Poetics and Ruminations

Hot Sonnets

 

 

An Anthology from Entasis Press,

Moira Egan and Clarinda Harriss

Editors

Hot Sonnets offers proof positive that rumors of the death of the sonnet have been greatly exaggerated. In fact, in the warm and capable hands of these practitioners, it’s clear that the sonnet is still as relevant (and sexy, serious, mordant, amusing, scintillating, sizzling) as a poem can be.

 Click here to buy this book on Amazon.com

Contributors:

Kim Addonizio

Christopher Bakken

Tony Barnstone  

Willis Barnstone

Sandra Beasley  

Kate Bernadette Benedict

David Bergman

Meredith Bergmann

John Berryman

Rafael Campo

Michael Cantor

Hayden Carruth

Grace Cavalieri

Jo Ann Clark

Maryann Corbett

Wesli Court: Listen to Wesli read his Hot Sonnets

e.e. cummings

Robert Crawford

Tim Dlugos

Sharon Dolin

Moira Egan

Jill Alexander Essbaum

Jenny Factor

Midge Goldberg

Thom Gunn

Marilyn Hacker

Chloe Haralambous  

Clarinda Harriss

H.L. Hix

Elizabeth M. Johnson  

Julie Kane

Rose Kelleher

Mela Kirkpatrick

David W. Landrum  

David Lehman

Quincy R. Lehr

Amy Lemmon

Laura Maffei

Randall Mann

Susan McLean

Mary Meriam

Edna St. Vincent Millay

Tatyana Mishel

Leslie Monsour  

Molly Peacock  

Jessica Piazza  

Carol Quinn  

David Rothman  

Michael Salcman  

A.E. Stallings  

Julie Stoner  

Marilyn L.Taylor  

David Trinidad  

Kathrine Varnes  

Wendy Videlock  

Lesley Wheeler  

Terri Witek

 

Click here to buy this book on Amazon.com

 

Bloomsday

 

Portrait of James Joyce by Patrick Tuohy  

Today the prodigal returns once more

To roam the cobbled streets of Dublin town,

Returns to raise a toast, to blow the foam

From the glass of his ancestral home,

To quaff its best and take its lifeblood down

Where it will do some good. He will ignore

The little minds, the folk who drove him out

When he was nothing more than a youngling lout,

 

For now he is their hero, nothing less,

And they will celebrate again this day

The fellow with a pen who, in distress,

Left Ireland to wend an exile’s way

Until he could see clear the winding track

That he might take to find the true way back.

 

Originally published in www.PerContra.net, Spring 2009. 

Earth Day Poem 2010

 

 

MANATEE

A terza rima sonnet

 

The waters where I swim are alga-green:

Salt-water, brackish, fresh – I like them all

As long as there are plants, for my cuisine

 

Consists of vegetation for which I trawl,

Browsing the canals incessantly,

Much like the land-cow, munching at a crawl.

 

I am the sea-cow, dugong, manatee –

I have no inclination as to billing

For these or any words. I go to sea

 

Merely to eat, for that’s my job, god willing,

Though I have been divested of my hide

And blubber often. That was not fulfilling

 

At all, but clearing bottom growth in wide

Swaths and swales most surely is. I munch

And swallow, taking it all in stride —

 

Or stroke, rather, for I can’t walk to lunch,

Having no hinder limbs of any sort.

Yet I can clear a seaway in a crunch

 

If left alone to exercise my forte,

Leaving behind hardly a blooming ort.

 

© Wesli Court 2010

 

READER REMARKS

Wesli,

Enjoyed your poem, “Manatee, A terza rima sonnet.”

Alice

 

Thank you, Alice.

You know, dugongs were mermaids, and sailors still sing this (DUGONG) SEASONG:

 

The Marinated Mackerel splashed

To aid the mermaid in distress.

 

He bubbled nothings in her gill

Till blushingly she burbled, "Yes!"

 

The Mackerel's now father of

A motley, marinated crew —

 

His mermaid murmurs on a reef,

Abiding cordially for you!

 

All of which would indicate,

True love should never marinate.

 

Wes

 

A steep price to pay! :)

Alice

 

Great job, Lew.

As always, thanks for reminding us of and bringing new life to forms that are so often neglected in this formless age of txt msging! And not just a sonnet but terza rima!! Ritorni al grande maestro, Dante!

Frank Judge

 

Thanks, Frank,

Let's sing the Earth Day song!

Happy Earth Day to you,

Happy Earth Day to you,

Happy Earth Day, dear dugong!

Happy Earth Day to you!

And a large plate of pasta al Dante to you!

Lew