Galatians 6 verse 7 (KJV)

Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem

“because talking about the Way makes it not the Way” ~ Sôshi

When poets think they have poetic rights

To talk about the sonnet form as if

It were a toy less rigid than the rites

Of papal Rome, these poets each then sniff

In sacrilege.  They think that they should break

The doctrines set before us centuries long

Behind them; some are like the hanging snake

In Eden tempting Eve as lying schlong.

They choose its willfulness and want to kill

The form by eating fruit forbidden by

The Forms like Plato’s.  Sneerers want to spill

The sonnet into treacle.  They are sly.

  They think that they should chop and change because

    They are above the sacred sonnet’s laws.

© Phillip Whidden