfactory sonnet, but didn't achieve it till I was about 50!

I have to admit, the format of some of the more modern ones leave me a bit bewildered. Another case of "anything goes" when it comes to rhyme and structure!!

Cheers
Shelley

I am certain that " anything goes " is anti art. Supposed poetry based on the approach of anything goes fails to understand or produce poetry , and I have read the comments of several established poets of contemporary form who agree with that. ( Stephen Fry, Glyn Maxwell and Les Murray for a start Mind you I think that it can also be a mistake to think that the formality of metre and rhyme inevitably makes poetry out of what is essentially prose description. Thus endeth todays sermon

WOW! That is beautifully crafted Shelley - you really do excel at writing sonnets and this is particularly lovely. Well done you

Thanks so much Maureen! As I mentioned in response to Neville, I was a bit of a late starter with sonnets, but I do love them.